Hello from Canada

[Brunick]

First build

Hello from British Columbia, Canada
I'm new to the cnc world and seeing as how I like to build things I thought I would build my own 4x8 plasma table. So heres a couple pictures of my progress so far

[plasmanewbie]

Welcome to the site and great looking table build! How far out are you from getting the motion going and trying to cut something?

[acourtjester]

Good Show DIY strikes again

[TJS]

Nice set up. Building it yourself really helps when you run into road blocks or issues. Welcome.

[Brunick]

Finishing up a little wiring + a few odds and ends, then should be able to do some test cuts and dialing in. All ready have motor tuning done and limit switches set as well as soft limits set. Just have to set floating head and not sure if I'm going to install thc now or wait until things dialed in

[adbuch]

Brunick - that's a great looking setup! I'll look forward to seeing it up and cutting and some of the projects you will make.

David

[plasmanewbie]

Finishing up a little wiring + a few odds and ends, then should be able to do some test cuts and dialing in. All ready have motor tuning done and limit switches set as well as soft limits set. Just have to set floating head and not sure if I'm going to install thc now or wait until things dialed in

That's great, you must be pretty excited. I would wait until you get things dialed in before installing the THC, they can be very frustrating particularly when you could be dealing with other issues getting things fired up and dialed in. Let us know how your test runs go

[Brunick]

Thanks guys, issues is right. Trying to get mach 3 to fire the torch but don't seem to be getting the signal to the relay. Have it wired up norm open but when I trigger torch on mach 3 nothing happens. Very frustrating. Have to go back to ports and pins to see if something not set right

[adbuch]

Thanks guys, issues is right. Trying to get mach 3 to fire the torch but don't seem to be getting the signal to the relay. Have it wired up norm open but when I trigger torch on mach 3 nothing happens. Very frustrating. Have to go back to ports and pins to see if something not set right

I use Mach 3, but only for a cnc router. I know Tom has much experience with Mach3 ports and pins, perhaps he will chime in here to talk about your settings. Good luck!

David

[Brunick]

Hi again. Well got the torch to fire but cannot shut it off. Using output pin 4 to an external relay. Funny thing is that the relay triggers on and off fine when the plasma cutter is off but won't trigger off when the plasma cutter is on. I'm wondering if possibly not enough voltage through signal wire to trigger the relay off when the plasma cutter is firing? Any one have other ideas

[adbuch]

Are you using a latching relay?
David

[Brunick]

Its a cheap amazon relay.not sure what a latching relay is

[acourtjester]

I have used a relay module like that, It is powered by +5 volts so if you BOB is powered by +5 you can use a circuit from it. You would hook it up to either a +5 volt output pin or a common pin to trigger it. The selection for the +5 or common is the S1 and S2 jumper. Most of the BOB boards I used I used Pin 9 for the output and I thing it is a +5 output when triggering the torch. In Mach 3 on the main page you can use the torch fire in the middle of the page or F5 to fire and again to release the trigger signal to the module. There is a indicator need the fire button that will indicate fire on or off when the trigger is working. You also need to go to ports and pins and tell it you are using pin for M3 (fire command in the G-code). If you want to see if a G-code command will fire it use the MDI box and put M3 to fire and the M5 for off. You may need to change active low on the output pin to reflect how the module is jumped (for common or +5 signal)

Maach 3 1.JPG (57.08 KiB) Viewed 2621 times

Maach 3 1.JPG (57.08 KiB) Viewed 2621 times

[adbuch]

A latching relay is where you pulse it once and it stays closed, then pulse it again to open it.
David

[acourtjester]

the reply you show is not a latching relay, it is a standard type relay, trigger to close contacts no trigger contacts open.

[Brunick]

Hi guys thanks for the replies. I think I have it figured. Was getting getting interference through the cheap usb cable that came with bob. It was screwing up my computor, changed to a better shielded cable that seems to make a difference although it's too short but now the torch triggers on and off. Have ordered a longer cable so I can actually put my computor out of the way.
Thanks again for the help.
Bruce

[adbuch]

Bruce - very happy to hear you've solved your problem. Sometimes it's the simplest things!
David