Centroid Community CNC Support Forum

Back at it today on the plasma cutting 3/4" plate and the voltage gremlins are still here. UGH !!!

I rewired the power supplies in the cabinet and put a new, Mean-well 24 volt on the TX board. Checked all the grounds per the diagram again and they still persist. All voltage calibrations and readings are what they should be coming off the Hypertherm and the RX & TX bench test all check good.

No matter what I cut I have to re-calibrate the machine for each thickness I change over to. And even then it's not 100% as the cut height moves to .08 or better to maintain the proper voltage for the material being cut.

Any other suggestions?

first the Hypertherm book voltage was dun in a lab . Using a table high acceleration and dead on speed . if you don't have that then the voltage not be book settings . Tables with heavy gantry use a slower acceleration rate slow in corners lots of other things . You simply need to find the
voltage that suits your table settings . setting book setting not always going to work . Cut height very important . Your probing needs dead on
I stated earlier on to set switch offset setting buy doing dry run stop using heavy plate not use any thing else i found that the best way . i tried other way the best is doing a dry run . that simulates torch being used . The shop Sabor heavy gantry in my opinion underpowered . i know guys that have them cant do Hypertherm book settings do to lack of speed and acceleration .in plasma it how fast you get up to full speed I also found the acorn does best cut quality with a .15 acceleration that .15 sec to full speed . i did a few tests on 1/2 plate cutting holes and few other cuts . In your case i turn off thc on think steel do some screen voltage readings use that voltage . or use the smart senc voltage . As for grounds the only ground on my table AC wall plug and rod that ground the frame i run gnd wire to each access so slide don't become ground . The dc neg side i use 1 buss connect all dc neg to it that does not touch frame ground . My shield connect only on 1 end i float them on the dc neg buss not frame gnd . all my motor wires are shielded .I used this practice on many builds over 10 years on cnc plasma i even wired oem controllers this way fixed problems with RFI .
If your THC is off and your dro says .06 cut height and you measured under nozzle it correct . then you turn on THC it raises to .08 then you need to adjust your voltage bring cutter down to .06 use that voltage i belive you can adjust on the fly
. keep in mind warn nozzle have different voltage .
This is why i tried to explain why acorn need auto voltage setting . were it senses voltage it set it self uses that voltage . were smart seance does that Cind of but reverts back to start on next cut . it not a true auto voltage setting . like neuron has and plasma cam . flash cut use . linux plasma c uses also . Hypertherm and jim colt tell you setting set voltage not always correct . Jim colt big pusher of auto voltage .

I also like to add Shop Sabor used a diode between the frame and the hypertherm gnd clamp . You do know diodes have a .7 volt drop across them
why they used them on there builds i have no idea no other builder uses them i know of

Thanks Jeff, I removed the diode a while back and no longer use it. I clamp direct to one of the ribs on the table.

Joey and the gang did a remote session with me on Friday. I recently changed the power supply and was having ohmic issues but got those sorted out. I have a higher resistance between pin 6 on the CPC and the work lead than what Joey has on the test system they are using. I'm gonna reach out to Hypertherm and see what that's all about.

Long story short it's working now and holding voltage as it should.

I was turning off THC and doing a straight line cut at .060 on the 3/4" plate to see the on screen voltage and adjusted the voltage in the profile manager. This is my first attempt to cut 3/4" plate and it does not cut at book speeds but with a little adjustment and some input from Joey it's cutting.

Here's a new twist, today I setup to plasma cut 2 sheets of 3/8" aluminum. Doing a test cut to verify target volts and cut height the torch touch kept triggering AFTER I cut the test line. Over and over and over, I have like five or six pages of torch touch and torch cleared in my error log. I test fire the torch to clear out anything that might be there and it'll keep going. I uploaded a video to my album and attached a report.

I've tried compressed air through the dryer and even nitrogen off the bottle with the same results.

Have you disconnected the ohmic tip wire from the tip to see if it stops the triggering? I suspect a metal inside your consumables

Yes, it stops. Then I take the entire assembly apart clean it, reassemble and it keeps going. When it does stop I test fire the torch and then it starts up again without ever cutting anything. Ugh.

The crazy part is even if I remove the shield from the tip of the torch the torch touch stays active.

Have you tried just all new consumable parts just to role out the consumables.

That's what I'm gonna try tomorrow. We had our usual summer afternoon thunderstorms roll in today and they were fierce so I shut it all down and went home. I have all new parts from the swirl ring to the shield. I'll try one at a time and see what's what. Thanks for your input Joey.

No problem Shawn. If you Just want to cut you can always disable the Torch Touch input on the acorn and it should just use your float switch to get the work done. Hopefully you figure out that torch touch quickly.