Messages

2321

General Mach Discussion / Re: THC setting up assistance...

« on: April 12, 2014, 11:31:23 AM »

OK you asked 2 different questions, which one do you want to work on first ??



That box should be unticked when under plasma control and you have a THC. The setting is for when you are not running a thc and want to adjust it manually using an up/down hand switch. By chance DO you have a set of keyboard buttons that you are emulating the signals Thc up/down or a set of physical buttons   They may very well OVERIDE your THC in Mach3.
 
(;-) TP

2322

General Mach Discussion / Re: THC setting up assistance...

« on: April 12, 2014, 11:28:12 AM »

That box should be unticked when under plasma control and you have a THC. The setting is for when you are not running a thc and want to adjust it manually using an up/down switch.  DO you have a set of keyboard buttons that you are emulating the signals Thc up/down or a set of physical buttons

(;-) TP

2323

General Mach Discussion / Re: THC setting up assistance...

« on: April 11, 2014, 09:54:44 PM »

Post an example of your tap file.

If you find it raising in z as the program runs through the cut file it may indicate your Z THC speed is set TOO fast and you are losing steps.The longer it runs the more steps are lost and the HIGHER the Z dro will climb.  If at teh end of the file you try to return to say Z5.000 it will crash the torch into the table.

Remember the THC z control is a slap and go situation. There is ZERO ACCEL/Deaccel parameters it just switches the motor on wide open and shuts off clean.  Normally you will run a THC speed of about 20% of rapid speed as a start.

IF you retick that control will it work properly again (;-)  If so just retick it.

Just a thought, (;-) TP

2324

General Mach Discussion / Re: Toolpath Display Reversal

« on: April 11, 2014, 07:19:04 PM »

IF it is a knee mill style the motion is based on the tool motion NOT the table . The table moves opposite of the tool.

IF MACH3 displays it correctly but cuts it backwards then 1 or more of the axis are backwards.  You cannot change the Mach3 display orientation it is based on the normal configuration of XYZA.

Just a thought.

2325

General Mach Discussion / Re: THC Codes upset corners???

« on: April 11, 2014, 07:09:44 PM »

HIYA Stirling you are correct I remember the offer since you mentioned it, BUT there was not anything here to run it on at that time .  

DID you get the serial interface working to be able to talk to your THC from Mach3 ??  To be able to change the preset voltage on the fly ??  That is what is needed to do feedrate slowdowns for arcs and keep the cut quality correct. Would be a handy item to have for the hobbiest that has a bare bones plasma cutter.  An auto version that did Preset arc voltage changes on the fly based on Feedrate would be nice.  I did some mods to the CandCNC that did it.   You Help me with the programming to interface mach3 back through the CandCNC . I had to jump OUT to a VB script then bring it back into Mach3 and then back to the THC to reset the arc preset value to match a feedrate change.

THat was a WHILE back though.

Here I cut with an older HT1000 (Hypertherm)  and it does NOT have the magic plug either.


(;-) TP

2326

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: HELP motors only run part of code!!! ARGH!!!

« on: April 10, 2014, 06:49:56 PM »

You have it set for 100 seconds at 100000 ms.

(;-) TP

2327

General Mach Discussion / Re: THC Codes upset corners???

« on: April 10, 2014, 06:41:57 PM »

Dave as far as the min max if you set the min too short then if you touch off on a high spot on th emetal then start to cut when you get to the low spot you may run out of range and the cut quailty suffers. Now IF you are worried that the torch may snag on the plate somewhere set your Z lower limit at just below the table surface to phelp protect the torch crashing into the metal below the top of the table and hit the slats.

My best advice is to stop worrying about what ifs and get to cutting, pay attention and take notes. I could spend DAYS talking to you about what you MAY see or not as you may never run into some situations.

Plasma cutting HAS a very steep learning curve to it. It takes time to master ALL the different things that you will need to learn.

You do have a magnetic breakaway torch mount RIGHT If not that would be my next purchase or build one yourself.

As to Stirlings HT connector it is just a connector right ? Buy a mating plug and wire the unit into your Machine as you have done the other thingy.

I was hoping that Stirling would bring his stufF to the USA but as HOOD suggested I think he is hiding it from us (;-) Probably does not want us to pick on him.

Just a thought, (;-) TP

2328

General Mach Discussion / Re: THC Codes upset corners???

« on: April 08, 2014, 07:42:41 PM »

First WHY do you think you need to slow down in a corner ??  Plasma wants a consistant cutting speed.  Mach3 is going to slow down on its own as it cannot make corners wide open most times based on the accel/deaccel parameters of the drives. SO when it down slow down on its own the anti dive will kick in and take care of diving due to slower speeds.

IF you let Sheetcam slow the corner speeds THEN you have ZERO anti dive controls on a simple plasma. AS soon as the feedrate drops the arc voltage will go UP and the THC will send the4 torch DOWN to correct the voltage change.

The setup in Sheetcam is for units that control the preset arc voltage parameters on the fly so WHEN you change the feedrates you also change the arc voltage preset as well and then the cuttting stays consistantly good.

CandCNC has a good setup for doing this on the fly. A simple Mach3 plasma cannot. The only solution is to JUST turn off the THC if you make a programmed speed change that is going to effect cutting quality then turn it back on when you return to the proper cutting speeds.


Here I do not require constant tweeking the speeds for corners or circles.

Just a thought, (;-) TP
(;-) TP

2329

General Mach Discussion / Re: Optical Registration Mark Reading With Mach3

« on: March 29, 2014, 11:31:56 PM »

ATN (arc tangent) is covered in the "Cypress Enable for Mach" manual , page 44

2330

General Mach Discussion / Re: Probing around a pin to find center

« on: March 27, 2014, 03:03:46 PM »

What you need is a "Center of BOSS" routine to drive the probe to the center of the pin(boss).

If you need help Email me and I can can send you a working copy of the routine.