CF factory breakout board capabilities

Just wait till they need something from you! Sounds like you work with some assholes! Guys I work with would consider a personal challenge to beat the system! Free!

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Oh, they are ok, that’s what my company bills for time. The guys are either, about to retire and don’t care or super nerdy young kids just starting out. I’m more in the middle. 99% of them don’t know which end of a screwdriver goes in the screw. They are good kids but their parents were nerds too, so they haven’t been exposed to real work. It’s a shame they took shop class out of the schools, but I have heard they are going to bring it back. I hope they do, it will help the Maker revolution that has begun.

ToolJunkie

I’m a mentor for a Techstars business accelerator and was talking to a couple of folks from the sponsored companies last night about just this. It was funny talking to a 20-something who was disappointed that they didn’t have shop class :slightly_smiling_face:

That’s funny, a few of our guys wished they did too.

Well, I’m using the same BOB and that’s what my problem is cause I do get led’s on mach 3 indicating that Torch is going Up, Down and On but it does not really happen. So I’m guessing it is just recommended that we use the parallel BOB, or is there any USB BOB that supports THC? I believe there are, I just don’t know them. I would appreciate if someone would have any better Idea, Because my computer doesn’t have a parallel port and as Tooljunkie says: using the proma 150SD THC does work, I bought one of those and used it for the start and it did do its job but I obviously I will not get to see in Mach3 DRO if torch is Mowing. By the way, my prome THC stopped working cause I hooked it on to a 6v Power and the lowers was 7v for the THC so it screwed it up

What exactly are you wanting to do?

Smooth stepper BOB would be an option.

Does it really matter if you see the a axis moving in the DRO? As long as its maintaining the correct torch height, that’s good enough for me…

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You are right I just feel that if it would be controlled by Mach it would be more accurate. But I will leave it there, would be the best Idea just to buy and other THC With STEP/DIR Output as my one stopped working. I’m now going to buy this one: http://robot3t.com/en/san-pham/thc3t-02-stepdir-output/
so if Someone interested to know how it’s going to work, I will be able to tell within 4 weeks

I have that one, works great, and what they dont tell you that it can be used as both step/dir and up/down. You also have to set your z axis in mach to low active. I did a write up on this. Search for the topic thc step by step.

I agree that personally I would like to run my own signals through Mach3 but as we are limited on inputs and I also wanted home/limits I suppose this allows the THC to run standalone while utilizing some inputs that aren`t required for the THC anymore for home/limits instead. My other though is to just replace the Langmuir BOB with a generic Mach 3 BOB off ebay with more inputs and hopefully find one that support Mach 3 plasma capabilities better since obviously Langmuir did the cheapest implementation possible.

For what we are doing in these machines it will work fine. I’ve had mine till over a 1/2" warp with no issues. I would say though that if you go this far, add probing functionality, as this sets your a zero as often as you like. I use a modified version of the mach3 with scriber post and it works flawlessly

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I am curious if anyone has tried using the ohmic sensing instead of probing as this is how bigger systems work but it seems that everyone is using prox sensors or a floating torch with limit switches.

If it could be controlled by mach, we wouldn’t need a thc control module :slight_smile:

Rich Amore added one. Instructions in the Facebook group

I am Rich Amore. It’s also posted in the forums here, THC installation step by step is the title of the post

Ahh, OK :+1:slowly but surely I will figure out names from one platform to the next

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How did u wire your limit switch in I have the same thc I have my limit switch in port 2 on my bob how do I set this up in mach 3

Well I’m not using limit switches, my table is more then big enough, I most cut 4’ x 8’ Steel Plate and I have a table of 6’ x 10’

But installing Limit switches is very easy, but not all BOB will support Limit sw. I first Used a bob that’s called R&R Motion Controller an I realize that it doesn’t support limit sw and also it did not work for THC controlled by Inputs, so I changed my BOB to the cheapest Parallel BOB and it work very Good now.

You say that you have the same THC, But I found that it can control your Z Axis by STEP/DIR. (Witch I don’t really like) but it also have the option that it only will send a signal to mach3 and then mach3 will Lower or higher the Torch, That’s the way I’m using it.

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The R&R board will work, you just have to supply the 24v to the 24v pin to activate the inputs… Works with step/dir, havent found anyone who has been able to use it with the up/down method… The THC supports both methods depending on how you wire it…