FireControl 20.5 Now Available for Download!

How would you explain my having not encountered any of the issues you mention, yet I am using Firecontrol as well? Program instability or buggy software should present itself in a repeatable manner regardless of tertiary workflow components, shouldn’t it? I was order 98 of batch 1 and have had one issue regarding arc voltage in the first release of Firecontrol.

I definitely understand frustration but with your experience you’ve got to know how many of the variables that go into one of these setups can change the experience. Cutter brand, compressor brand, power supply, moisture, spatial distances causing interference. Since getting my setup I’ve read a few horror stories of issues people have had they are in stark contrast to anything I have experienced and I’ve cut a lot.

Admittedly I am on a Mac, so perhaps that code base is on a different level of stability…

I fully agree with the necessity to raise Z prior to returning home.

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Well the way I see it is like this, I have been working with most of what egardner71 has mentioned for over 25 years, and all have had their own special problems. It is simple to raise Z before homing X&Y. Yes, it would be nice to hit home and have Z raise up first and then X&Y go to home. I am still using 20.4 and am running off from an HP lap top. The lap top is next to the machine but is isolated by a piece of plain old ply-wood. I am not having any problems that are serious. I ran into some bad tips and a dirty bearing on Z. Just remember these are not $50,000.00+ machines. There are Plasma cutters out there that start around $17,000.00 that will do what egardner71 mentioned. I am not trying to be nasty and apologize if I sound that way. I bought my Pro plug and play and am very happy with it. As for the soft limits; remember rapid is only 300ipm and I was used to 1500ipm on some of the machining centers that I worked on and programed. So 300ipm is pretty slow. Soft limits would be great! I run the outline manually before I hit cycle start just to make sure. An E-stop is the one thing that I would like to see. Well that is my take on things. Everyone be safe!

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But if these issues are coding/software issues like your stating, wouldn’t everyone be having these issues? That’s why I’m saying I think majority of issues people are having are on their end, not Langmuir’s. As far as limit switches, Langmuir never marketed any of the plasma tables with them, so if that’s a concern you should probably not even look into buying a x fire, or do like others have done and add them on. I have yet to run into an issue where I go “damn, if only there was a limit switch”

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They marketed the Pro as running on Mach3 which I have for other machines and know well. Mach3 is compatible with limit switches and firecontrol is not. They can not be added to this machine.

When a cut fails because firecontrol locks up or crashes, limit switches would allow me to consistently home the table getting me back to a known absolute zero. From there I could restart the cut and save the workpiece instead of scrapping a $50 sheet. That is how most every other CNC machine that you claim to be such an expert on works, but you must have already known that. I’m glad you are a fanboy of Langmuir systems but you advice is not needed, not accurate, and not welcome. Have a nice day.

Not accurate? Show me where Langmuir stated a single time the pro would work with mach 3… I will wait.
Wouldn’t say I’m a fan boy, but someone who is plenty capable of tracing down issues, and fixing them instead of blaming a manufacturer for my incapabilities.

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Here you go:

@egardner71 the PRO MCB was designed to be compatible with limit switches. You can check it yourself it has LIM1 LIM2 and LIM3 pins on the board. We also put an expansion port in the enclosure to account for this. Our plan was to offer a limit switch upgrade kit and with the success of the PRO it has taken us longer to get caught up but it is still in the works.

Not really sure why the name calling, but that was over a year ago that they stated it was originally supposed to be compatible with mach 3 (I never saw that) but even before the pro shipped, Langmuir stated that it was going to only work the FC. I’m not sure when you purchased your machine, but I’m going to assume not to long ago. Which would mean that if others were having all the issues you were having, and you were active on this forum, you would have been aware of these notorious issues before making your purchase. Which leads me back to it not being a Langmuir issue, but either a plasma, laptop, electrical noise or the hundreds of other possibilities. If every person were having the same issues as you, then yes I would agree it’s a software, coding issue. Do you not agree?

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Mike,

That is good news, please put me down at the top of the waiting list for this.

Purchased Order #8996 9/23/2019

The reason for the name calling is that you don’t know what you are talking about but you decided to attack me in your arrogance and ignorance anyway. You should have just minded your own business as nothing you have said in you responses to me would be helpful to me or to anyone else on this forum. You acted Like a spoiled brat to me for no reason and I responded to you in kind (which I admit that I should not have done). This is my last post on the topic because there is nothing to gain from interacting with you.

Lol ok man. Keep using your machine with it’s problems and I will continue using mine without issues… guess I got lucky since I don’t know what I’m doing.

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We’ll you’ve only been here for a couple of years. Maybe some new intel has come out recently that you didn’t notice because you’re just cutting away. But if you had just joined in the past couple of months you’d probably have better information and then known exactly what you or Langmuir are doing wrong so you could suffer too :smile:

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Nothing%20To%20See%20Here
claim-fake-news-disputed

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What’s to stop you from dead ending the machine to 0,0 and hitting set zero? Sure a homing routine with limit switches is a bit more graceful, you may not hear the motors scream, but if you are up against the physical limits those shouldn’t change.

When I needed a bit more control over zero (center of sheet for bolt circle holes), I’ve marked the sheet center, then lined up the torch over the center mark (using an Easyscriber in the torch makes this a bit more precise), then pressing the zero axis button. I’ve recovered from torch misfires this way, and from FC crashes, this does require lining up to the center mark again.

I agree with some of your complaints but I’m hopeful most of those will be addressed in future versions of FC. Have you submitted bug reports for your repeatable problems (program validation lock up)? They can’t fix what they don’t know about.

The problem with Mach 3, is that it is dead. There’s no new development being done on it. Sure it may do almost everything now, but what about in 5 years from now on the latest OS? It’s not a piece of software to base the success or failure of your company (Langmuir) on when you have zero control over it.

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@Greg9504 , you make good points. I am planning on adding a permanent laser pointer that I can use to refind zero in the future, I’ve been using a magnetic one so far, the only issue with this is that even at the finest movement speed it’s kind of hard not to overshoot when slewing the head.

While I agree with the notion of building their future success on a new platform, my issue is that I need a machine that does it now. In five years from now I’ll be using something completely different by then.

Point made as well that I should be trying to capture the failures to upload to support rather than just complaining about them. I’ll make an effort to do just that.

Your input was helpful and appreciated

That sounds great! I can’t wait until you guys finally make it so the original Crossfire owners can use Fire Control…any update on the upgrade availability?

Murphy’s law in full display here. Just days after stating I’ve had only one issue with Firecontrol, I run into something I have never seen before.

Cutting 18g and the first loop cuts as usual, fine. Every subsequent loop, the torch moves to the beginning runs IHS and begins the loop without firing the torch until about 1" into the loop. Every loop after the first does this.

IF I stop the program after each cut and wait till post flow ceases, and initiate “run from here” for the next loop, they all cut normally, fine.

Nothing in my workflow has changed OTHER than cutting at 275ipm. I typically cut thicker metal…
Same CAM setup process as the hundreds of other tool paths I have exported and ran other than setting up a new tool with the faster cut rate.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

my noob first reaction is your pierce delay and what machine are you running?

Running Hypertherm 45XP.
When cutting 16g my pierce delay was .1 with a cut rate of 249ipm according to Hypertherm charts.
So I figured on 18g I would drop pierce delay to .09 and increase cut rate to 275ipm.

All my actual tool path settings are unchanged from every other file I’ve cut since March when I got started. I even power cycled all my components. Wondering if it could be consumables or possibly a clogged shield hole(s)?

I don’t own a hypertherm but I have read countless threads on here of people putting the Pierce delay to what hypertherm recommends, but they have to run a longer Pierce delay as the Langmuir unit actually starts the Pierce time differently