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bdring / FluidNC

The next generation of motion control firmware
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Feature: Realtime Axis Override // Torch Height Controller #1105

Open quirsh opened 10 months ago

quirsh commented 10 months ago

Machine Context

I am running a self-built CNC plasma cutter which can cut up to 2 x 1m. It has a gantry configuration with two steppers for the Y-Axis. Due to the size there is problem with the flatness of the bed and material.

Feature Description

I would like to integrate an Torch Height Controller in my setup due to the reasons mentioned above. Most THC provide a signal for steps up/down but I haven't found any ways to integrate those signals into the FluidNC controller. If there was something like the realtime feed rate override but for an axis, that would be very helpful.

Other Approaches

An alternative approach would be to just bridge to controller signal for the time the machine is cutting. As plasma cutting is a 2D-only operation, the external THC just had to keep track of how many steps it moved up or down so the machine would end up at the same height after the cut as before. I don't like this option too much due to the involved edge cases and the possibility of the machine slowly drifting from its known value. This could mean a crash in the worst case which is a risk I would like to mitigate.

How I Can Help

I could help updating the wiki regarding the use of Torch Height Controllers and CNC controllers with the information I would have liked to find in the first place.

MitchBradley commented 10 months ago

There has been a lot of discussion about THC on Discord. Please search that and read what has been discussed.