Messages

361

General Mach Discussion / Re: Understanding Mach3 Plasma, ARC OK, halting motion

« on: January 10, 2016, 07:13:34 AM »

Oh yeah, I missed out on one phase...

...fire torch...
ARC TRANSFER on some thcs...they may monitor the acr transfer and then start the counter for the pierce ....
...then pierce delay timer...
...then x Y motion move...
But this depends on the THC as all Mach is looking for is THCOK, THCUp and THCDn... If using the parallel port or ESS in order to control the z axis.

If your machine is setup to send a signal back to mach3 over whether the arc has transferred before starting the pierce counter of initiating motion, you could be creating a bigger pierce hole than nessesary because the loop speed of mach for inputs via macropump and brains is not very quick (10hz so 10 times per second) and the arc would have probably transfered quicker than that as some of the pierce times in the hyperthem manual recommended cutting speeds are near zero on thin plate.

If you have a stand alone THC with internal pierce timer function then it may use the above sort of strategy... But not if you are running stuff via mach3.

Mach4 offers some really great potential because of the loop speed, I'd just like someone to have a go at showing how they did it or an out of the box solution (screenset) from NFS... Plus need the new ESS plugin for m4...

362

General Mach Discussion / Re: Understanding Mach3 Plasma, ARC OK, halting motion

« on: January 10, 2016, 06:03:27 AM »

What torch height controllers are you using?

If you have a THC that controls the z directly then that may be the case.... But ... Consider the sequence of events

Touch off, reset z coordinate
Retract to pierce height
Fire torch
Wait duration for pierce
Drop to z cut height and begin to move x and Y (or your hole will get bigger)
THC OK signal received once arc stabalised (defined as being plus or minus so many volts of the target voltage)
Then allow automated up and down motion once THC OK signal is within hysterysis of target voltage.
If the voltage spikes up, then you may be going over a kerf, so THCOK signal drops out (above hysterysis or rate of change greater than expected for blended tradjectory) and THCDn and THCUp are ignored.

Are you saying the x and Y should not move until the THCOK signal is received?.... If that is the case you could have blown a bigger hole in the plate than you need... Hence the THCOK signal will be wrong as the hole is oversize?

The activatesignal is a new one to me but I have not been doing it long at all... Seems strange to me though as the second last tab on the ports and pins settings controls which output is switched with m3 and m4... So cannot see what the difference is other than dospin probably controls the spindle settings if you have them setup... So if for example you were using a plasma that you could control the ampage on (hyperthem 65 or above or older bigger machines)... Then I guess you could motion control the arc ampage and gas pressure based on blended tradjectory of the x and Y motion.

Ie slow down for a corner... Not a problem with anti-dive, back off on the ampage and gas pressure a bit to maintain the torch voltage relative to the blended tradjectory.

See how this one pans out from the more knowledgable folk, but it would be nice to know which THC setup you are using.

363

General Mach Discussion / Re: Probably simple but...(G-Code help)

« on: January 09, 2016, 05:34:59 PM »

http://machmotion.com/cnc-info/g-code.html
you can give this a shot


G91                       (change to incremental distance mode)
G0 X50 Y50           (move from current position X+50, and Y+50)
>>>> do something
G0 X-50 Y-50         (move from current position back to the original position)
G90                       (change it back to absolute distance mode)

364

Brains Development / Re: Machine status light

« on: January 09, 2016, 09:03:22 AM »

Have you assigned the buttons (inputs) and the lights (outputs) in mach3?

You can use OEM triggers for the buttons if you are using a button panel. 

You can use brains or you can use a macropump.

Same goal achieved in the end.

365

General Mach Discussion / Re: Cap04 Plasma THC

« on: January 07, 2016, 03:18:46 PM »

Where did you place the m3 macro?

Can you go to its location and copy and paste from the windows explorer bar the folder location.

Just check there is only one m3 macro in there (as you have added a second or replaced the first one more correctly)

I'll have a look at the macro later for you

366

General Mach Discussion / Re: Cap04 Plasma THC

« on: January 07, 2016, 12:43:52 PM »

I'd suggest adding a few LEDs to the screenset to show you the up and down motion plus the THC OK.

Can't remember if they are on the standard screenset but I can walk you through that if you want

367

General Mach Discussion / Re: Physical buttons for plasma

« on: January 05, 2016, 06:29:45 PM »

Thanks for the info hood, I'm keeping my eyes open for a bigger capacity machine hence appreciate the info, as the UK market seems flooded with Chinese made ones that aren't suitable for machine cutting and the longevity, information (cut speed tables) and owners plus parts manuals and replacement bits are zero.

Ohmic sensor has an insulated cap (best solution) or a fabricated insulated ring with a spade connector ... If you type in hyperthem or thermal dynamics and ohmic sensors into Google searching images there are a few variants of the same thing or principle about.  I know both of them offer an ohmic solution specifically, not seen any others though.

The hyperthem 65 and 85 offers modbus control of the plasma as well as the machine interface which I like the idea of... But I'd need to get one direct from the states as single phase.  Other than filtering I cannot see why a single phase ce hyperthem is not offered.... Or why it really wouldn't work.

I'll keep my eyes open for any machine cuts you post as I'd be interested to see the edge finished cut on the opticut 65.

368

General Mach Discussion / Re: Physical buttons for plasma

« on: January 05, 2016, 05:10:22 PM »

Floating head for me.

Considered ohmic (from the same seller and also shad at neuron THC (nice controller)... But as was pointed out to me if you have a coating or surface rust they can be... Not problematic ...just not so sensitive.

Mine is a 4x4 hobby machine with a small older hyperthem.  I'd buy a 45 if I were you... Not sure how that compares with your proposed non hypertherm 65 for cut quality.

369

General Mach Discussion / Re: Physical buttons for plasma

« on: January 04, 2016, 01:21:41 PM »

Hood, curious to know what THC you decide to go with.
(Curiosity not bun fight)
Thanks

370

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie question about push buttons

« on: January 02, 2016, 07:10:23 PM »

Nice operator panel, didn't know it was able to do a key matrix, thanks for the info.  Been playing with an e57, may need to get a u57 if I want to make an operator panel in the future.