Hi,

I was wondering how and where can I add plasma screen set and THC settings to Mach4 Hobby screen?
Not much word on it in the user manual but I found this:

" The basic install will load the appropriate files needed for each machine type (Lathe. Mill and
Plasma)."
There is no plasma control option at all at installation. Only Mill, router etc but not plasma.
What am I doing wrong here?

Thanks

Hi,
really THC is a realtime operation and as such must be done by the controller not Mach.

Until very recently the only external motion controller that has THC support is the Hicon by Vital Systems.
Warp9 is days away from releasing its THC support for the SmoothStepper. We have been waiting a long time for it.
All reports, so far, from the testing suggest that its going to be good, and Warp9 doesn't charge extra for it unlike
Vital Systems.

NFS have decided to get in on the act as well. They have written a THC screen and programmed THC support in Lua.
You must recognize however that a programmed THC routine is fairly slow due to communication delays. If the
Z axis correction speed required of your machine is not high then NFS's solution will work. If however you require genuinely
fast THC support then you will need realtime support, the Hicon is ready now and the ESS is coming very soon.

NFS has not released THC support officially yet but is available as the latest development version on the ftp site.

Craig