Your tip should be fine…you can refine that once you get going. Using a smaller (aka fine cut) tip will help do finer details, but for this it won’t make much difference (it’s mostly just an outline profile cut). I pulled up the tap in www.ncviewer.com and it looks ok - looks like it will cut in a roughly 16"x16" area.
I’d try with THC off and see where it gets you. I’ve found THC can be a little touchy sometimes depending on what you are doing. Make sure your ground / work lead is attached.
Also - I’d start off with some smaller test cuts so you don’t put so much material at risk - it may not bother you messing up a piece that size, but I practiced on some scrap pieces for an hour or two before trying a bigger piece so I could gauge how the machine was running - circles, squares, text outlines etc…it took me a while before I had a feel for settings.
thank you James i will try with THC off…it is a big one, but had a wonderful sheetcam intro with Junior and wanted to try a file that was tested before…if this doesn’t run, i will try just creating a square ior circle in inkscape and giving it a go…ok…thank you …giving it a shot now…still confused with all the necessary settings…LOL my head is exploding
@james5 so i literally just toggled off the THC (hope that was ok)…and started the job. the torch did not fire, but it followed the path and went up and down like it was cutting along all the operation paths…but never fired.
oh and yes the ground clamp is attached to the material …do i have to change other settings now that i shut off the thc? or will they just ignore them
and I found another thread and changed the Razorweld over to 2T instead of 4T and still nothing. Andy disconnected the plasma gun and we shut off the control box and he used the torch manually at the other end and it worked! so now what do we look for?
Cool…I am on the way down to the shop to try now! fingers crossed! thank you for answering…! Lisa and Andy
update/ tried it with Plunge rate 60 ipm and nothing happened. we checked our VIM cables and they are correct…shorter one is from RW to VIM input and longer one is from VIM output to Control box top left port…i checked devices in windows and it does show com 4 is usb serial CH340
Yes it will fire and cut when we took it off the mount, shut off the control unit (not sure if that was necessary) and Andy cut a small line on the far end. Our RW ground clamp is on the material. I saw a post to put it on the drain bolt, but then saw others putting on material.
Ok so your plasma cutter is able to fire so it can be ruled out as the cause of not firing when commanded to in FireControl.
Try this- turn off the plasma cutter and press ‘manual torch fire’ in FireControl. Do you hear the relay click inside of the box?
If so, do you have a multimeter that you can use to check continuity between the contacts on the torch fire port on the electronics box? When commanded to fire, there should be continuity.
I will try that first thing in the morning CST and let you know. I think Andy has a tester…can you explain what to test ? I remember seeing pictures of tests but don’t remember where. We are getting close!
Hi yes- so the torch fire port has two medal contacts. One is the inner surface and the other is a central pin. Simply set the multimeter to measure continuity and then touch the probes to each of the contacts while the manual torch fire button is pressed in FireControl. Your multimeter should beep. If it does not, then there is an issue that needs to be further diagnosed.
The reason I ask about the relay, is because sometimes the relay board can fall out of the motion control board which will cause the torch not to fire.
Daniel…
Ok…will try that…also wrote above that the THC does not show OK when still. Torch speed does register though. I can take off front and make sure the module that came with thc is seated. What about the note in FC that says the smart meter is not for anything thinner that 14g?
Let’s get your torch firing first before moving onto the THC, but it’s normal for the traffic lights not to show anything at rest. THC functionality is only activated by H1 commands in G code.
I see you are in Daniel’s good hands…it sounds like he wants to make sure the board is triggering the torch properly and rule out a wiring problem (most likely) or possibly a bad relay (low probability, but possible) on the control board. I’ll leave you guys to it and follow along
This was the only thing I saw that was fishy. With the Mach3 postprocessor I don’t think this parameter is even used, but I don’t know about the FireControl post. In any case, 1.0" would seem a more appropriate value (it’s in Options->Machine->Post Processor tab). While on that page, also check the Z zero setting. It should be set to Top of Work
thank you Tom! I will modify that if I get a “click” with what Daniel wants me to try! thank you all for following along to get us up and running…so close now!
@langmuir-daniel we are about to do the test without the RW on…but see these pics…i use both the short and long cable according to the directions…it does say there are 2 addl cables, but never said to plug them in…so i didn’t…i now see the torch on/off cable port on the RW is empty and so is the same port on the control box…do i need to use this? and is this port on the control box you want me to do the continuality test with?
