I am encountering what is becoming increasingly frustrating for me. My TCH is recognized by FireControl on a Win 11 machine in what feels like are random times. Here is what I have encountered so far:
Seven days ago I could not get FireControl/Device Mgr to recognize the THC. So I hit the forums. I tried what I was able to find.
I confirmed that I the control box shows a green and red led .
I tried a different Win11 machine and FireControl/Device Mgr could not find the THC.
I went and bought new USB cables. FireControl/Device Mgr could find the THC on either machine.
With each of these tries I also manually installed the THC USB driver before attempting to connect. 5. Finally I tried on a MacBook and FireControl was able to see the THC. That is good I thought. Confirmed that the THC module was installed correctly.
Plugged back into my Win 11 machine and FireControl/Device Mgr was able to see the THC.
I shut everthing down, wanted to confirm that everything would restart and work.
When I restarted the PC and the Control Box FireControl/Device Mgr. would not recognize the THC.
I unplugged and the USB from one port in the PC to plugged it in an open port on the PC and FireControl/Device Mgr was able to recognize the THC.
So today, I want to run the break-in program and perform my first cut. My FireControl/Device Mgr recognized the THC one time after I switched USB ports on the PC. The next time I unplugged it came back to no Win PC, or MacBook will recognize the THC. For troubleshooting today:
Tried everything above and no luck
What else can I try in effort to get the THC to be recognized in Windows and connect in FireControl?
UPDATE: So this morning, I pretty thought I would let the THC issue sit, because I want to make my first cut with the table. In the process of getting things setup:
First time plugging in the cable in the USB port on the back of the control box the THC did not connect.
I had to unplug the cable from the back of the control box, and when I plugged it back in the THC connects to the PC and shows up in FireControl/Device Mgr
I had to unplug the cable again a bit later and the THC will not connect any more.
In the USB port of the back of the control box I notice that there is a lot of slop when the cable is plugged in. The connection is easy to jiggle around. I am now wondering if my issue is in the USB port, and that slop is causing the THC to connect sometimes and not connect at other times.
try removing the control board from the box and see if that changes anything. might be that the bottom solder joints are touching the control box and causing it to short somewhere.
there should be stand offs to add space but just a thought.
I don’t understand. The USB connection is in the front of the control box. Are you talking about the mini computer mounted on the back of the screen? This picture shows the USB touching the control box housing. This is a common issue. They cannot touch. Send us pictures of your setup.
Put it on continuity ¥ it looks similar to this. The phone doesn’t have that symbol. One leads to the metal jacket on the USB end that looks like a printer cable. The other led to the table’s metal chassis. It should read 0 or open.
The control box has to be isolated from the table. You can do the elect tape trick or take apart the box and remove the control board. You can then open up the hole with a file or something like that. Good luck to you.
A follow up question. My table came with a plastic boomerang shaped plastic strip that sits between the control box case and the table leg. Wouldn’t this isolate the control box from the table?
No, if you got no continuity, you’re good. Post your setup settings. Pierce delay, cut height, Pierce height, ipm, etc. What thickness of steel are you cutting?
Here are my FireControl settings and my tool settings from SheetCam. I am running 45 amps at the plasma cutter and 100psi of air coming into the cutter. Right now I am cutting 14g mild steel with fine cut consumables on the torch. I pulled the settings from the Hypertherm manual. I am cutting with a Powermax 45 XP. I bought the Hypertherm cpc cable from Langmuir and have the short output cable to VIM, long cable to the torch on/off on the control box and output from VIM to the TCH port on the control box.
Yes. Sometimes it will connect and other times it will not connect. When I took the pictures of my setup, my THC would not connect. Could be I try it this evening and it connects, and then next time I plug in, it does not connect. I have confirmed that the control box is isolated from the table so really not sure why it connects sometimes and not at others.
