CNC4PC THC-1 and ESS setup

[theshop_steven@aol.com]

Very much a newbie here, I acquired an older EZrouter plasma table and I am trying to get it setup. The THC-300 unit that was with the table wasn't working. I have purchased a CNC4PC THC-1 controller and I am trying to get the 2 working together. I have gone through the setup that CNC4PC has on their website but I must be missing something. I am trying to avoid making a costly mistake with this thing so any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[weldguy]

What problems are you experiencing?

[theshop_steven@aol.com]

I have just been trying to use it in test mode and i am not seeing anything react. i dont have my plasma hooked up or anything because im not 100% sure on wiring. I have my 24 cols to controller and the up and down from the THC controller to the corresponding pins that are set up in mach3.

[theshop_steven@aol.com]

I assumed that i could just take the wires from the CNC4PC controller directly to the pins on the ESS that it used with the THC300 controller. Am i incorrect in assuming that?

[weldguy]

Which model ESS board are you using?

[tcaudle]

The THC300 was a very simple UP/DOWN THC that used the Internal logic for THC in MACH2/MACH3. Its very silar to our old MP1000 . There is no "test" mode to speak of. You had three parallel port inputs that were UP. DOWN and (misnamed) THC ON. The THC ON was actually the ARC OK feedback from the plasma. The TCH300 saw the torch fire and if the arc ok was active (ON ) it "jogged" the Z upi or down while code was running. There were a few setting sin MACH that were for the THC and the screens included for the THC3000 had those settings in the Settings page of MACH3
The THC300 was a single port BoB and the THC readout and settings controls .
If its being replaced by a CNC4PC controller than you have to go with the instructions for THAT device.

The Internal THC logic ONLY WORKS with a direct parallel port setup . (no ESS or UCCNC USB or Ethernet interface) The speed and latency is critical and the MACH3 parallel port driver was a lot faster than a conventional PP in Windows . Even with that the loop delay for the THC limited the Z response to about 25 to 30% of full S Z speeds, At the time it came out it was revolutionary because it was a lot less expensive than the conventional stand alone THC;s that cost 10 to 25 times more

You have to deal with the Software and its interface to to the outside inputs an outputs via the Breakout Board (BoB) then the Breakout board to he THC and its interface to the the Z motion and the torch fire and input signals. There are no real standards/pin outs so each board has its one connections and possibly Drivers it uses . Mixing and matching boards form different manufactures (even if they are sold by one vendor) can be a challenge if you have never done it before.

In looking at the CNC4PC website and the THC-1 page there are over a dozen links to documents about using it with various BoB and MACH3

You might have more success if you invest in a single source "solution" rather that parts and pieces kluged together /

[theshop_steven@aol.com]

I will take some pictures of everything this evening.

[theshop_steven@aol.com]

I downloaded and installed the plugin from CNC4PCs website and installed as well as associated macros and screen layout. The screen layout is missing a lot of text on it for some reason. Maybe that download was corrupted somehow and causing that issue? I will try to download again and reinstall that. I will follow up here. Thanks for the help so far!

[tcaudle]

Check the computer screen resolution . If you video card/monitor is old and cannot do higher resolution than parts of the screen will not show up.

[theshop_steven@aol.com]

I have added photos of the ESS board and the BoB. Hopefully that helps.