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Author Topic: Physical buttons for plasma  (Read 154328 times)

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Offline mc

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Re: Physical buttons for plasma
« Reply #370 on: May 16, 2016, 03:30:55 PM »
Thanks for the photos. Certainly satisfied my curiosity!

Offline Hood

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Re: Physical buttons for plasma
« Reply #371 on: May 30, 2016, 05:04:09 PM »
Got the container turned round, decided to position it differently from my original intentions. That brought a problem as it meant the fan would be going out the side which is now hard up against my GRP cabin or out the end which is right against a wall. So had to haul the plasma out, birl it round and get it back in. It was a bit of a task but with a few 50mm dia pipes and a crowbar and jack I managed it.

Spent the last two weekends getting three phase run in and the container wired. Bit of a pain as there is no way to fix anything other than drill holes through the container or weld bars for tying the cables to but have it all done now and never blew anything up :D

Made up a limit switch similar to Daves for touching off the surface, not sure if I need to raise it a bit as it is quite a bit lower than the torch when extended but if I do then it is just a matter of boring  and tapping 3x M5 holes.

Pics below of cylinder and guide rod, was going to buy a double rod cylinder but when I saw the price I decided to use a single rod one I had and make it into a guided one :D

Dave,
 how do you do the touch off? Is it in the M3 macro or do you have seperate moves for the offset move, the G31 then the move back?

Hood

Offline Davek0974

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Re: Physical buttons for plasma
« Reply #372 on: May 31, 2016, 02:25:51 AM »
Looking good :)

I have a subroutine called "HeightSense.tap" that has something like this in it...

G91 (switch to incremental mode)
G01 X28.00 Y4.00 F6000 (position probe switch)
G90 (switch to absolute mode)
M1050 (trigger the probe cylinder)
G28.1 Z5.000 (probe the surface)
G92 Z0.000 (zero the Z axis DRO)
M1051 (raise the probe)
G00 Z#15045 (apply the probe switch offset from M6 tool change)
G92 Z0.000 (zero the Z axis)
G00 Z5.00 (raise the Z axis for travel)
G91 (switch to incremental mode)
G01 X-28.00 Y-4.00 F6000 (put the axes back to where we came from)
G90 (switch to absolute mode)
M99
%

All the codes were pulled from SheetCam and now it just calls heightsense.tap where it needs to do the probing - no more messing with all my code files when i change  the switch position etc ;)

M1050/M1051 just activate/deactivate the output that has the cylinder solenoid on it.
My switch is a very low force one - about 10g force - i can sense the height of very thin material without moving it.

The tool change M6 bit has two offsets in it - one for 30A tips and one for 45A ones, I have a button on screen that just alternates between each tip and tells me what i have installed.
« Last Edit: May 31, 2016, 02:27:31 AM by Davek0974 »

Offline Hood

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Re: Physical buttons for plasma
« Reply #373 on: May 31, 2016, 07:25:25 AM »
Thanks for the info Dave, think I may do something similar but have it in the M31 macro, if I can manage to do some VB :D

Hood

Offline Hood

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Re: Physical buttons for plasma
« Reply #374 on: June 05, 2016, 11:23:14 AM »
Been a busy week but managed to get some done this weekend.
Have got the compressor moved into the container, fitted a solenoid valve, wired and plumbed.
Modified the M31 probing macro from CS-Lab and it seems to be doing all I need.
All I will have to do is have my post processor insert the relevant code and it should be good to go.
Code would be
M31 R-50 F5000

The R-50 is telling the CSMIO to probe a max of -50mm from current position. I should really have -130 there as that is the travel of my axis but for first tests I just put a lesser number.

Here is a vid of the first few tests on 1.3mm brass plate.
https://youtu.be/gu86SHWwTu8

Hood

Offline Davek0974

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Re: Physical buttons for plasma
« Reply #375 on: June 05, 2016, 11:30:34 AM »
Looking nice there Hood, very satisfying when that feeler gauge slips under the tip every time ;)

Offline Hood

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Re: Physical buttons for plasma
« Reply #376 on: June 05, 2016, 11:34:49 AM »
There is a bit of variance, because I am using the M31 macro it reports the position the switch is hit at.
 I ran it about 20 times and recorded the Z position and each one was different, it reports to about 8 decimals but the difference between largest and smallest was about 0.04mm which should not concern a plasma.

Hood

Offline Davek0974

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Re: Physical buttons for plasma
« Reply #377 on: June 05, 2016, 11:38:46 AM »
Nah, won't make any difference even 0.5mm would work ok if using THC.

Offline Chaoticone

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Re: Physical buttons for plasma
« Reply #378 on: June 05, 2016, 12:21:38 PM »
Looking good Hood!  :)
;D If you could see the things I have in my head, you would be laughing too. ;D

My guard dog is not what you need to worry about!

Offline Hood

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Re: Physical buttons for plasma
« Reply #379 on: June 05, 2016, 05:09:54 PM »
Thanks Brett, hopefully wont be too long now before I get it finished, still trying to decide on how I will do the downdraught tank/tray/thingy.

Hood