Homemade, cheap, plasma CNC

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09 Nov 2021 11:47 - 09 Nov 2021 14:18 #225806 by RNJFAB
Replied by RNJFAB on topic Homemade, cheap, plasma CNC
Awesome !!!! Thanks Phillc54 !!!!

Just what I needed to get it all running again. Test firing now. And we have fire !!!!!

no thc control and no arc ok signal yet.
Last edit: 09 Nov 2021 14:18 by RNJFAB.

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09 Nov 2021 12:55 #225813 by RNJFAB
Replied by RNJFAB on topic Homemade, cheap, plasma CNC
Nope - cant figure out how to get the Arc-ok signal or the THC working.

I'll keep looking.

Latest Hal file here.
 

File Attachment:

File Name: PLASMAhal_...1-09.txt
File Size:14 KB
Attachments:

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09 Nov 2021 13:05 #225815 by tommylight
# ---PLASMA INPUTS---
# ---all modes---
net plasmac:float-switch     => db_float.in
net plasmac:breakaway        => db_breakaway.in
net plasmac:ohmic-probe      => db_ohmic.in
net plasmac:ohmic-sense-in   => plasmac.ohmic-sense-in
# ---modes 0 & 1
net plasmac:arc-voltage-in   => plasmac.arc-voltage-in
# ---modes 1 & 2
net plasmac:arc-ok-in        => db_arc-ok.in
# ---mode 2
net plasmac:move-up          <= plasmac.move-up
net plasmac:move-down        <= plasmac.move-down
Those are PlasmaC pins and pin names, none of them are hardware pins, so you need to add hardware pins to those HAL pins so they can communicate with the out physical world. Might sound complicated, but is very simple, the fist thing after NET is a pin name = can be any name like my-pin or an actual pin, then there are actual HAL or hardware pins, can be more than one on one line.
in your case

# ---modes 0 & 1
net plasmac:arc-voltage-in PIN.FROM.MESA.ENCODER => plasmac.arc-voltage-in
# ---modes 1 & 2
net plasmac:arc-ok-in PIN.FROM.MESA.INPUT => db_arc-ok.in

Basically just connecting the physical Mesa pin to HAL pin.
P.S.
Let me know if this explanation is helpful or causes more confusion.
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09 Nov 2021 13:38 - 09 Nov 2021 13:53 #225821 by RNJFAB
Replied by RNJFAB on topic Homemade, cheap, plasma CNC
Yes and No tommy.

Thank you. so i understand that i need to tell the hal file what pin to read to get the information it is looking for on the MEAS board.

I know the arc-ok is hm2_7i96.0.gpio.009.in (this comes from the plasma source.). I have tole it this

# --- ARC-OK ---
net plasmac:arc-ok-in     <=  hm2_7i96.0.gpio.009.in

I don't know the encoder input pin address (the plasma runs to the THC10 - this then runs to the encoder input on the 7i96).

I have tried to copy what i could from my old hal/ini files but there are obviously some changes with QTPLASMAC from PlasmaC.
Last edit: 09 Nov 2021 13:53 by RNJFAB.

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09 Nov 2021 13:51 #225822 by tommylight
Good, you got the important part so i did not fail entirely ! :)
Usually the encoder pin is soemthing like
hm2_eth or hm2_pci followed by the Mesa card number and the encoder number, usually encoder.00, followed by a function or nothing.
so
hm2_7i97-encoder.00.velocity
that is of the top of my head as i can not do much right now.
It would be much easier to do a new config, you can have as many configs as you like for the same machine on the same pc, or for different machines.
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09 Nov 2021 14:00 - 09 Nov 2021 14:21 #225823 by RNJFAB
Replied by RNJFAB on topic Homemade, cheap, plasma CNC
Tommy - you are amazing !! Those little bits make sense in some way.
Phill - you are amazing as well !!

I went back through files and couldn't see anything that stood out. Then i realized what you said and found this line neatly organised in my external input signals. I just needed to adjust it.
# --- ARC-OK ---
net plasmac:arc-ok-in <= hm2_7i96.0.gpio.009.in

but realised that there needed to be more. kept going through and found this line that i # out for some reason. then found the missing piece in a second config i did.

net plasmac:arc-ok db_arc-ok.out => plasmac.arc-ok-in

I now have Arc-ok (led lights up in QTPLASMAC. just working through the encoder line now.

EDIT -
As above. slight change from previous codes. and much like a second language (that i can't speak) it was only possible thanks to your input and guidance.

# --- Encoder ---
net plasmac:arc-voltage-in  <= hm2_7i96.0.encoder.00.velocity

DONE !!!!!!!!! and after starting my day at 0400 this morning. I'm ready to stop work at 0020. no wonder my brain struggles to function. a few hours sleep and back to it. 

Thanks guys for getting me firing again.
 
Last edit: 09 Nov 2021 14:21 by RNJFAB.
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09 Nov 2021 14:07 #225824 by bevins
Replied by bevins on topic Homemade, cheap, plasma CNC
Check in halshow to see if you have your encoder.
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09 Nov 2021 22:33 #225887 by phillc54
If you had an existing working PlasmaC config then you could migrate it to QtPlasmaC:

linuxcnc.org/docs/devel/html/plasma/qtpl...tml#qt_modify-config

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10 Nov 2021 11:21 #225956 by RNJFAB
Replied by RNJFAB on topic Homemade, cheap, plasma CNC
I do, it's on a PC. I spent a lot of time with the Mac setting up MX linux in the house and started the whole setup in here.

Thought about migrating, however i wanted to go from the beginning again. hopefully i'll be doing it again in a few months with a new machine.

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10 Nov 2021 11:40 #225959 by rodw
Replied by rodw on topic Homemade, cheap, plasma CNC

I do, it's on a PC. I spent a lot of time with the Mac setting up MX linux in the house and started the whole setup in here.
 

If you format a USB stick on your PC running Linux as EXT4 (using dd) you could copy the symbolic links to your Mac.
I have bee caught a few times with symlinks getting broken and doing it this way was perfect.

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