Neuron Lite vs Simplicity

[bob]

Thanks for chiming in with your experiences and clarifying exactly what your issues were. It sounds like your frustrations were about things that I am seeing as positives. I'm not looking for something where I need to get under the hood and do any coding or deal with interoperability issues in getting things to talk to each other. I have those skills, but on this project I'll be quite content to just get it set up and functional as a somewhat plug-and play system and then largely forget about it. From what I can see, in its out of the box state it has more than robust enough features for for my needs, so I don't anticipate ever hacking into it. Looking through the screenset, it has as many or more control parameters than the light-industrial plasma cutter that I currently have access to. The Simplicity also is probably plenty robust for me, even with its more cumbersome and primitive interface.

Thanks for your impressions of Neuron as a business/customer support as well. As a potential buyer I do really wish the website and PDF documentation was current with the UCCNC info. But I also happen to have a website where I sell something, and it too is in dire need of updating, so I'm in no position to throw stones. It didn't take much asking around to get what I needed to see. As a customer I tend not to need any hand-holding and would only reach out if there was something I couldn't solve even after my own thorough research. So hearing that Andrew has even Skyped with people to help walk them through setup, to me says a lot and makes me totally comfortable making a purchase from him.

[andrewwong2000]

Hey bob

I just bought a Neuron Lite and must say I was also worried about the support.
Apart from the timezone difference, Andrew has been helpful in getting it setup so far.

There are some quirks to the system and the documentation is a bit hard to follow at first.
But it does start to make sense after a few days of trial / error and frustration.

Have had to spend time on setup for downdraft and re-design the earthing and put more thought into handling EMI,
so having some delays to get to my first cut.

A plasma is more complicated than setting up a CNC router!

[bob]

Andrew, thanks for adding your impressions so far. What were the "quirks" that you are referring to? Anything that you could elaborate on?

[asuratman]

If you use chinese plasma cutter, is there any Arc OK signal ? If not available, how you solve this problem ? I plan to use Neuron Lite and Chinese Tosense Plasma Cut50D. It has no Arc OK Signal. It is a must to have arc ok signal ?

[cncdrive]

Once we used a reed relay on the mains cable of the plasma unit.
The reed relay contactor goes on due to the electromagnetic field in the plasma unit's cable when the arc goes on.
It is a simple, cheap and tested solution.

Some reading about read relays: https://www.pickeringrelay.com/an-intro ... cs-part-2/

[asuratman]

Is this relay https://www.ebay.com/itm/104-1-A-24-2D- ... 2270962707 ?

[bob]

Yes, the Chinese plasma cutter I'm using (Everlast PowerPlasma 52i, which is the brand new replacement for their previous 50s model) has a CNC port on the rear. It has Arc OK signal, as well as Torch on/off input, voltage out (raw, 1/16 divided, and 1/50 divided) and OK to move signal. My plasma cutter was also shipped with a matching plug for that port. The Everlast website has a PDF manual with a diagram of the pin-out if you are further interested. Also FYI, the model I purchased shows a retail price of $949 on their website, and is usually marked down some amount from that. Currently it is listed at $849. Sometimes it is lower. I got it on a Black Friday sale for $637. I've done some handheld cuts to test it, and I'm super happy with the quality of the cuts.

[bob]

Also, if you are looking at inexpensive Chinese plasma cutters for CNC, do some careful reading about the differences between machines with high frequency start, pilot arc and blowback start. A machine with high frequency start will cause all sort of electrical noise issues with the electronics. The Everlast I bought is a pilot/blowback start machine.

[asuratman]

I do not know about that I need Arc OK signal. I should buy the one like this :

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1000004 ... b201603_53

[asuratman]

Sorry, should be this one : CNC IGBT Cut55i LCD Blow-back Non-HF Pilot Arc Plasma Cutting machine Voltage 120V/240V, plasma cutter CNC

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3305302 ... 720fYhPHd2

I do not know that I need Arc OK before.