Delay between THCarcon_emulation and start of the motion

[shad]

Hello Balazs!
I am notice a little delay between calling the THCarconsignalon_emulation button and start of the motion. This delay ~0.3-0.4 seconds.
And strange that this problem is not constant and occurs intermittently. Any time it work correctly, any time not.
I am add THCarcon_emulation LED on the screen and this LED enabled correctly any time when MOTION signal from controller was received. But little delay any time issued.

[cncdrive]

Hi Andrew,

Yes, ofcourse the emulation signals are not instant, because the signal has to be sent down from the PC to the motion controller,
so it is not like the physical ArcOK signal which is instant, those emulation signals are only to control the THC manually.
However 0.3-0,4sec sounds much more than it should be, I will ask my collegue to check to see if there is any more delay than what is really nessessary.

And one question: Do you have the THC on delay set to zero? I mean the THC delay setting in the UCCNC, that adds a delay to motion start from arcOK on purpose, so maybe the reason for such delay is that setting is not zero. Please check/verify it.

[shad]

Yes, I have THC delay set to zero.
You right, about delay, but 0.4 seconds is big value.
Also I have one thing - I got the impression that this delay is probably not between calling the THCarconsignalon_emulation button and start of the motion, but between M3 command issue and when THCarconsignalon_emulation button will be called.
For example if I have 1 second pierce delay time, there is no delay in any case. If pierce delay set to zero, delay issue any time, not constantly.

[cncdrive]

Could you please explain this further?
I do not understand clearly yet about what you exactly doing.

You call M3 first? And after that you call the THC arcon emulation signal button code?
And how do you call M3?
And when and how do you experience the delay?
Could you explain it a bit more detailed to let me understand.

[shad]

M3 command issue from Gcode
Controller start IHS procedure and then enable cutter.
After then pierce will finish controller send to the plugin the MOTION signal, then plugin call the THCarconsignalon_emulation button.
If time between M3 command and call button for example more then 1-2 seconds, all is OK. If I have pierce time set to zero and cutting process will start faster, delay can issue.
I will try to make short video.
Also I think THC delay this is delay between start of the motion and start of the THC control.

Interesting - on my CNC PC this delay issue any time. On my customer PC always.

[cncdrive]

OK, so the M3 command is issued from G-code and then your controller detects the ArcOK signal from the plasma unit and then your controller sends info to the plugin that the Arc is on and then your plugin calls the THCarconsignalon_emulation button code to start the motion? Is this how it works?

I think that there are several points where a delay could introduce. We should first explore which is that point.

Can you try to call the M3 from g-code and make the plugin to detect the M3 and immediately call the THCarconsignal?
I mean this way we could see if the delay is introduced outside or inside the UCCNC, because if this way it works without delay then the delay is somewhere in the ArcOK detection from the plasma unit or in the communication between the THC unit and the plugin. Knowing this information could narrow down the possible delay source.
And if M3 and then calling the THCarconsignal immediately still causing a delay, then knowing that we could start debugging ourselves, because then the delay is introduced inside the UCCNC.

As you already have a plugin which can do this I think it is faster for you to test this...

[shad]

I am add the THCarcon_emulation LED on the screen and this LED enabled immediately when plugin got the Motion signal, but Uccnc make pause and then start motion.
I will make more test today in the evening. Thank you for fast response!

[cncdrive]

Andrew, I've disussed this with my API developer collegue and he said that the max.delay the THC emulation ArcOK signal should have is 20msec,
so he will check if there is any issue in the code, he will measure it out and will check the code...

[shad]

This is the short video.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6ym4uw1vkqfbwpl/TestPauseBeforeMotion_edit.wmv?dl=0
In this cutting pierce delay set to 0.3 second, but the delay occurs after the pierce. It is clearly seen that the controller has already passed in the cutting mode, but the motion has not yet begun.
First cut is correct because in my opinion there is a delay between M3 and THCarconsignalon_emulation (time for initial Height sensing procedure).
On the next cuts was Skip IHS function and torch moved on the cut height immediately after M3.

[cncdrive]

Andrew,

I've made one test yet that I configured the virtual Arcon signal (button code 536) to a hotkey and run a g-code which enabled the M3 and the THC.
Then because the Arcon signal is not active the motion did not start.
So, I pressed the virtual Arcon signal hotkey and the motion seems to start instant, without any significant delay,
I mean I don't really know yet how to measure the delay value of this, but from what I see the DRO counters starts to count about immediately as soon as I press the hotkey.
So, it seems to me that there is no delay between the Arcon emulation signal and the start of the motion.

Can you try the same test on your system and let me know if you see any delays running he same test?

If you calling button code 536 from a plugin then it do the same as what I'm doing now with the hotkey, so it should be the same fast, because exactly the same code is executed then.

I have one more idea that you executing an M3 first in the g-code, isn't it possible that there is a dwell time setup for the M3 and that is causing the delay?