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I am planning on building a hot wire foam cutter for cutting airplane wings over the winter. I already have Profili2 professional and a licensed copy of MACH3 so all I have to do is build my cutter. Is there anyone using this setup? How are you controlling the wire heat, via profili or manual? What screenset are you using in MACH? I have been playing around with making a screenset for MACH but am interested in what other may have done. I am also planning on using profili to control the wire heat but have not decided on a circuit for doing so as yet. Would be interested in seeing your setups. Here is a screen shot of my meager try at screen design.
Sam
I have exactly the same plan. I already have the steppers and driver board and I'm waiting for the drawer slides to come to be able to continue building. I've used free version of Mach3 to test the electronics and fiddled around with profili's 4-axis simulation. Heat will be controlled manually at first but I'm planning on controlling it through software eventually.
Your idea of making a designated screen for hotwire is excellent, I hope you are willing to share it.
rMa
I will post a link to the file later this evening.
Sam
Sorry for the delay I had to make a few changes to the screen set and then Mother Nature decided to dump 20" of snow on us. But I have just uploaded the screen set. Here is the link to the screen set alon with a link to a screen shot of the Profili CNC set up window. I welcome you comment good, bad or suggestions for making this screen better.
http://odysseywood.us/profili/CNC%20Foam.zip
http://odysseywood.us/profili/Profili%20export.jpg
Sam
Hi There,
I have used the CT-1 kit from CeNeCe in Spain. It can be manually or automatically controlled. I have done it in both modes, using my own drivers. I like the fact that it has a wire heat display, very handy to remember values for different types of foam, different cutting speeds.
Regards,
Francois
Sam,
Thank you! The buttons give me "Las Vegas" feeling and I like it
For some reason I can't run the one axis with jog or up/down buttons, its the z-axis in the normal screen, right side up/down in this one. Might me something in my setup, I'm still learning to use Mach3. Everything runs fine with G-code.
Rami
Francois, the CT-1 looks interesting would you care to provide more information on how you are driving it? I am working on a circuit but it would be nice if we could just purchase a kit.
Rami, the left vertical Axis is the B Axis in MACH. You will have to go into ports and pins and turn on the B axis. Also make sure you configure Profili to output the g-code for the correct axis. I have attached 2 screen shots showing the actual MACH axis used on the screen along with a screen shot of the Profili configuration. Let me know if you have any questions.
Sharbold,
With the CT heat controller, you decide the size of the transformer, to determine the max wire current. The PWM circuit chops it up, varying the heat. The LCD display shows this value as 0% to 100%. Their kit usually works as an upgrade to their controller, but you can run it as a stand-alone.
In manual mode, you have a toggle switch to increase or decrease the current. You have a x1 and x10 step selector, for small or large step increases.
In auto mode, you have to generate your own 8-bit signal, to set the heat percentage. You have 255 discreet steps of heat, from 0% to 100% current of whatever size transformer you have installed. You have to clock in 8 bits, to represent binary 0 to 255. When the 8 bits are in, this is the heat value it uses.
In it's simplest application, you set the current manually, then use a solid state relay as a switch, and drive it with an M02 or M03 command. In full auto, you have to read your own software driven heat selection, usually a PWM output somewhere, and convert it with a small circuit, to clock in 8 bits into the CT-1. You can build a circuit, and use the PWM output to drive the FET yourself, but you then loose the LCD display or manual mode of the CT-1. I liked the display, it's a nice feature to use. When sizing foam blocks, you don't run a program, you simply jog the wire manually, you need to also adjust the heat manually.
Regards,
Francois
Sam
Thanks, with B axis instead of Z everything seems to be working now.
- Rami
I have just uploaded an updated to the MACH screen. This update has a setup screen added which shows status of your inputs, outputs, home and limit switches if used, along with some jog controls. Sam
http://odysseywood.us/profili/CNC%20Foam.zip
I do have problems with getting the right size when cutting a foam wing.
Fx if I choose 100mm profile on root and tip it only becomes approx 20mm
What could be the problem?
(I have a cnc milling machine and that woks just fine down to 0,01mm)
On the standard Mach3 you can tune the axis. Mach3 calculates the steps per unit that should be configurated.
Is this some thing you can do on the foam cut version.
Can someone explain to me how you install these screensets? Thanks!
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