More Z-Axis Issues

Actually, when I think about this a bit more, I'm guessing cut charts don't exist for this machine so maybe reducing the cut height is probably the easiest thing to change. By being a bit lower, the arc might be able stretch more as it runs out of material. Just an idea.

Actually, when I think about this a bit more, I'm guessing cut charts don't exist for this machine so maybe reducing the cut height is probably the easiest thing to change. By being a bit lower, the arc might be able stretch more as it runs out of material. Just an idea.

You are correct there are no cut charts for the Harbor Freight plasma cutters. I will try your suggestions on cut height and acceleration.

And for artistic work, perhaps relax the G64 blending so those sharp V shaped corners can be rounded off by the trajectory planner. If you look at the parts I cut, you can see that the inside V's are rounded off already.

I lowered my THC 4 volts and also set the cut height in LinuxCNC .1" lower. I then cut 3 more dog mom signs and it only lost the arc once. It was on one of the triangles in the letter "M" when it fell in the water. So it seems to be better than it was, but it still will not resume.

I will tinker with other settings such as the G64 setting and see if I can make it better. I am also going to get my hands on a Hypertherm PowerMax 45xp later in the week. Maybe I'll get better results from it.

Its good you got a bit closer to the solution. Will it resume after the postflow air has stopped? I noticed yesterday that I got a bit of water in the nozzle which triggered a probe signal and plasmac paused. I wanted to Pulse the torch to clear the water out but could not do that until after the post flow finished. This is consistent with what others have experienced when we have played around with centre spotting.

Will it resume after the postflow air has stopped?

If it throws the arc lost error, it still won't resume.

Ok I've got a Hypertherm Powermax 45 hooked up to my table and I'm trying to run some 2 inch test squares to get it dialed in. I don't have the THC hooked up, so it is disabled in run tab. The torch will fire for about 1/10th of a second and then I get the arc lost error again. I thought if the THC was turned off that it would ignore looking for the arc signal? Is there a way to make it cut without requiring the arc signal from the THC?

It does requires the Ark OK signal, be it a signal directly from the plasma cutter or from Proma/THCAD etc. regardless of whether THC is Auto/Disabled/Enabled.

It does requires the Ark OK signal, be it a signal directly from the plasma cutter or from Proma/THCAD etc. regardless of whether THC is Auto/Disabled/Enabled.

Ok thanks. I had mounted my THC on my old plasma cutter because it did not have a divided signal out. I was hoping to test this out before taking the old setup apart.

I need a way to increase the amount of time LinuxCNC waits for an ARC OK signal. I have the THC hooked up and it tries to fire the same as before. After 1/10th of a second it stops with arc lost error. I can see the display on the THC blink very briefly when this happens, like it is trying to do something, but LinuxCNC kills the torch before the THC has a chance to send the arc ok signal.

If I manually jump the arc ok pin so that it stays high, everthing works as it should.