You only need to run 3 1/4” airlines. The scriber airline is halfway there. I may just run the air along with the torch and other use the cable chain. If had to remove the scriber to get more travel on X, it would be easy. What you want to do is OK too.
I wanted to say not use the cable chain.
Do you know the part # for the plug to fire their torch.
No I don’t. I got my box 2 email today so if it all goes to plan it’ll be here on Thursday. If you get curious you might try Jameco or Mouser for a plug. I’ll eventually get around to looking it up so I’ll post it here unless someone else beats me to it but I’ve been working on a fume hood I need to finish this weekend so it’s down the priority list a bit.
I really thought that Langmuir would have been more supportive of modifications like this .
I am very disappointed with the responses i get when asking for access to the control ports via FireControl . they seem to have no desire to help … I was looking for a access similar to Mach 3 but have been turned down yet again … I must be nuts expecting it … anyway I am going to try the mjpotts diagram … may work out just not in the way i was hoping … anyway … I am venting some frustration. One of the reasons i waited sooooo longgg for this table was because I truly thought they would support expandable ideas thats what pulled me into the LS was watching the videos of all the stuff that people were doing to the Crossfire tables, it was exiting to see … One way or another even if it means gutting it and starting over, will figure it out… mjpotts and Bobbya once you have it working any insight would be appreciated … I might get to it this weekend i have been working late this week trying to get a Gremlin out of my shop, not the monster, a car …lol built a full frame under it .
It’s a standard 5.5mm x 2.1mm plug. I ordered a 26’ long cable that had the two wires separated more like a lamp cord to make it easier to splice.
Since I plan on mounting the relay control box just behind the plate marker on the gantry I then used the other half of this cable to extend the length of the Cutzilla wall plug cord.
Here are the LS torch fire plug and the new Amazon-bought Cutzilla On/Off plug.
Above is the new plug & cable spliced to the Cutzilla on/off connector (blue rings).
So you are using the plug as the switch to go back and forth between the engraver and the torch ?
How are you going to supply air to the valve and scriber?
No, it will be separate operations. When I want to plasma cut I’ll have that cable plugged into the electronics box, and then pull and replace with the Cutzilla plug when doing scribing ops.
Edit: I should point out that’s the initial config. Eventually I’d like to get to a point where I don’t have to switch cables, air hoses, etc. and be able to simply switch between plasma cutting and scribing via FireControl.
I was planning on running an airline to the port on the control box. I put a 90º fitting on the port to make a semi-permanent air hose setup (no quick disconnect) routed back through with the cables since once it’s mounted I don’t see hardly ever disconnecting it. Then just a short length of hose terminating at the corner of the table with a quick disconnect coupler to connect to the compressor hose.
That’s the current plan anyhow, all subject to testing of course!
My guess is LS is somewhat indifferent to third party accessories because of the possible implications. I mean just looking through the threads from the roll-out of the CFP and it’s plain they fought a few unplanned battles. My guess is they just don’t want to open up the potential pandora’s box of second and third order effects. …or maybe they just don’t want to??
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I understand the third party issues … truly i do BUT they stepped into the software and made proprietary move by locking the software and the hardware together… If they would have given the option for Mach3 for cases like this it would have been nice … Don’t get me wrong here , I really like the FireControl and its ease of use … I probably wouldn’t be so disturbed if they would have been upfront that the ability to expand was off of the table when they changed the software after the initial purchase … Yes Mr Hatch I could of asked for a refund … But all the videos out there on the expansion and imagination of the owners of the tables is enticing to me … I think i have a plan to get the Scribe working and look forward to the challenge … I am not expecting to change any minds here … Just making sure that others who are looking at the table understand the challenges ahead if this is what they are looking to do… I was hoping to have a seamless operation with scribe and cut . It will now require a pause for a switch in the middle of the process not the desired but …Still a Big Fan of LS for what they have accomplished .
Firecontrol has been released for like 1 month. Have they told you outright that they will not be supporting the expansion port? Or just not replied to your constant “Make Firecontrol work with my scriber, even though it already does, I just haven’t bothered to take the time to figure it out” posts?
@mjpotts has already given you how you can wire it in and work today. If unplugging your plasma trigger wire and plugging in the trigger to the scriber is too much work, then you are going to have to wait. If you chose to mount it to the side, you are going to have to look into a modified post that takes into account the offsets. If Firecontrol was more mature, it would handle tool changes and defining tool offsets (G43 and M6 T), but it doesn’t so the next easiest thing is to handle it in a post. Handling it in the post is how a lot of plasma tables deal with it anyway, so it’s not uncharted territory and if you are using Sheetcam there’s plenty of examples. If you need help with that, after you get it mounted and firing and know you offsets post here and I can give you a modified Sheetcam post.
i’m not sure I’d recommend asking for a refund here (you’re not demanding that they deliver a turnkey setup with consultative training support 
). But I think you’re going to have to find your own way on getting it setup. They’re open to people using their platform for more than they deliver but they haven’t historically done a lot in the way of active participation.
Folks who added THC to their original tables for instance used the additional inputs from the control box but they didn’t get any help from Langmuir on how - they had to noodle it out on their own or with help from others here on the forum. Langmuir was more of the “won’t necessarily void your warranty” type of support (unless you fried your box because you shorted those extra inputs).
The original table is a little more open because it was built to support Mach 3. I suspect the new control box’s firmware is a bit more proprietary so may make it harder to tease out how to extend the control signals but still doable since in the end it’s still using GCode - just that it doesn’t necessarily support the full GCode command set because they’re not expecting some of those commands from their implementation of machine capabilities.
I am moving forward with putting a manual switch in. I have ordered the cable ends to do so … It will be interesting to see how it turns out … If someone has a better plan on how to make it a seamless effort let me know … I was using Fusion 360 (still do for design of parts) and bought Sheetcam for the use of the scribe and still learning that software . It seems well designed for duel tool, if FireControl understood what you were telling it … and the output was available … That is what i was going for … ease of operation … Fusion could do it as well i think … if you can figure out how to switch tools in 2 d cutting.
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We put 3 unused IO pins on the Motion Control Board to support the functionality you are after. In a future update of FireControl you’ll be able to assign these pins to do whatever you want (including firing a relay to control things like a plate marker).
For now, we are focused on improving the functionality/reliability of Fire Control. There are still some known issues that we are actively working on that take priority over expansion and new feature integration. FireControl is a project that we are super passionate about and it will continue to get better with each new update.
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Bravo! That is why I bought from Langmuir and not PlasmaCam or GoTorch!
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Hell yeah man. Keep up the good work. While we are on the subject will the IO pins allow for limit switches possibly?
Yes they will- in hindsight i wish we would have added a 4th IO pin so you can have one for each limit switch (XYZ) and an extra to control a relay.
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AWESOME !!! look forward to it … Thank You !!!