Proma, I know Again....

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KIDTech
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Proma, I know Again....

Post by KIDTech »

I have it working but it only makes the first cut and stops at the pierce point of the second and just waits there; it never fires the torch or zero's itself with the floating head. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
DIY 5x10 v rail, rack and pinion
Gecko g540
Pm65 - aka game changer
Longevity ForceCut 42i is sitting on the shelf
Proma THC
ACAD, SheetCam, Mach3
Millermatic 211
NEW HORSE IN THE STABLE:
4'x8' LDR downdraft w/a scribe
Milltronics Partner 2 CNC mill
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chasxjs
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Re: Proma, I know Again....

Post by chasxjs »

When you say it does not zero itself, do you mean it stops at your clearance height and never descends to the plate? or it continues to drop until it hits the limit switch and does not raise back up?
Charles
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DIY 5x5 Folding Plasma Table
Hypertherm PM45
Lagun 4 axis CNC Mill
Shopsmith Lathe
Multiple saws, welders, etc.
KIDTech
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Re: Proma, I know Again....

Post by KIDTech »

It does not start it's decent to the plate. I have been doing some reading and there is a lot out there on dwell time, arc ok and a few other things so I will give it a go tonight and report back.
DIY 5x10 v rail, rack and pinion
Gecko g540
Pm65 - aka game changer
Longevity ForceCut 42i is sitting on the shelf
Proma THC
ACAD, SheetCam, Mach3
Millermatic 211
NEW HORSE IN THE STABLE:
4'x8' LDR downdraft w/a scribe
Milltronics Partner 2 CNC mill
tcaudle
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Re: Proma, I know Again....

Post by tcaudle »

KIDTech wrote:It does not start it's decent to the plate. I have been doing some reading and there is a lot out there on dwell time, arc ok and a few other things so I will give it a go tonight and report back.


The Promo is a very simple THC: It reads the voltage and sends the UP and DOWN to MACH3 and uses the built in THC logic. You can set the Preset Volts, the THC Delay time and the "Span" volts. Everything else is handled by the g-code and your CAM program outside the THC. The touch-off move is in some POSTS and not others. It requires you have a "sensor" of some kind (most common being a "floating torch holder" and a swtich ) to know when it touches the plate. If you don't have that you have to use a POST with no touch off code. It should just drop to pierce height, fire the torch, drop to cut height and take off cutting. Without IHS (Touch off) the torch may pierce at the right height and start the cut at the right cut height or it may crash into the plate or be too high and not pierce at all.

ARC OK is a signal MACH uses to release motion when the THC logic is on. It is waiting for confirmation from the plasma that it has a valid arc (from CURRENT not VOLTS). If you trigger it off volts or just turn it on all of the time, it just releases motion as soon as the torch fires regardless if the torch is actually cutting anything. A lot of new Plasmas have the ARC OK signal built in (called "Transfer" or "OK to MOVE " . The issue then is to get that signal safely into your BoB YOu can run without ARC OK and it only causes issues if you get a bad pierce or misfire
KIDTech
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Re: Proma, I know Again....

Post by KIDTech »

So I have everything working in test mode of the Proma, it controls fine but when I am running a cut the z-axis never moves or compensates....
DIY 5x10 v rail, rack and pinion
Gecko g540
Pm65 - aka game changer
Longevity ForceCut 42i is sitting on the shelf
Proma THC
ACAD, SheetCam, Mach3
Millermatic 211
NEW HORSE IN THE STABLE:
4'x8' LDR downdraft w/a scribe
Milltronics Partner 2 CNC mill
KIDTech
3 Star Member
3 Star Member
Posts: 359
Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2014 1:21 pm

Re: Proma, I know Again....

Post by KIDTech »

So I have everything working now, thanks to everyone for all the help. Now my computer stalls out every time it comes to the THC ON/OFF (M102/101) command.... It will keep cutting but every time it comes to that line in the code it will stop for a split second then go on. I am to the point where I can live with it for a while haha because it is controlling the torch moving it up and down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Turns out the issue was the THC min setting being 0 (?) I moved it to -3 in the .xml file and it ran like a dream. I'm thinking I may upgrade the computer guts to help out all the computing.
DIY 5x10 v rail, rack and pinion
Gecko g540
Pm65 - aka game changer
Longevity ForceCut 42i is sitting on the shelf
Proma THC
ACAD, SheetCam, Mach3
Millermatic 211
NEW HORSE IN THE STABLE:
4'x8' LDR downdraft w/a scribe
Milltronics Partner 2 CNC mill
tcaudle
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Re: Proma, I know Again....

Post by tcaudle »

Now my computer stalls out every time it comes to the THC ON/OFF (M102/101) command.... It will keep cutting but every time it comes to that line in the code it will stop for a split second then go on.
Yes, that is because g-code executes one line at a time and a macro call will cause the code to "stutter" as it stops moton , executes the macro and then starts motion again. You should only use that command before or after a cut. A faster computer won't help.
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