Quote Originally Posted by meJasonT View Post
Hi Guys,
Ive purchased a cheap ebay plasma Cut50, i had no choice - down to cost and demand.
Im wanting to incorporate the Arduino THC which leaves me with a couple of questions.
the voltage measurement is it taken from the torch and earth clamp connectors and i would be expecting to get something like 200v to 300v.
my other question is more of a request really.

And just to show my ignorance i have a real newby question.
i dont have a clue what plasma ive bought:-
i think its a HF one with no pilot start as i have to make contact with the work piece before it arcs

look forward to any feedback or suggestions.
Jason,

I went through extensive web and product searches trying to do this as economically as possible (it's a hobby for me rather than a business). Ultimately, I ended up with an Everlast Power Plasma 50 for a number of reasons:
  • pilot arc start
  • CNC port
  • user feedback on the machine
  • user feedback on support from Everlast


I would not expect that you'd be able to use the THC design for a number of reasons:
  • the noise of HF start would probably be too difficult to overcome in a home built system
  • the high voltage input (100 to 120 volts) is based on a voltage divided input that's a pretty clean signal (I would expect that there's a good chance the THC would be fried if connected to the full/raw torch voltage)
  • there is no stepper driver interface to drive the Z-axis
  • the THC doesn't know the height of the object being cut, so you could end up crashing the torch head badly (that's why integration with Mach is important)


I would have to strongly advise you not to try to use this design. It would probably be pretty frustrating and not work. It might be reasonable to use as a starting point, but I expect you'd need to redesign the voltage sensing and filtering circuit. Having done this one and know the work involved, I personally wouldn't try to undertake it.

Disclaimer: I'm not an employee or compensated in any way from Everlast. I'm just a customer who's very happy with my products from them and the experience I've had dealing with them.