Another plasma component...

Dee436 wrote:

I am currently on a run in place version of plasmac from around May which uses v2.8. The machine is working and cutting ok but I am thinking I should really bring it up to date, I have had a couple of instances where the paused motion would have been useful. I really don’t want to break anything though so have a couple of questions.

I know absolutely nothing about Plasmac, and I may have the wrong end of the stick about RIP but, personally, I would clone the hard-drive before attempting an upgrade, if that is an option. If it all goes horribly wrong, chuck in the original and you're away again.

HueyHQ wrote:

I know absolutely nothing about Plasmac, and I may have the wrong end of the stick about RIP but, personally, I would clone the hard-drive before attempting an upgrade, if that is an option. If it all goes horribly wrong, chuck in the original and you're away again.

That is a pretty good idea, Can you recommend a reasonably priced software that will do that with Linux?

Not that I've used it, but I believe Clonezilla is an open source cloning tool.

Its not really worth worrying about in my view. We are just compiling a run in place version of LinuxCNC so you could simply set a different folder name on the initial git clone command here
linuxcnc.org/docs/devel/html/code/building-linuxcnc.html

That lets you have as many compiled versions of linuxcnc as you want. eg:

~/linuxcnc-dev
~/linuxcnc-dev1
~/linuxcnc-dev2
~/plasmac

EDIT: Just use the correct rip_environment script for the one you want to run

My version is prior to the configurator been available and I wasn’t aware Phil’s repository no longer existed. I will go with Rod’s option of compiling another run in place alongside my existing one. A job for the weekend I think

Thanks all

Dee436 wrote:

My version is prior to the configurator been available and I wasn’t aware Phil’s repository no longer existed. I will go with Rod’s option of compiling another run in place alongside my existing one. A job for the weekend I think

Thanks all

I'm glad I read that right (That you had compiled from Phill's repository). It will only take you a couple of minutes (and a coffee)

So I had a chance to use Phills pierce only function,

This was the straw that broke the camels back, Slag from the hole piecing tripping the torch when it was cutting the outside of the plate


So I generated my g-code as normal in sheetcam but I added this line of code to the start of the files,
#<pierce-only> = 1

That produced a piece only g-code files,


The result looks like this,


After cleaning it looks like this,


I am still cutting the sheet out now but have not had any issues with slag tripping the torch! Works as advertised!