Centroid Community CNC Support Forum

I will first start off by saying that I know enough about CNC to get me in trouble with the Catholic Nuns.

Secondly, I own a proprietary system widely known as the plasmacam.
Roughly a year ago, the controller gave up the ghost to the heat cycling of electrical circuits. When i called them, their answer was, "yep its about time it went, we had a bunch fail from age." Oh really...

So their answer was to buy a new controller but this new controller won't work with my old software, so I need to purchase the software suite along with it. To the tune of almost $3,000. Hmm...ok.

I'm not made of money, so I tried several avenues, including having United Radio repair it. They have good electrical engineers...but to no avail.

So searching for controllers lately I've seen the Masso and this Centroid Acorn.
MASSO states theirs won't directly work with servo motors, while Acorn states theirs does.

Any suggestions or comments Please?
Controller connects to PC via db25, controller connects to motors via 20 pin ATX.

Pics to follow...

please set up a google photo album and populate with a bunch of detailed photos, provide the link here.. and we can chime in on what you would need to get'er going. K

Thanks Keith.

Working on it now.

Also post pictures of the motors any part numbers that might be on them, same with the control cabinet, look for the axis motor drives and post the part numbers. If you can find manuals to them post a link here.
If you find a separate Torch Height Controller post any info on it as well.

Plasma is an interesting topic for a lot of users and Centroid.

Have you used plasma with and without torch height control quite a bit and understand how it is supposed to work?
Definitely post pictures along the way and ask questions. You'll get help provided we get enough detailed information.


Marty

Thanks for the quick reply Marty.

Unfortunately Plasmacam doesn't give or disclose documentation on ANY of their stuff. No paper on a schematic, no serial numbers, no motor identification. They want their customer to be at their mercy and only buy their stuff.

This was their thinking 20 years ago, this is their thinking now.

With that said, here are some pictures:


(Controller, with faceplate on. )


(Controller, faceplate off )


( Controller connector to motors)


(Motor with daisy chain(?) Connection to THC)


(Side view of digital height control...or whatever they call it)


(Other motor...no ID at all )


( drive side of motor )

I honestly have no idea what drives the motors or how plasmacam makes it work. I've had electronic technicians look at it and United Radio with their engineers and without schematics, they say they are shooting in the dark.

Please help.

If I have to i will just buy a controller and motors but if rather make a controller work with these existing servo motors.

Thanks much !!

They don't make it easy, even the motor mounts look to be non standard. What size is the table?
I think light look at closed loop steppers and Acorn. Also to decide on a standard THC

Marty

The table itself is 5x5.

Who makes a reasonably priced THC?

Any other ideas fellas?

Who is the guru above all?
I wouldn't even mind paying someone for serious help.

Thanks.

cncJon wrote: ↑Wed Aug 29, 2018 11:15 am The table itself is 5x5.

Who makes a reasonably priced THC?

No personal experience but these turn up fairly frequently:
http://proma-elektronika.com/index.php/ ... ht-control
http://neuroncnc.com

There is a guy who documented his conversion of a PlasmaCAM machine in which he used Gecko drives to drive the original X and Y Servo Motors and a Stepper Driver to control the original Z motor.

Info Here: http://www.readytocut.com/community/for ... rofit.190/

The THC stuff is currently outside of the Acorn's abilities but hopefully with enough interest that will change. You can get a stand alone THC or a Hybrid one that listens to the controller and when enabled takes over the "Z" axis. I have not messed with anything but the Standard Proma Compact THC 150 (on my non-Acorn machines) which is fairly common in the MACH3 and LinuxCNC worlds.