Which THC card for powermax 45

cruzinone wrote:

Can someone tell me what the 5i25 and 7i77 cards are used for?

A 5i25 card is a PCI fpga card that can do hardware step generation, hardware pulse counting (reading encoders), and a few more tricks. The 7i77 card is a daughter board for the 5i25 (and some others) that is designed for controlling up to 6 analog servos, and has 48 points of isolated field I/O (32 inputs and 16 out)
store.mesanet.com/index.php?route=produc...oduct&product_id=120

Basically it is one option you can use to connect your Linuxcnc contol PC to a servo CNC machine.

Let me ask this, if I get the thcad card do I also have to have the 5i25 and or 7177 card?
what i want to do is cut mostly flat stock 1/8 and 1/4 inch and use a rotary to cut tubing with.

Im so green I dont even know what the voltage tip is of my 45.

There are many factors involved to get a quality cut.

Im so green I dont even know what the voltage tip is of my 45.

It will depend on what you are cutting.
There most likely is a cut chart in your manual. There you will find recommended cut height, pierce delay, voltage, etc.
As the distance from the work changes the arc voltage also changes, this is the information used for the THC.
There are many other factors that effect the voltage, but if you start with the recommended cut height, speed, voltage, etc. you have a good starting point.

There are Mesa THC demo configs loaded with linuxcnc for a Mesa card and a sample with parallel port. You might want to look at them. The description states that the parallel port may not be fast enough for good THC.

You can of course cut without a THC. Having used one for a while I would not like to go back.

Rick G

As a side note those cut / feed tables will also give you a good idea of the feed rates you will be using during cutting so that you build your table with the proper capabilities. Cutting light gauge can be done at some pretty fast speeds.

I used a 7i76 for stepper control as opposed to a 7i77.
Rick G

That is some good information. I really appreciate the tips. Just curious about what you said about stepper control, I thought the gecko did the stepper control.