Centroid Community CNC Support Forum

The acorn is being used to run a plasma, oxy/fuel cutting table. I want to be able to use the keyboard to control the z axis as a manual height control. The g code that I am running has no z axis input. Is there a way to allow manual z jogging while the program is running?

What are you using for THC on your table?

Only my eyes, and judgement. Fully manual control. A THC would be great long term but I'm not there yet. Currently I have a manual rack and pinion with a hand wheel to move the torch head so any kind of remote control would be an improvement.

Most plasma applications employ an off the shelf stand alone THC to handle the Torch Height Control. These are widely available on ebay and other locations.
https://www.ebay.com/i/263350698500?chn=ps
https://www.ebay.com/i/122812301023?chn=ps
https://www.ebay.com/i/253338014225?chn=ps

http://neuroncnc.com/products/professional

That is really unfortunate that it can’t be done. At least I know where I stand. The THC may be a good option. Not really what I need with the oxy/fuel system because there is no arc voltage to give feedback. I will still research them though, a system may offer some form of remote manual control. I set the system up with an Xbox controller and it is working fantastic. I was really looking forward to using the controller to make height adjustments while the program was cutting. I guess really I’m no further behind than my old mach3 system that had no z control at all.

I don’t really know what is involved to add this feature and I am probably the first to ask for it with the centroid stuff being primarily for mills, but it would be really great if that would be possible to add.

Thanks for the help

Ok so I learned something new already....

I had not seriously looked into a THC because I assumed that they all ran baised on arc voltage. Apparently some use a capacitive sensor and work with both the flame and plasma systems.

Getting smarter all the time

Have a look at the Neuron THC. They have different units that will work with plasma and O/A.
http://neuroncnc.com/products/professional

We had a huddle on the various ways to move the Z axis while running a job (so a user can adjust a water jet or flame torch by 'eye balling' it) and it appears we can (with some effort) allow the MPG or even the Jog buttons on the VCP (which then means an xbox controller would work) to add or subtract steps to the Z axis while the job is running with Acorn and CNC12. (We are now back at working on Acorn USB MPG drivers) so its on the list of features to add for v4.12 release. We are looking for a good name for this new feature, suggestions are welcome!

and on a related note...I misspoke in a earlier post about "M0 jogging" M0 jogging does work with Acorn CNC12, i just tested it.

cnckeith wrote: ↑Wed Jan 03, 2018 2:14 pm We are looking for a good name for this new feature, suggestions are welcome!

ZeeTweaker® or Z'Tweaker®.

cnckeith wrote: ↑Wed Jan 03, 2018 2:14 pm We had a huddle on the various ways to move the Z axis while running a job (so a user can adjust a water jet or flame torch by 'eye balling' it) and it appears we can (with some effort) allow the MPG or even the Jog buttons on the VCP (which then means an xbox controller would work) to add or subtract steps to the Z axis while the job is running with Acorn and CNC12. (We are now back at working on Acorn USB MPG drivers) so its on the list of features to add for v4.12 release. We are looking for a good name for this new feature, suggestions are welcome!

and on a related note...I misspoke in a earlier post about "M0 jogging" M0 jogging does work with Acorn CNC12, i just tested it.

In the 3D printing world we call it "LIVE Z TUNING"
Clay