CNC Plasma: Arduino THC - it works!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 มิ.ย. 2024
- Upshot: I spent an embarrassingly long time making this work. (Yay, hobbies.)
Topic index:
00:00 - Intro
01:28 - KISS
02:58 - the interface
03:54 - test cut setup
04:52 - no slope cut
07:42 - high slope cut (fuck-up, whoops)
11:11 - high slope cut (success!)
Here's the full plasma build series:
• CNC Plasma Build (Full)
This is my Arduino playlist, which includes how I made the torch height controller:
• Arduino
Just the LinuxCNC/HAL stuff:
• LinuxCNC Guides
My Arduino and LinuxCNC files are up on here:
github.com/swolebro/swolebro-...
Your donations help me make more cool shit:
paypal.me/swolebroshopworks - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Hi Sir! It is an impressive job you have done. The last cut was a very hard test and the system made it. I was struggling with my DIY THC but your videos about the design pointed me in the right direction. I am building a slightly different model now. I am confident it will work. Thanks for sharing your brain and hard work with us. Cheers from Argentina!
good job. u did it.
I have been reading his skecth. This man knows what's he doing. Thanks for sharing!
Well, I'm not so sure about that, but I at least try to have fun and learn something while doing it. Hahah.
You should have ended your viDJeo with a keep your torch in the vise lol. Nice work!
You should make a detailed video about the circuit and an indepth tutorial. :-)
Yeah, it's going to take a few videos to explain this thing, and probably a few weeks to get all of those out - particularly since I want to teach/explain how each part works, instead of simply showing it. Be sure to subscribe so you can get the notifications when I get those videos done.
Hello,
I have built a CNC plasma cutter (MPCNC with GRBL control) and also use it with the Universal Gcode Sende program, but I have the following problem: The file has a length of 100mm, for example, but in reality it cuts me out to 300mm approx. All values in UGS are converted to mm (G21). What could be the reason for this and how can I correct this error?
Please send me your feedback as soon as possible!
Best regards
Tobias
Do a front double biceps after each cut :)
Well done! I'm in the process of building a plasma CNC using LinuxCNC, also a huge Arduino fan. Any chance of your code?
Yes, I'm currently sitting on a bunch of unedited video going over the board and the code (and the HAL) which'll have corresponding files on GitHub.
Pretty sure I can get the board and Arduino sketch put together this weekend. The HAL will be a while still. Editing's a fucking drag. lol
FYI dude, I put the PCB overview up today. th-cam.com/video/lkKd5P8oH5Q/w-d-xo.html
Wasn't exactly pleased the steaming shitpile of code that I went over when I shot the software video earlier, so I'm going to redo that, but the refactored code is available here now: github.com/swolebro/swolebro-youtube/tree/6e918c0e4c71e4b23d0943e2dcac51dfb2822b42/arduino-thc
Between that and the video I did today, should be enough to get you going.
FYI, the code overview is up now as well. th-cam.com/video/nmXoZt423WI/w-d-xo.html
Hi!
I just made your sketch! It works very well, but it does not give the commands to MACH3. I suppose that is a Mach3 problem, the command appears in MACH3 in "Diagnostics" menu, but there have no reaction in axis z as response to these commands (UP/DOWN). Have You any ideea how to set up MACH3? Or maybe another user that follow your sketch have any idea, how to do the right way?
Thanks in advance!
structure of what closed profiles is it made of?
please show more details about the arduino thc
Yup, it's in the works, but making videos takes forever. lol I only published this one a few days ago, so subscribe and you can get the notification when i get the next one out.
How would you approach adding an arc-OK signal coming out of the Arduino? I'm trying to set up your THC in conjunction with plasmac. I'm sure it's one line of code but I have very little experience with coding.
Well, that partly depends on your plasma cutter. On my Hypertherm, it gives a signal for arc-ok across two pins on the same port from which I read the voltage. It makes a dry contact closure on them that can support up to 1A at 120V. So, if I hooked up 5V from the DB25-1205, an input pin, and maybe a load resistor, I could read that signal without it even going to the THC.
If your plasma doesn't have that signal, you could change the THC's Arduino code to set a digital output pin whenever it reads a nonzero voltage. (Maybe set a slightly >0 threshold, to cut out any noise.) Send that through an optoisolator to the DB25-1205, same as the up and down signals.
That is, of course, assuming that the presence of a voltage on the THC is the same as the arc being transferred to the work and ready. I'm not sure if those things really are the same... but in practice, the time between the M3 command, the plasma firing, and the arc transferring is so fast and consistent with my torch that I've been able to hard-code delays for piercing anyway.
@@swolebro Thank you for the abundance of comments in your code first off. I can actually make sense of it.
This is something I came up with last night:
github.com/KaleDobrohoczki/THC
I haven't tested it yet. I'm cheating the arc ok in software at the moment.
I can tell you off the cuff, that I'm not seeing anywhere that the ARCOK pin in your code gets written 0 again. That means once it flips OK, it's going to stay there.
You probably want to add that in the block where I commented "If the mean is very low...", line 190.
I'm dialling in the THC at the moment. Instead of setting up the LCD screen, I have a voltmeter reading between the 5v and the adjust of the potentiometer. I know, I'm a hillbilly. I think that it would work better if output the ADJUST as a voltage and read that. The pot drifts around so much that I don't actually know what value is in the brain. Do you have any suggestions on where to put that in the code? I'm not actually sure if it's possible. Thanks
Well, I'm having a little trouble following you, but if you want to keep it super simple for testing, you can just hardcode a value for "target". Hahah.
That's a value on the range 0-1023 which you can convert to a plasma arc voltage with "target*Vref*voltage_divder_ratio/1023" (called SCALE in the code). The optimal arc voltage depends on your machine, material, and cut rate, but for most things I do with my Hypertherm PM65, I'm in the ballpark of 130V.
@@swolebro Thanks for the answer. My vocabulary is woefully lacking in this stuff. Thanks for helping.
hello nice job can you show us how you do the arduino thing thanks alot your friend from morocco
th-cam.com/play/PL9xPdBFt5g3SHT1WvcGovHCzQ3Ag_kZeZ.html
Playlist from the video description. Watch those, and read the GitHub and other links in the descriptions on those ones too.
Need help make thc pliz
can this be installed on mach3 controller?
Maybe? I don't work with Windows, so I can't say.
What post processor are you using for this?
In general, I'm doing my designs in FreeCAD, exporting them to SVG files, and using Inkscape to generate the gcode. There's some steps in there I've automated to make the process smoother, but that's another topic for a later video.
In either case, the THC action doesn't require any special gcode. The up/down motions are handled by the thcud HAL component, and that operates in the background. The gcode remains totally ignorant of any adjustments.
Subscribe, hang tight, and I'll have a few videos coming out over the next couple of weeks, going over this all Linux stuff in a user-friendly way.
@@swolebro Cool thanks I just built a 4x2 plasma table after building a router cnc from scratch. I learned from arduino and grbl thats how I got my hands wet with cnc. Then I built a bigger cnc router table and tried my plasma on the forst table i made to see if I can get it to work and it took a bit of figuring out the grbl and code but got it to work to turn on my plasma and cut out simple designs. So then move on to making a 4x2 table with water pan. It works good and I am using sheet cam with post processor as mach 3 with no Z. I have the same Z axis you have and I just set the height and been cutting good on 14 gauge material. But I really need a THC and I was trying to figure out the arduino THC but just couldnt figure it out lol. So I jsut bought the proma THC and it should come in soon and see how it works. Now I just need to figure out the linuxcnc on getting the proma controls and all. Never used linux before till now when I got my 4x2 machine working. But will keep an eye for more videos.
Yeah, I saw the Proma THC, and with the amount of time I spent on this... Eh. At least now I've got the skills to lay out a PCB, and can continue adding features to this in the future.
And, for about the same price as the Proma, you could pick from a variety of Mesanet FPGA boards and their THCAD-10 daughter card. It's more complicated to set up, but then you've got faster step rates and more I/O than you could possibly ever need.
I've read about people using the Proma with Mach, so that should be possible. With GRBL, I doubt it - running that firmware takes about every bit of processing and every pin on the Arduino. Of course, I'd still recommend going with LinuxCNC, because Linux is simply better.
Earlier on in this series, I had a video on doing basic stepper motor configuration with LinuxCNC. You should take a look at that, as well as the tutorial series by russtuff.
swolebro nice yes I checked out all your videos they were helpful thanks. I am trying to figure out on how to install the config for the Proma on Linux cnc they have all the files but do I just import them to the folder that my ini and Hal files are on? I am confused on how that works.
tbh, I couldn't say. There's a number of configuration files floating around out there, most of which are half-finished. At the very least, you're going to have to read through the HAL chapter of the manual (available under Menu > CNC > Documentation once you've installed LinuxCNC, or via this link).
linuxcnc.org/docs/2.7/pdf/LinuxCNC_Documentation.pdf
In the meanwhile, I can at least point you towards these two threads which have mostly-complete sample configurations. Again, you're going to need to read the docs to have any idea as to what's going on here, and the second one (in my opinion) is overly, overly complicated.
forum.linuxcnc.org/49-basic-configuration/26552-thc-up-down-simulator
forum.linuxcnc.org/plasma-laser/34978-thc-plasma-configs-with-how-to
One of the problems is that nerds tend to understand Linux, and welders tend to want plasma cutters... and the overlap between nerds and welders is small. So it's hard to find good info. That's why lasers and 3D printers have it so good in terms of their software. And also why I'm trying to bridge the gap.
Wiring diagram please
Already published. th-cam.com/video/lkKd5P8oH5Q/w-d-xo.html
Video gives you the run-down of how it works, links to files in the video description.
Would you give the scheme and code lol hehe
Check the playlist in the video description.
@@swolebro thnkns alot dude
I spent 220 dollars on a THC controller for my Hypertherm.
Still laughing over the sign
www.etsy.com/listing/689872923/warning-stickers
Sold by AvE. In the off chance you haven't seen his videos, look him up. You're in for a treat.