THC test function for Z up/down not working

[courtjester]

thanks for the reply
The result is the same, I have the THC enabled, in the MDI I entered M3 and the torch fire relay triggered and the run indicator flashed until I hit cycle stop. When the run indicator wass flashing I switched the THC unit to up the down, no movement.
to double check I made a single line G-code with M3 as the only command, loaded and clicked on cycle start relay clicked moved the THC switch from up to down, no movement. As a side note I use another profile for routing without problems.
I have attached the profile file as requested. I await your answer.

[cncdrive]

Dezsoe, please test the THC with his profile file.

[dezsoe]

OK, I made some (a lot of) tests. The most important results are:

- It does not work in demo mode.
- Defining 3 hotkeys (U: up, I: arc ok, O: down) I can control the Z with THC if the UC400 (or other controller) is also connected and the controller does not drive these inputs active.
- I can control the Z with THC with the UC400 inputs.

The above tests were done with your profile. I only changed to the default Plasma2019 screenset, because I don't have the Neon, and I set the 3 hotkeys.

However, your profile is terrible, sorry. You should start with a new one with only the needed settings, or clean up this.

1. General setup:

You have "Measure dwell in seconds..." on, which means that the delay set on the Spindle page is in seconds.

2. All axes:

You have set the A axis as a slave for all X, Y and Z axes. I'm sure that none of them has a slave: set them to None.

3. My favourite, the spindle setup page:

You have set five! functions to one single output pin. See in Pin mapping:

And also, you have set 1000 to M3 and M4 delays: that with the setting from the General settings page means that if you type M3 in MDI then you have to wait 1000 seconds, which is more than 16 minutes.

[courtjester]

Thanks for the reply from what you say I need to use screen set Plasma2019. Many of your screenshots are not how they are setup in Neon2113 on my system.
It seems some were converted between Neon 2113 and 2019 so a actual settings are not not the same. Neon 2113 was created by Laki and he made many changes so translations are not the same.


Now where do I download Plasma 2019

[dezsoe]

The Plasma2019 is part of the installed UCCNC since 1.2112.

[cncdrive]

No, you do not need to use that screenset. What Dezsoe wrote is that he used the 2019 screenset, that is how is printscreens look like that, but he used your profile settings, he just changed the screenset for easier debugging.

[courtjester]

Thanks for that info the only thing that is different on my setup is the delay in minutes which I will change. I will attach screen shots of mine today. I had no slaved axis. and the only thing in my setup on the spindle page is the M3 output pin 9. I don't understand why the differences between what is shown on my screens and what is shown in the pages posted by dezose, for the same profile.

only difference

[dezsoe]

All the settings on my screenshots are your settings. As I wrote, I only changed the screenset to the one I have and added the 3 hotkeys. (Changing the screenset does not change any setting, just the view.)

[courtjester]

Ok I did get things going today, the things in the spindle page were cleared out except the M3 pin and port setting. I remove the check in the "Measure dwell seconds" verse MS and had to add the check in the "Control THC even if the THC on signal is not active". I know everybody says that is not needed but until I added that check the Z would not move, now it does with the THC test signals up/down.
Thanks for your help
Have fun
Tom

[Richard_H]

I […] had to add the check in the "Control THC even if the THC on signal is not active". I know everybody says that is not needed but until I added that check the Z would not move, now it does with the THC test signals up/down.

Tom,

Just a note of solidarity… I spent hours with this problem today and separately discovered this workaround got things running, though not as well as they should. It seems like a defect in Mach3 that if the THC On is selected in the Run Program tab, it will wait after M3 for the Arc_OK input, but it does not act on the THC inputs.

If I go to the Diagnostics tab, I can see the proper states of the Arc_OK and Torch Up/Down signals being received properly, but Mach3 does not act on them. In Jog mode, the Z height is not adjusted when the up/down test is signaling from the THC and the THC On is green in the screen. Neither does it adjust during cutting.

However, if I check on the box you mention in the milling tab, then the THC operates properly during cutting. But during jog mode it will only adjust the Z height up, not down, during the THC test (which also signals Arc_OK). This seems to be a bug in the behavior for handling the THC On state.