Centroid Community CNC Support Forum

Would a Hypertherm HPR or XPR be possible with a ACORN CNC board? Thinking about a retrofit. Already have Teknic Hudson BLDC servo motors on the machine.

First they are high def cutters . Your table need to be designed for that . Second to take full advantage of the XPR it really designed for the hypertherm true hole controller . There be a lot control outputs you need not in the acorn plasma currently. i Belvie thermal dynamic has a high def cutter might be more suited to use but really not sure on acorn most use that with ICNC controller .

I am also wondering on the same,

HPR plasma with manual gas is just like a Hypermax plasma, some units might include a voltage divider and some does not.

I have a HPR130 manual gas, all it needs from the CNC is a cold contact relay for torch start and it provides a cold contact relay for Arc OK.

My setup was running on an external Torch Height Controller, Neuron THC and Mach3/ESS.

Recently I upgraded the machine to Mach4 and Warprunner from Warp9. I am having a difficult time with Mach4 and the timing of torch firing and stopping is poorly managed by the controller.

Looking at the wiring diagram for Powermax plasma, it should be identical with the HPR with manual gas.

My experience is that the HPR will need the arc to be turned off earlier compared to Powermax, will I be able to output a torch off command while the torch is along the leadout path or just as it passes the lead-in?

Thank you.

Can you Post an example of what the gcode looks like for the Torch off before the end of the cut?

First ESS warp 9 and mach 4 doesn't work very well and Andy bullheaded about it and hates plasma. i used and tested one. Better choice for m4 hicon .
acorn light years ahead of that .. if your running mach and neuron whith your cutter i see no reason acorn plasma cant work .
the voltage divider on acorn THC has to be 50 to 1 i believe neuron 30 to 1 you have to change that in your hypertherm . personally i like to see acorn support 30 to 1
it better more accurate voltage according to neuron .

Why can't you just set the voltage divider ratio to 30 in the Profile Manager? In the Profile Manager under THC Config you can type in the voltage divider ratio, it defaults to 50 because the Hypertherm units default to 50 and currently that's what supported by Centroid. You could easily open your Hypertherm and change the voltage divider ratio to 30 and then set the THC Config screen to 30, no?

Centroid, is this supported currently? Joey? Keith?

Remember, that voltage you see on the screen is just a number for feedback. It's almost irrelevant if your not cutting at the proper height. Doing a test cut with THC off on your material with your machine will give you an accurate voltage for your machine and consumables that you should follow. It's not always the same as the book speeds. This is where "smart sense" works well sometimes.

The Acorn can handle a range of divided voltages. The Calibration cut will take care of any difference in divided voltage. The MAX divided voltage that the THC can have is 10:1. Centroid supports all divided Voltages down to 10:1. (40:1 and 50:1 are typical values)