Another plasma component...

Did some more testing today in sim mode ( as is, since i did move the machine to another place on the factory and i did not have time to adjust the rails yet and wire the new control box ), so i can confirm that it does everything it should do. The only difference between toma_thc and this config i did notice is: on this one even with the ARCON signal it moves, on the toma_thc one it does not. It was made so that in case the torch went on ( manually ) when it was not supposed to, it would halt all motion as i mostly have hand held torches on the machines with magnetic holders. Case 1 the torch can fall off and there is the very remote chance it hits the trigger and case 2 when i test the plasma power source manually for whatever reason or when changing the consumables accidentally firing it while putting it back in place as the torch has to be held in the normal use position to be attached.
I can live with it as is, and i sure will not bother changing it as i already ordered a machine torch with 12 meter cable and 2 machine torch heads to change the manual ones i have.
Again, Phill, thank you, you did a great job putting all that together.

Tommy,

Are you saying that if you manually trigger a torch, it enables the ArcOn signal and if that is enabled when an attempt is made to start cutting, the TOMA_THC does not commence the cut?

Guys

This is really cool. I wish this was around two years ago. I will take a close look at his in the coming week so I can understand where others are going. Most of my configuration (right or wrong) is configured so that all of the torch and THC functions are interlocked to the ArcOK or OK to Move signals from the plasma power supply. I must say that I never have a problem related to the torch failing to fire that isn't related to IHS. At the present time I do have a problem every 5 to 7 sheets that I cut with the torch going out for about one or two cut path segments and then re starting without operator intervention. This problem appears to be totally random at this time. I actually suspect it is related to the TD power supply and how I hacked (hardware) the machine torch interface so it would work reliably with the HT Finecut consumables.

John

After further testing it appears that the acceleration issue mentioned here is in the reverse-run-master2 branch. I have submitted issue #524 on GitHub.

Next I will have a look at the tp patch suggestion from Rod.

Cheers, Phill.

@Rodw,
Yes that is it, it will hold all motion while the ARCON signal is present. For normal work it is not needed.

@Phillc54,
Another thing missing is the torch start retry, that is very important for HV start plasmas as they tend to fail starting an arc occasionally as the consumables wear out.

Now the only thing i need is to have the text bigger, every text in the Axis GUI ! The minimum monitor size i use on machines is 22 inch full HD ones and the text on them is miniature ! Need more time to investigate that.
Regards,
Tom

I mentioned I was working on a python SQL database. Maybe it could be incorporated into Phil's config.

This python script initialises a database with around 9 tables in it and loads a metric cut chart for mild steel and the Hypertherm 45xp.


For each material thickness, there are two cut chart entries for each one. One at Best Quality and the other at Production quality per the Hypertherm cutchart in the manual. Many of the database tables are one offs and probably don't need ongoing modification

Note that the database supports metric and imperial cutcharts but I've only entered a metric cut chart for now.

Run it from the command prompt.
This python script acesses the database and prints a crude cut chart (more like a data dump for each row in the table). It does lots of joins to pull all of the data together.


Run it from the command prompt.
Note the last line of the SELECT statement includes a WHERE clause to filter out either best quality settings or use production quality settings.

I was kinda hoping that somebody might like to incorporate this into the GUI. I envisaged there would be a drop down to select a machine, material, cut quality and the like so that the database could populate the cut parameters to make this a truly plug and play interface. I can code the data structures and populate the database but man, I need to write a file import routine as hardcoding the data really sucked to build the cutchart! Plus I'm not so good at coding the GUI stuff.

Anyway, please give some feedback on these scripts and let me know if this idea is worth adopting. If its got support, I'll work on a CSV cutchart import routine to get away from the hardcoded inset statements.