Mach 3 Plasma Setup Tutorial

[Charlie9809]

Hi all.
I am currently a high school student in Australia.
Over the last 6 months I have been building a CNC Plasma Cutter for my Year 12 major Metalwork Project. I have 2 week to reassemble (just painted today) and test. I have not had much time to look at and play with Mach 3 and am looking for a point in the direction of a plasma specific setup tutorial, or someone who can guide me through the setup.

All my control electronics have been purchased from www.oceancontrols.com.au.

My setup is:

Solid edge
v
SheetCam
v
Mach3
v
BOB
v
4axis -- 4 steppers, X+A slave, Y, Z
relay1 -- Plasma cutter, contact with work, then push button to start arc (button will be relay)
limits -- looped for each axis

I can and have set up all the motors to run but am not quite sure how to get the relay for torch control to work.

Cheers
Charlie

[woodman08]

are you parallel port to the computer or usb
What 2 contacts did you use to turn the torch on

[Charlie9809]

Hi woodman08,

1- Parallel port interface
2- torch is on pin 17

[woodman08]

so the torch on/off # 17 and ground are these the two ?
Also mach3 is a good choice as we have been using flashcut and i don't think its good for plasma.

[Charlie9809]

Yes is 17 a relay on my BOB that controls torch on/off, so ground for the torch is the com on the relay.

ive found mach3 to be the most supported, so thats why i went with it

[woodman08]

I am not 100% sure but if your relay is connected on pin#17 and common the the M command in mach3 will turn the troch on and off.
I should be into this type of confuration this month so i will be in the same boat and will let you know how i fair out using what i am saying.
I will be setting up the computer this coming week and i should know more.

[adel_sebaey1]

well the torch on/off will be generated from lazycam when u get g code
and mach3 will excute that auto.
try and tell
thanks