Advice on retrofit of proprietary plasma table?

[cncJon]

Wow, thanks spool much AGsweeney!

That sounds exactly what Im looking to DO!
You are a savior, do you take beer and pizza as partial down payment?

[martyscncgarage]

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.

Can you describe how the Proma 150 works and worked for you and how you integrated it with the CNC control? (Which are you using? Mach or LinuxCNC?)

You may have done this in another thread, if so, I apologize but if you can post the link here, it may be helpful. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Marty

[agsweeney1972]

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.

Can you describe how the Proma 150 works and worked for you and how you integrated it with the CNC control? (Which are you using? Mach or LinuxCNC?)

You may have done this in another thread, if so, I apologize but if you can post the link here, it may be helpful. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Marty

Marty,

All of that information is on the product page: http://proma-elektronika.com/index.php/ ... ct-thc-150 It worked fine for me but I was cutting very heavy plate most of the time and didn't use it that much.

Edit: Its worth noting that the same company also has another product that is a hybrid that wouldn't require THC support in the Acorn software.

That product is here: http://proma-elektronika.com/index.php/ ... act-thc-sd

Note: This unit will require 5V TTL step and direction voltages so if using a Clearpath motor don't hook it up like the Acorn schematics show. In the case of the original poster of this thread if he were to use the Gecko drives then it should work for him.

--
Adam

[agsweeney1972]

Wow, thanks spool much AGsweeney!

That sounds exactly what Im looking to DO!
You are a savior, do you take beer and pizza as partial down payment?

You are welcome - send the beer and pizza to @cnckeith as he has been very helpful to all of us in our CNC endeavors.

I think that once you get going on your conversion things will go well. The biggest concern that I would say anyone will have with CNC plasma is the rigidity of the setup at higher cutting speeds. Running too slow because your machine is not "up to par" is where a lot of people end up requiring a THC because they warp their material by overheating it.

[cnckeith]

hey guys, we are wrapping up several projects and are getting ready to start work on a Plasma Plug in for CNC12/Acorn so i am reaching out to you to give you'all an opportunity to have input on the Plasma specific features that you would like to see.

So here is a description of the different THC's that i am aware of....

Available THC controls fall into one of the three categories below.

1.) Fully independent of the CNC, uses its own additional Z axis and axis motor to move the torch head up and down. No special Acorn Plasma Plug in is needed for this type of THC. cons expensive.

2.) Integrated with CNC style a: and hijacks the step and direction signals from the Acorn to the axis motor driver and adds and subtracts pulses as necessary. No special Acorn Plasma Plug in is needed for this type of THC. example http://proma-elektronika.com/index.php/ ... act-thc-sd

3.) Integrated with CNC style b : THC has three outputs UP, DOWN, and ARC OK. These Outputs are connected to the Acorn Inputs. v4.14 Acorn Wizard as these selections in the input drop down list. ThcUp, ThcDown, ThsArcOk. The THC sends these ‘commands’ to the Acorn by closing the input, when the UP input is closed CNC12 Adds steps to the Z axis position, when the ThcDown input is closed CNC12 Subtracts steps to the Z axis position. CNC12 waits for ThcArcOK before moving XY commands, when the ThcArcOK input is closed CNC12 knows that it is good to continue with XY movements. example http://proma-elektronika.com/download/PDF/thc150_en.pdf

We will be creating a Plasma Plug in for the third one on the list above..

What is on your plasma wish list?
please be as descriptive as possible when describing the CNC functionality that you are after for your plasma table.
I'll take your input and do my best to add the functionality/feature into Acorn CNC12!

[Dan M]

hey guys, we are wrapping up several projects and are getting ready to start work on a Plasma Plug in for CNC12/Acorn so i am reaching out to you to give you'all an opportunity to have input on the Plasma specific features that you would like to see.

So here is a description of the different THC's that i am aware of....

Available THC controls fall into one of the three categories below.

1.) Fully independent of the CNC, uses its own additional Z axis and axis motor to move the torch head up and down. No special Acorn Plasma Plug in is needed for this type of THC. cons expensive.

2.) Integrated with CNC style a: and hijacks the step and direction signals from the Acorn to the axis motor driver and adds and subtracts pulses as necessary. No special Acorn Plasma Plug in is needed for this type of THC. example http://proma-elektronika.com/index.php/ ... act-thc-sd

3.) Integrated with CNC style b : THC has three outputs UP, DOWN, and ARC OK. These Outputs are connected to the Acorn Inputs. v4.14 Acorn Wizard as these selections in the input drop down list. ThcUp, ThcDown, ThsArcOk. The THC sends these ‘commands’ to the Acorn by closing the input, when the UP input is closed CNC12 Adds steps to the Z axis position, when the ThcDown input is closed CNC12 Subtracts steps to the Z axis position. CNC12 waits for ThcArcOK before moving XY commands, when the ThcArcOK input is closed CNC12 knows that it is good to continue with XY movements. example http://proma-elektronika.com/download/PDF/thc150_en.pdf

We will be creating a Plasma Plug in for the third one on the list above..

What is on your plasma wish list?
please be as descriptive as possible when describing the CNC functionality that you are after for your plasma table.
I'll take your input and do my best to add the functionality/feature into Acorn CNC12!

You should hit up Jim Colt.

[martyscncgarage]

You should hit up Jim Colt.

Good idea. Jim is one of the most helpful factory reps on the web.

[Dan M]

You should hit up Jim Colt.

Good idea. Jim is one of the most helpful factory reps on the web.

Agreed just please make it compatible with Thermal Dynamics since I have one lol. But seriously those are the two big ones and then you get into the Everlast category. Candcnc has a good integrated thc and is probably the #1 system home builders, retrofitting, and table manufacturers that don’t have proprietary software use for plasma tables. But he’s obviously not going to be much help since Acorn will be competing with his controller. Also as for the stand alone idea Hypertherm and ESAB/Victor use those for their high definition controllers, but your talking big money for those setups.

Also don’t forget about the ohmic sensor and the touch off sensor. Then there’s all the tool settings based off what plasma cutter you’re using. The Centroid programmers have a big project ahead of them.

If they can pull it off and it works well they will do very well with them since there aren’t a lot of good options in this price range.

[antpdrake]

hey guys, we are wrapping up several projects and are getting ready to start work on a Plasma Plug in for CNC12/Acorn so i am reaching out to you to give you'all an opportunity to have input on the Plasma specific features that you would like to see.

So here is a description of the different THC's that i am aware of....

Available THC controls fall into one of the three categories below.

1.) Fully independent of the CNC, uses its own additional Z axis and axis motor to move the torch head up and down. No special Acorn Plasma Plug in is needed for this type of THC. cons expensive.

2.) Integrated with CNC style a: and hijacks the step and direction signals from the Acorn to the axis motor driver and adds and subtracts pulses as necessary. No special Acorn Plasma Plug in is needed for this type of THC. example http://proma-elektronika.com/index.php/ ... act-thc-sd

3.) Integrated with CNC style b : THC has three outputs UP, DOWN, and ARC OK. These Outputs are connected to the Acorn Inputs. v4.14 Acorn Wizard as these selections in the input drop down list. ThcUp, ThcDown, ThsArcOk. The THC sends these ‘commands’ to the Acorn by closing the input, when the UP input is closed CNC12 Adds steps to the Z axis position, when the ThcDown input is closed CNC12 Subtracts steps to the Z axis position. CNC12 waits for ThcArcOK before moving XY commands, when the ThcArcOK input is closed CNC12 knows that it is good to continue with XY movements. example http://proma-elektronika.com/download/PDF/thc150_en.pdf

We will be creating a Plasma Plug in for the third one on the list above..

What is on your plasma wish list?
please be as descriptive as possible when describing the CNC functionality that you are after for your plasma table.
I'll take your input and do my best to add the functionality/feature into Acorn CNC12!

Hey guys

I have set up a plasma cutter with the acorn board and I need THC! I have been looking around to see what’s out there.

Keith your option 3 sounds good, I have looked at the proma’s in option 2, I already have a z axis...

The plate touching thing sounds good too for setting stand off height.

Also, not sure if you can set up a screen in cnc12 for plasma cutters to do away with controls and buttons that aren’t needed for plasma cutting? That would be cool and make it customisable?

Ok so when will it be all done? I’m in a hurry to cut thin sheet metal haha

Thanks, keep up the good work

[cnckeith]

plasma plug in for the Wizard is next on the list, we are working on Alpha testing of cnc12 v4.14 right now and will be moving to beta testing this weekend. The Wizard/CNC12 plasma plug-in is slated for the next (v4.26) release!