THC - out of ideas

Hi guys.

Thanks again for this amazing resource. I am here to be a leech, again!

My machine is running QTplasmaC, installed may last yr. 

I successfully used the plasma cutter several months ago, with no water tray and so forth, and made an aluminium fuel tank.  I had no THC and i had paired the breakaway switch with the bottom limit on the Z axis.

So fast foward to the past month. I have finished the water tray and having looked through the qtplasmac manual, i have paired the breakaway switch with the float switch.

My understanding from the manual was that when the machine isn't probing, the input should then be switched to a breakaway function. I don't get any such error when in use when the torch comes adrift. 

Secondly I am out of ideas with the THC. I have valid voltage input, at about 1mm cut height, its about 80v. At 5mm cut height its about 100v. I get no z height adjustment which keeps breaking the torch away. I have checked that sheetcam is putting M65P2 in the G-code. I have tried everything on the interface, from auto volts to non auto volts, putting extreme numbers into the material cut volts parameter, with no ability to get any correction.

I decided to check the plasmac.current.velocity - this does not match the feed rate even when jogging at maximum speed, it is reading about 20 as opposed to say 1000. I don't know if that is correct or not, but decided to try reducing %vad threshold to 1%, which should trick it into thinking I am at the feed rate. Still nothing.

So any ideas guys? 

Thanks in advance
Sam

 

Hi Phil.

I'm sure it is a cock up in my config. Just can't pinpoint it.

I must be on an older version of QTplasmac because my only option is to backup from the settings tab.

Anyho I've uploaded what it has saved.

Thanks so much. Even without THC working I'm quite thrilled with what my machine can do! and that is largely due to the good work you and others have done.

Sam 

Hi Phil

Thanks for that.

I have uploaded a text doc of the terminal when booting from it. It has some warnings about the spindle. Again, not sure if this is to be expected or not.

It probes no problems - float switch functions as it should. I can vary the working height in the parameters no problems.

I will get updated at some point - although there is surely something else wrong?

Thanks again

Sam

 

Hi Tommy these are the plasmac.thc values.
I'll try and see if it enables when doing a cut if that would help at all.

Thanks folks
Sam

Hey guys -

Quick update. 

I have sorted breakaway issue - silly config/ wiring issue on my behalf. I now have them set so that if the input is low, (ie either switch goes open circuit) it triggers float switch. Works a charm now.

I have checked the velocity in the UI as i attempt to cut, and it does reach feed rate. In this case I'm testing at 1250mm/min. The only time it dips below feed rate is when the cutter goes around a corner (my test is a thin rectangle).

The halshow thc.active does not light up when cutting.

Any ideas from here?

Thanks again.
Sam