First time cutting problems

[austinmclaen]

Having some issues with my new set up after waiting a few months to get setup.

1) Sometime it will cut the first circle or line in the part and than on the next circle or line on the part it will stop in the middle of the program. I will hit run again and than it will finish out the part without cutting any thing. It has been pretty consistent with wanting to stop in the middle of the program and for me to hit run again 2-3 times to get it to finish. The torch is also been stopping and randomly cutting during this.

2) Some it will not fire at all and just be blowing air through the torch while its running the program.

3) After hitting reset and getting a solid green bar sometimes i can't toggle the torch using the key board. Will restart everything to get it to work

4) Sometimes when i turn on Bladerunner Mach 3 program I get the error below.


Wakeup Client doesn't reply
-Yes to retry
-No- to config
-Cancel to quit

5) Should the ground cable be attached to the table or work piece?

I'm sure theres a couple things I might be doing wrong so any help would be appreciated.

[jeepsr4ever]

Your first couple of problems could be the ground cable on a powermax 65/85/10/125 not being turned clockwise all the way in on the power supply. The other thing that will affect all of that is loss of hub/PC talk. If you have an auxiliary USB drive (memory) hooked up, take it off. Check to make sure you have 4 lights on the hub (2 red, 2 green). If you take the power cord and move it around while looking at the hub see if the green power light flickers. Windows defender being on can do that, firewall as well. Check those two things first (Hub and plasma ground). The ground should be at a minimum attached to the slat holder.

Often times folks will turn everything off but the hub. Cycle power on everything and see if it is holding a buffered amount of info.

[austinmclaen]

I was able to twist the ground cable into the hypotherm a little bit more and did verify the 2 green/2 red lights are on. I did a test cut and everything worked. Should I be disconnecting power from the electronics every time? Any suggestions for controlling on the 3/16" parts. Using sheet cam for my setting..

[jeepsr4ever]

Use the premade tool for 3/16". Loosing ground on the plasma power source or quick recovery of ground will cause that issue. Loose ground in the plasma power source is a HUGE source of endless head aches. Get that TIGHT it is made to be tight by turning clockwise until it doesn't turn.

[austinmclaen]

Went to cut the square and circle that I had successfully cut yesterday and it didn't fire the torch and stopped after going through the g code for the circle. I had to hit run again and than it did the square and only blew air. Any suggestions would be great.

[jeepsr4ever]

Check to see if windows defender is on or the firewall. If you used two different operations (one on the circle and one on the square) with different tools then that is normal. What isn't normal is the plasma not firing.

[austinmclaen]

The defender and firewall were both off. Found a video on how manually fire the torch. The torch continued to be inconsistent when it fired. Sometimes it would blow air, produce an arc, or do nothing at all. Connections on the box connected to the torch are good. These same results persisted when I changed which USB port it was connected to on the computer.

[austinmclaen]

I replaced the yellow cat 5 cable and I was able to get it to cut better than before. Ran some good consistent cuts without any problems and were the best I have seen so far. Still had a couple instances of where the plasma was trying to fire, but it would just sit and dry fire for around 10 seconds with air (the red light on the pmw was flickering). After a couple of tries it would come out of it with me not having to hit run. After a few more cuts I couldn't get it to fire. Reset it and watched the PMW and never saw any red lights light up when i tried to manually fire the torch. With the torch on I unplugged the usb from the computer and it started blowing air, but didn't fire. Tried running a program and couldn't get anything to fire. Shut everything down and couldn't get it to go.

[jeepsr4ever]

I almost don't think its an electronics issue. Flickering might be a Ethernet issue. Lets do some PC swapping. I can send you up another PC preloaded but will need yours down here first to double check all the settings and get your software licenses done.

[austinmclaen]

The PC and the RS485 port hub went out yesterday.

[jeepsr4ever]

Thanks for sending your PC back to us. I will have one of our guys look into it. Hopefully it just rattled a stick of ram loose.

[jeepsr4ever]

The PC and the hub power up and operate just fine. Can you tell me more about the issue you had and why you said they both went down?

[austinmclaen]

Inconsistent cutting is the main problem I'm having. Had a couple instances of where the plasma was trying to fire, but it would just sit and fire for around 10 seconds with air, but wouldn't arc (the red light on the pmw was flickering). Why is it flickering? After a couple of tries it would come out of it with me not having to hit run.

Other times it would be cutting and than it would just stop half way through a square or going to cut the next square. I don't know the back ground to the program, but something is causing it to stop. I hit run and than it goes through the rest of the program and either blows air or randomly fires throughout the cut.

For awhile it cut a few more squares and after a few more cuts I couldn't get it to fire. Reset it and watched the PMW and never saw any red lights light up when i tried to manually fire the torch. Shouldn't a red light on the PMW be lighting up when I try to manually fire it? It had previously, but or some reason it isn't getting the signal.

Have you used my computer to run any programs along with the Hub that was sent back?

[austinmclaen]

You might have mis understood my post# 10 when is said the computer and other part went out yesterday. I just wanted to let you know I shipped them back to you.

[jeepsr4ever]

We are going to run it through the paces here. It may not be the PC or hub but something may have jiggled loose in the control box when it was in your trailer.

[austinmclaen]

The controller was removed from the table during transport. Should I just send all the electronics back and exchange them for a different set?

[jeepsr4ever]

Send it in as well and we will test that portion. So far the PC has not lost connection to the hub.

[austinmclaen]

The control box and the other switch on the plasma were sent today. Also the ethernet and remaining cables were sent as well.

[jeepsr4ever]

I am sure a cable came loose in the control box. We had just about the same thing happen to a customer in Canada. Look forward to checking it out for you Austin

[austinmclaen]

Did you experience the same results as me?

[austinmclaen]

Have you had a chance to test? If not could replacement parts be sent out for me to use?

[jeepsr4ever]

The PC looks to be the root cause. For some reason it is not pulling up the program correctly. Codey is on the problem right now.

[austinmclaen]

Where did Codey end up with it?

[jeepsr4ever]

He should have it and the rest of your parts shipped out shortly here

[austinmclaen]

What was the root cause? Were you able to duplicate my results?

[austinmclaen]

Please see inbox for updated shipping location.

[austinmclaen]

Anxious to see if what you did works since it
Hasn't been used since testing at your place. I couldn't find the RS485 hub or the power cable for control box. Could these please be sent out to me?

[jeepsr4ever]

Did you send the hub? If so we will get you one out right away. Power cable...no problem. I didn't know you sent back every possible electronic.

[austinmclaen]

yeah on post #10 it was sent back with the computer

[austinmclaen]

I was able to everything back up and it cut some simple shapes without any issues. If I only had Pro-E my sketching would be eAsy. I would be curious to know what was on that gave me so much trouble? Thanks for the help and great service. Austin

[jeepsr4ever]

Codey said Microsoft security essentials was turned back on and there were some real time things in the system and some auto-updaters. Beyond that the hub is new but I didn't hear if it had issues.