DIY Plasma with engraving and drilling
Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2021 1:47 pmI'm building a new gantry for my CNC plasma and am designing the Z axis to include a pneumatic engraver and straight body drill.
Each tool will be on a linear rail and will be actuated by a pneumatic cylinder with the plasma torch naturally being in the down position and the other two tools in the up. When I do a tool call, the torch will retract and then the respective tool will drop. I plan to use a Click PLC to control all the actuations as well as the limit switches to confirm tool position. This is to alleviate additional processing from the CNC controller. All the CNC controller will have to do is send a discrete tool signal and M3 signal and one output from the PLC to CNC giving the 'OK to cut' signal.
My question is how to configure UCCNC to trigger an output based on a tool call/command? I only have three tools so I figure I can reserve 3 outputs to control which tool to engage.
Each tool will be on a linear rail and will be actuated by a pneumatic cylinder with the plasma torch naturally being in the down position and the other two tools in the up. When I do a tool call, the torch will retract and then the respective tool will drop. I plan to use a Click PLC to control all the actuations as well as the limit switches to confirm tool position. This is to alleviate additional processing from the CNC controller. All the CNC controller will have to do is send a discrete tool signal and M3 signal and one output from the PLC to CNC giving the 'OK to cut' signal.
My question is how to configure UCCNC to trigger an output based on a tool call/command? I only have three tools so I figure I can reserve 3 outputs to control which tool to engage.