I think I have it all installed according to the instructions, but I can’t get a manual fire or a regular fire using the THC? If I switch out the div lead from plasma and plug it directly into the enclosures “torch” input I can get it to work and run a program. Manual fire works this way also. When I plug it back into the THC box (and restart, re link etc) nothing happens. I got the green light when I put the chip in, and all other connections seem to work. I’m using a miller extreme 625, and again, it seems to work fine when I bypass the THC. Any thoughts? Beyond not firing at all, I get the lost arc message. Where is Dr. Jones when I need him.
@timo1973 I’m confused on what you mean by THC firing the torch? Your plasma cutter should have two separate connections to the PRO electronics. The first connection is to fire the torch. You will use this guide to wire the trigger switch in your plasma cutter to the provided torch firing cable and t-tap quick connectors (unless your cutter has a CNC port that you can use for torch firing). Also, if you are having torch firing issues, make sure that you can hear the relay clicking in teh electroncs box when the torch is commanded to fire in FireControl. If it is not, remove the cover and make sure the relay is properly inserted into the board socket; weve found that these have a tendency to wiggle out during shipping http://www.langmuirsystems.com/crossfire/assembly#plasmawiring-section
The second connection you need to make is from your plasma cutter to the THC input on the VIM box (the black THC box). There are two separate methods for doing this; either by tapping into raw voltage from your plasma cutter internally, or by using the divided DC voltage output from a CNC port if your plasma cutter has it. If you are using divided voltage, you will need to use the supplied DIvided Voltage Input Pigtail Cable to manually connect to the correct terminals on your CNC port. The jack end of this plug connects to the ‘DIV INPUT’ socket on the VIM box. If you are using Raw voltage, you will need to use the supplied Raw Voltage Input Pigtail Cables (a red and black cable with a banana connector on one end and bare wire on the other) and insert these banana clips into the corresponding sockets on the face of the VIM box. Next, you will plug the supplied THC output cable into the appropriate socket based on whether or not you are using Raw or Divided voltaged hookup. The other end of this cable goes to the electronics box.
Can you post pictures of your setup? It sounds like you might have some things incorrect from your post and pictures would greatly help to troubleshoot!
Thanks for responding. I may be missing something very elemental then. Currently the the wires spliced into the plasma are going onto the VIM box, and out from the vim box into the front of the enclosure. When I put the connection from the plasma (div connection) into the front of the enclosure directly into the " TORCH ON OFF" it works. The photos show how it in the not working configuration.
Hi @timo1973 I assume you have two connections coming from the plasma? One is for torch firing and other would be for the voltage hookup (it looks like you are using divided voltage but does your plasma cutter have a CNC port for this?).
No. It has an ethernet port on front, but I don’t have any info on what its for. Inside the plasma, I spliced into two wires (as helpfully indicated elsewhere on this forum for the X625) and I thought, perhaps incorrectly, that those two wires went into the VIM box- and controlled firing. Are you saying I need to have an additional pair of wires going to the torch fire input? In other words, a set of splices going into the VIM and a set going into the Torch fire on the enclosure?
If your machine has the ethernet style port then you do have a CNC port on this machine. Do you have a cable that plugs into this port? If so, you wouldn’t need to do any splicing. You would need a cable like what is shown below in blue.
If you are not going to use this port, you need to do manual splicing. I’m not sure what forum you followed but it sounds like you did the trigger splicing for torch firing. Take the barrell connector for this that you wired up to your plasma cutter (the one you had incorrectly plugged into the THC VIM DIV INPUT) and plug this into the Torch ON/OFF port. It should fire your torch. For THC I recommend that you use the CNC Port on the machine for wiring to the 50:1 port using the divided votlage input pigtail cable.
Yes, that’s the front of my plasma. I can assume one end of the cable goes into the front of the plasma. The other end, it sounds like, goes to the THC VIM DIV input. No ethernet cable came with my plasma, I just have one in a box of old computer stuff and it has two RJ 45’s. So one end won’t plug directly into the VIM input. Is it possible to cut the RJ 45 off and rewire on a correct barrel end, or would I be better served looking for the correct wire online: One RJ45 to a male barrel end?
I assume I keep the splice inside the plasma connected directly to the torch fire?
This has been very helpful, thank you!
As a follow up, I’d like to thank you for your patience in what I can look back on and say was a pretty stupid misunderstanding on my part. The wiring instructions were clear enough I just seemed to have a blind spot. I’m sure someone rolled their eyes, justifiably so. Its working fine after wiring in the divided power…
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And for anyone else who has a Miller Xtreme 625 plasma cutter with the built in automation port, here is the very hard to find wiring diagram for the plug in the face. I hope it helps…
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@timo1973 thanks for the follow-up; we have added these wiring designations to our THC manual now!
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I’ll be using the same plasma machine with cnc port. I don’t have my table yet, but would love to see some pics of first cuts! Also, did you wire up the “Ok to Move” or just the voltage and torch fire / remote start. I’ve not jumped in that deep yet, but was curious if the “OK to Move” aka “Arc Ok” signal was used anywhere.
I tied into internal wiring for the torch (mentioned somewhere else on this forum, 25A and 26? or something like that). I suppose a person could use the leads coming out of the front of the plasma though. While our machine is cutting, we are still having issues with lost arc errors. I don’t know if its software (layout, process, etc) or something else. I’ll know more this weekend, hopefully.
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Can you post pictures of your Plasma cutter wiring and VIM box wiring?
Thanks!
I don’t know if you need better images or ones of the connections inside the plasma box? When I’m cutting I’m getting voltage in the 140-160 range. However when a cut is complete and it jumps to the next part firecontrol says I lost arc voltage. Sometimes I’m able to pick up the program and stumble through it… Other times, nope.
You’re wiring looks great and it looks like your voltages are working correctly in FireControl so that’s good! Have you updated your THC firmware to the latest version here: LS-THC Firmware Update for Bug Fixes (Current Version is V1.07 on 3/31/20)