15m Industrial Plasma Cutter

OK for a sim, turn it round, jog to the bottom of travel and touch off Z at 0.00
If you have created your own config of the SIM, the offsets will persist between sessions. I don't think they will for a sim.

edit:fixed

I'm using the simulator.

Still no luck I'm afraid.
I have tried setting a variety of z offsets (0-max height). And also different probe heights, same thing happens for each. It seems to me like the probe is not detecting the workpiece and runs to the edge of the red box, then returns an error. This happens if the workpiece is the edge of the red box (Z0) or if it is at the top, or anywhere in between, or if the probe is set to start slowly probing (probe height determines at what height the probe slows from jog) at the workpiece or just before, regardless of THC etc.

I have messed about with the arc buttons etc and the light says "Arc Ok" but my torch is not on. I have clicked the "Torch Enabled" button but the "Torch on" light next to it is off. Would this stop the program running successfully?

I have also tried a reinstall, no change.

If the torch being off isn't the problem, are we sure that the example files are properly configured for plasmac?

Thanks all.

Update:

I think the issue is fixed.

I wasn't using the ohmic/float correctly. When I press them while probing the torch becomes enabled and a cut is made. I had not realised that I needed to simulate the input signal, apologies.

For the record, this works with the default settings/offsets.

Its great that you are up and running. You really are facing 2 learning curves. LinuxCNC and Plasmac.
There is a thread in the plasma section called "another plasma component". This is the development thread for plasmac and its moving forward in leaps and bounds. It might be worth subscribing to the thread to keep abreast of developments and bug fixes so you can decide if and when to upgrade.

Also be sure to visit the 2.9 docs (follow your nose from the main linuxcnc web site) and read the Plasma primer and Plasmac manual if you have not already done so. Links are in the main menu. Follow what Islander261 says about Plasmac as he cuts exclusively thin materials (around 2mm) for a living. Also thefabricator03 is using plasmac commercially but often on thicker material. Both of these guys have extensive plasma experience and have ditched commercial systems in favour of plasmac.

We are all excited to hear you are considering it for such a big industrial machine and we look forward in helping you kick some goals in your business.

tommylight wrote:

I for one am very glad and happy for that statement.

I will say some feedback provided privately from both sources can't really be repeated on a public forum!

Hi guys,

I've been playing around trying to get my own G-code into LinuxCNC (from Inkscape).

I can get the code into the vanilla linux cnc fine. But when I try to put it into the plasmac version, it doesn't work (I followed a tutorial to make the G-code output tailored to plasma).

At first I was getting issues with python code returning "z comments not defined". I think that the plasmac program was trying to comment out z axis lines and failing. After installing a more up to date python this no longer happens, however when I try to open a file I get a number of errors still. Some are errors like "CUT_HEIGHT is missing from material #0" which I am not too concerned about because I have not put those G-codes it yet.

However I am getting an error with regards to double closed brackets "))" at the end of G code lines.

Error message: "Near line 15 of /tmp/tmpzfvlt0/star_0001.ngc: Bad character ')' used"

There are no brackets in the original G-code file before plasmac changes it, however I can see two closed brackets after the lines in the plasmac axis lower right g-code display window.

Does anyone have any ideas?
Is there a specific version of python I should be using (that isn't installed with LinuxCNC)?

Thanks again.

I would report issues with Plasmac on this thread
forum.linuxcnc.org/plasma-laser/35449-an...component?start=1440
I thought I saw the guys discussing some of your issues in the last day or so so it may have been fixed by now but not in the packaged version yet.

Because Plasmac has only recently been added to the distribution versions, a lot of users compile LinuxCNC from source as we had to to get it installed. That means we can update as soon as updates have been pushed to master branch.

Thanks for that, I'll have a read.

I think I have fixed my issue, made my own G-code converter. Seems to work.