Advice on retrofit of proprietary plasma table?

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nucla
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Re: Advice on retrofit of proprietary plasma table?

Post by nucla »

I bought the Acorn to work with my Plasma Table. Has the plug in become available yet? Other question is, the touch and go macro that you were talking about. I need to write that or find that somewhere. What is the language that needs to be used to make that work. I had it setup on mach 3 and that macro seems to be the only thing that was reliable on the old setup.
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Re: Advice on retrofit of proprietary plasma table?

Post by cnckeith »

hello! ok... following up on this thread!....we are working on getting a beta out for Acorn Wizard support of the new i/o expansion card this week.. as we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel of the Ether1616 project.....so i've started to think ahead a bit and get back to working on plasma support....when Ether1616 is released we will be able to devote time to creating the Plasma THC support version of CNC12. Good news is....We have a Plasma machine in house up and running with an Acorn controller! ...this machine is being used as a test bed and has preliminary software support to run in test mule mode...now... i'll be the first admit that while i have run CNC mills since is was 16 I haven't put more than 5 minutes in on a plasma machine :shock: so, with your help we will develop a "Plasma" version of CNC12. I have attached the Acorn Plasma project requirements document for open comment! If you are interested in Plasma, Laser and or Oxy Torch I encourage you to participate in this open development period. Please make any suggestions, comments, that come to mind we will take them to heart. my thanks in advance. -Keith
cnc12_servo_acorn_plasma_requirements_rev9.pdf
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Re: Advice on retrofit of proprietary plasma table?

Post by carbuthn »

Keith, I have used a manual plasma a fair amount. One things that I feel would be good is to have an Input from a pressure transducer to provide a permissive to start the program / maybe pause on low air pressure, the torch will not cut correctly without proper air pressure.

Chuck
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Re: Advice on retrofit of proprietary plasma table?

Post by legacytorch »

I agree with carbuthn, It would be great if the program would give a warning if you try to start with low air pressure rather that have it fail because the arc will not start.

I read through the PDF and I am real excited by what I see. I appreciate the inclusion of manual controls. Not everyone in the plasma world is in production with consistency and repeatability. Some of us in the repair side just need more flexibility to allow for variables in materials.

If I am reading things right it looks as if the arc on/off button will be combined as a toggle rather that separated like the spindle controls. I appreciate having one button rather than two. It would be great to include a similar button for the oxy/fuel system for a preheat control.

I'm not sure what it would look like or how you would integrate it but, a simple way to select a section to attempt a recut when a cutting problem occurs would be useful.
Edit: reread the PDF... looks like you are discussing this. I like the 3 options you have when a lost arc occurs. Good stuff!

Outstanding
During TorchArcOK OPEN event (Arc NOT ok) during a G code program CNC12 ? what happens when you lose your
ARCOK during a cut? Can we feedhold and try to re-fire the torch (3 times) before bailing out to an error?

Give User 3 Options
1. Ask to skip to next Pierce Cycle in G code Program
2. Ask to Manually jog torch back to position (User will jog the torch in XY back to where he thinks the torch can start
cutting and press cycle start to start the pierce cycle and continue the g code from that position)
3. Ask to Automatically restart the cut. (CNC12 will move back into the cut to where it lost THCArcOK and start the pierce
cycle again. Then continues G code program.


The option to enable this restart manually would be good as well. Right now my machine does not monitor the arc. I plan to upgrade to a THC that will do this but I know a good number of machines don't/won't have a THC.

Looks like you guys are on the right track! Can't wait for it to come out.
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Re: Advice on retrofit of proprietary plasma table?

Post by mighty_mike015 »

Keith,

I'm liking what you are doing. Please consider the following.

Can the Cut Height, Pierce Height, Pierce Delay, Safe Z Height, and Z THC Speed % dialog boxes be populated by variables so these values can be stored in a the NC file or a "database" macro?

I would really like to see the Anti-Dive feature in there. As stated in my previous post:
Anti-Dive feature: When the feedrate of the machine varies from the desired cut speed, specifically slowing down the THC will command the down signal. This occurs when the decel portion of the motion control or the constan velocity portion cuts the feed down. There should be a parameter that defines a threshold amount to keep the down signal from plunging the torch into the material. Example: Parameter XXX is 90. The defined feed rate is 100 ipm. If the actual feedrate dips below 100 * .90(90%) = 90 ipm, then the the down signals are ignored from the THC. If feed rate override is used then the this feature should be relative to the new desired feedrate and not what the program commanded. The feature will need to be activated and deactivated as users discretion. ON/OFF with m or g code.
During your testing, please attempt to cut a corrugated piece of metal to test the reaction time of the equipment.

Mike
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Re: Advice on retrofit of proprietary plasma table?

Post by BMF »

Hello All,
Count me in for this plasma version. 5' x 10' table design is just about finished, having some acceleration analysis done now, with my Acorn, Clearpath Servos and Proma Compact 150 on hand waiting for the software.
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Re: Advice on retrofit of proprietary plasma table?

Post by Miengineer313 »

Hello All,

I'm chomping at the bit to build a CNC plasma cutting system using an Acorn controller! Any idea when the updated software that includes plasma cutting features discussed will be available?

Really excited to move forward and expect to start putting a system together before the end of the year. Thx!
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Re: Advice on retrofit of proprietary plasma table?

Post by jonrya91 »

Yep sitting here as well waiting for this plasma release to be done. Any idea of time?
CHAOTiC WAYz
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Re: Advice on retrofit of proprietary plasma table?

Post by CHAOTiC WAYz »

Waiting as well..
Craig Hilliard
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Re: Advice on retrofit of proprietary plasma table?

Post by Craig Hilliard »

i've been running plasma on acorn almost 2 years I am running the proma SD thc it works great for thc just need a way two cents the piercing distance between cuts? heavy metal works OK but 1/8 will warp and crash something like the tool touch off could be incorporated
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