Closed Loop Plasma CNC Controller

Centroid continues to expands its DIY CNC controller capabilities with a new plasma CNC controller based on the Acorn CNC platform.

Centroid's Torch Height Controller (THC) closes the loop between the Plasma Arc Voltage and the Torch Height via high speed fiber optic communication. The Acorn CNC controller is a 4-axis step and direction CNC control board with built-in motion control CPU, PLC with eight optically isolated inputs and eight relay outputs, torch voltage PID closed loop feedback and 4-axis drive interface connections.

Centroid's THC provides real time closed loop operation between the arc voltage and the torch height. The THC reads the arc voltage and sends that information to the Acorn controller via fiber optic isolation to Acorn's high-speed encoder port.

Acorn's CNC12 plasma software in turn continuously reads the Arc voltage and adjusts the Z-axis position to maintain the torch target voltage, closing the loop between the torch voltage and the torch height. Centroid's PID loop technology is employed to close the loop between the Z-axis position (torch height) and the plasma arc voltage. CNC12 instantly reacts to adjust the torch height to hold the arc voltage at the commanded value for the best possible cuts in a variety of materials and thickness.

Centroid's THC consists of two printed circuit boards. The THC TX board is connected to the plasma unit's arc voltage divided output. The arc voltage information is then passed through Centroid's fiber optic communication technology to the THC RX board, which in turn passes the arc voltage information digitally via Acorn's CNC control high-speed encoder port using a 4,000 times per second position update rate.

Centroid's Acorn Plasma CNC software features a Material Profile Manager. The operator selects the type and thickness of material to be cut and related plasma settings are automatically applied. Users can easily edit and/or create new material profiles and even share them with other users and machines.

"The Acorn CNC control hardware was designed from the ground up to work in conjunction with Centroid's CNC control software, eliminating typical hardware/software incompatibility issues commonly found on other DIY systems while providing industrial grade performance at a DIY price point," said a company spokesperson. The Acorn Plasma controller connects to a Windows 10 PC via Ethernet for robust PC to CNC hardware communication. The Acorn controller can command many popular stepper and servo motor drives as the Acorn outputs industry standard step and direction drive command signals.

For more information contact:

Centroid

159 Gates Rd.

Howard, PA 16841

814-353-9256

sales@centroidcnc.com

www.centroidcnc.com