Folks some years ago i bought a small torchmate plasma table....and never used it. In the interim Lincoln bought them & discontinued the range. Having looked over the CNC router approach i *think* i can replace the controls, hook up a black box to run things...including add an automated Z axis (prev manual). picture of the old control box attached...parallel port is to run there software dongle. It was run with nema 23 motors to a controller box that was supplied by flashcut, using profile lab cad ....which appeared to be a version of cadlink lite. Just want an opinion (or comments) if the theory on replacing the old control box with a black box & rewiring the motors is (as a concept) as easy as it sounds? Lots of guys out there got stuck with hi priced equipment with limited features... be nice to find an option. thanks. Bob
Show and tell us a little more about the Plasma Inverter before we'll advise In theory, yes see OpenBuilds BlackBox 4X Documentation > Section 3.3.4, but lets just see if you can interface the inverter first
Peter, (Apologies the downloads didn’t quite go in order but you get the idea.) Its been a while but here are the relivant pieces... The connections using there box to the table & laptop. Was going to use a thermal dynamic cutmaster a52..... did not have a proper machine torch head...so a regular trigger head was bolted to a manual z (upgrades were big $). The plasma needed a mfg cable to port to the rear to trigger the system. Next picture is the plug installed. Following is the other end of the cable... find the two active wires & insert into there control box. Then using the laptop, activate the cad program which ran a custom driver supplied by the cad company & you could jog the head on the table etc....then design & send file to the plasma & table.
Actually that's kind of a win BlackBox has an onboard relay that can "close" the two wires that would close when you press the switch. So you should be able to trigger the plasma using that as shown in docs:blackbox:connect-plasma [OpenBuilds Documentation] The only other unknown, are your motors Bipolar and in the realm of acceptable specs for the BlackBox - up to 3A max - Ideally 3-6v coil rating
They should work! They don't give the voltage rating. But they do tell us the resistance and current rating: 1.7Ohm/phase at 2.1A Ohms law: V=I*R 3.57v = 2.1 * 1.7 so nice! The 8mH inductance versus the 3mH of our motors means these will be a little slower on acceleration, but should work.
