[dusty41]

Having trouble with the final setup of my CandCNC equipped table 620-4 bladerunner. The best way for me to describe is include You Tube video, take a look and let me know what you think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FZ1...ature=youtu.be

[LeeWay]

Kinda hard to see, but it looks like the torch is way too high. Not sure what torch you have. How thick and type the material is etc.

[dusty41]

Hey Lee thanks for the fast response, I have the full size machine torch for
the Hypertherm 65, the material is 1/8" hot rolled steel

[LeeWay]

What is the pierce height? It looked like maybe .25 or more in the video to me. Of course quality of vid is distorting that some.
I don't have the same machine, but use the DTHCII and not the full blade runner.
My cutter is the PM45. My pierce height for this material is .10" and cut height of .02". Much lower than what the video portrays to me.

[dusty41]

Lee here are settings from sheetcam for first tool

[Mike 1948]

When it fired and pulled away it was acting like your preset Voltage was to high and it was trying to get a longer arc to hit that 125 preset. Maybe set it down to 115 or so and see what happens. If it seems to help keep walking it down till it settles out. Do you have the torch clamp on the material?? Should be!
Maybe Tom C. will chime in here.

Good luck
Mike

[dusty41]

Mike thanks for quick reply, I am going to the shop to check setting etc. Thanks for the help

[Torchhead]

Looks like some important steps in the setup and calibration may have been skipped. The DTHCII Setup & Config manual has some specific tests and settings of which the setion on the touch-off calibration is one of the more important. If you don't have the right motion BEFORE the DTHC takes over (after the pierce) than it can't fix something thhat far out. We state that if you cannot setup and make a cut at the right height with the THC off in MACH than the DTHC cannot "fix" that much position error and will just lock out. Piercing too high means the plasma will turn off and loss of arc ok will stop motion in MACH

[dusty41]

I think your right, also I'm changing PC's, current is very old and have been advised that it's a poor performer and switching to a Dell XPS 400, just ordered a parallel serial port card to install. I appreciate everyone's help, I'll post the results as soon as the new PC is up.

[Torchhead]

You may have more problems getting the expansion port card to work.. Last two strange behavior issues we have seen were related to the PC. Had one where all of the outputs would lock on as soon as you came out of reset no matter what the settings were. After chasin possible controller hardware issues all it took was changing the PC out.

[dusty41]

Hello Torchead, hey sounds as you have experience with installing these cards, There are several different types, Tom C from Cand CNC had said to get an all in one on the same card. Your reply sounds like I may be adding to my problems by installing a card.
I included a PDF of the card purchased from Amazon

Thanks for all the help. JD

[dusty41]

Ok now I have changed the PC for a newer dell with better specs, only problem was it did not have a parallel or serial port. After adding a card with 2 ports on it and loading software and writing down port address of ccfo-ccf7 I cannot get the charge pump to light and get it out of reset any ideas out there. I pretty sure it's a communication problem, just don't know how to correct.

[xjdubber]

Is it a pci express card?

EDIT:

Never mind just read the post above, I'm pretty sure that the voltage on the pci express bus is 3.3v which is not ttl level and probably wont work. You need a normal pci card. And i believe Tom Caudle and Torchead are one and the same person.

[xjdubber]

Like this one Newegg.ca - Koutech Single Parallel PCI (SPP/PS2/EPP/ECP) Card Model IO-PP110
or this one Newegg.ca - SYBA Add-On Card Model SY-PCI10004
or Newegg.ca - StarTech 2 Port 16550 Serial and 1 Port EPP/ECP Parallel Slot Saver PCI Card Model PCI2S1P

if it was me i'd pick the last one

[Torchhead]

Use the section in the BladeRunner AIO USer manual on Testing Inputs and confirm that the Raw Port Inputs are right as per the drawings and chart.

Also the address in MACH is the first four numbers and the address is CCF0 (zero, not "O") No CP says the Parallel port is not talking to the PORT 1 input on the BladeRunner (pin 17 is CP) Make sure youhave done the Master Installer for your system and are using the correct Profile (ICON) to start MACH and that is the profile you are putting in the PORT1 address

[dusty41]

thanks for help parallel port is working, charge pump is on, How can you tell if serial port is configured properly, I have the address in device manager and mach both set to port 1??
But the next hurdle,

I’m having a problem with new set up. I placed my x and a slave home switches to the right end of the table, and y home in the right lower corner. After I load a drawing from sheet cam into mach 3 when I run the g code the gantry tries to run off the right side of the table, even though the drawing is showing the tool to move left, the code it has generated is telling the gantry to move right or negative on the dro from it’s parking area
how can I explain. if you run the simulation in sheetcam the simulated tool will move to the left but the x numbers are moving negative, I need them to move positive.
The parking area for actual gantry is in the lower right hand corner, when gantry moves left or up the dro moves positive.

thanks Jim

[Mike 1948]

I "think" it is because Sheetcam X positive moves to the right, and y positive moves away from 0,0. It sounds like you have to move your X home switches to the left side and Y to the lower left side closest to you. That is the "normal' setup, then reconfigure Mach to match.
You could try to reconfigure Sheetcam 0,0 to match what you have, but like I said normal 0,0 is lower left closest to you in front of machine.

Mike

[LeeWay]

Just switch the homes around in the software. Mach 3. Under the config drop down, enter Homing/Limits. Then check or uncheck the axis that isn't doing right.

[dusty41]

Mike thanks for the help, what I found out from Tom C. at C and CNC and Les at sheetcam is that sheetcam wants to move positive away from the lower left corner.I goofed this up by putting my x0, y0 in the lower right,. But I did get it to work there by changing the setup in Mach for the motors. I set it so gantry moves left read negative on DRO from my home. Then I changed the homming position for the right end of table. I only set the table up like this because of the configuration of my shop. But I will advise someone new to CNC machines to set the Home where Tom C. and C and CNC says to..

I made a new video showing my first cuts, everything looks better.


Thanks JD

[dusty41]

Lee thanks for the info, that's exactly what I did. seems to work just fine.