My THC has not worked properly since I purchased it. I have an Everlasts 62i. The THC is wired directly to the lugs on the plasma cutter. If I measure the voltage directly on the wires coming from the lugs, the voltage is over 100. Everything seems to be good going through the little black box going into the main electronics box.
When I measure the Ohms from the case of the connector going to my laptop to the slats I get a reading of 0 ohms. I worked through the trouble shooting chart and spent a fair amount of time with Thomas from Langmuir. He suggested that I replace the THC little black box and the module in the main electronics box. I am in Canada so it cost me over $200 to replace those 2 things. When I plugged in the new electronic module my ohms read in the 50’s and when I did a test fire of the torch it was over 100 volts. I thought I had it fixed finally. After cutting a few inches the torch started to rise during the cut and the voltage dropped. I now get an ohm reading of 0 again. I left the thing alone for a couple days waiting to hear back from Thomas. Have not heard anything so tried again today. When I first turned the table on the ohms were in the 50’s again and the test fire was in the 100’s. I started a cut and before long the torch was rising again and I had to finish my cut with the THC turned off.
I have done all the things I have read about. (consumables, unplug laptop, chokes on wires, cleaned everything, worked through the flow chart, called langmuir)
I am really frustrated and don’t know what else to try. Could there be a problem with the main electronics box?
Have you removed the control box from the frame?
I have made sure that it is not contacting the leg at all. I also removed the box from the leg completely and set it on a plastic box away from the table.
Oof. That’s a tough one.
Just finished doing some trouble shooting with Thomas from Langmuir. Doing test cuts with my THC turned off and measuring the raw voltage directly from the plasma cutter we noticed that the voltage dropped as the cut was made. I cut 10 inches @ 80ipm. The voltages started at 85 then dropped to 84, 83, 82, 80, and finished around 75 at the end of the 10 inch cut. I guess I will be contacting Everlast in the morning to see what is going on with the plasma cutter. I hope the 3 year warranty is for real.
Did testing with Everlast. Doing straight cuts with 1/8 material the voltage was measuring fine with THC turned off and taking the readings directly from the live voltage lines from the cutter. I shimmed my material so the height of the torch would increase as it made the cut. In that case the voltage changed as the height increased. I think the cutter is working fine. I then did a THC test and it had low voltage again. I put my work on thin strips of wood to get it off the slats. Hooked the ground directly to the work and it tested perfectly again.
If anyone has any idea what could be wrong, please let me know. Thanks
I read this post a few times and noticed you’re hooked up directly to the lugs on the plasma cutter. Any particular reason why you are doing that instead of using the CNC port on the back of the Everlast? I have an Everlast 102i and looking at the schematics you can pick up raw voltage, 50-1 or 16-1 signal from that CNC port. From the start, it never worked right so it sounds like you have a bad connections. When you first turn on the THC, does it have issues right away or after a few minutes of run time?
Thanks for helping. I have had the cutter and table for a few years. When I first got it I had set it up using the ports on the back. I was learning lots at the time and it seemed to be working. The voltage was always reading kind of low (in the 50’s)
After a while the voltage dropped even more and I did some research and found that many people with everlast machines were wiring directly to the lugs. I decided to change to that. The voltage went up into the 70’s and worked better.
Did tests after with THC off and straight line cut 122 volts live directly on the wires coming from the lugs. The wires coming from the THC box to the main electronics box read 1.68 volts. With the THC on the reading was 88.89 volts and the small wire going to the main box was 1.22 volts. (this was in December of 2021 and just looking at my notes, not sure where I measured the 88.89 volts)
Things seemed to be OK from this point until this Feb. (The machine had not been used for months) Did some work and the voltage was in the 90’s. After a number of cuts, the voltage suddenly started to drop and the torch came up in the middle of a cut. The voltage dropped on the computer (50’s, then 30’s, 20’s) I tested the voltage on the leads from the lugs and it was 125 - 130)
Did the test on the computer in THC. 3.5 volts resting 33.5 voltage firing.
This kind of gets to the point where I started this thread with the replacement of the THC box etc.
I then did contact Everlast and did some testing with the tech support from there. Everything we did the plasma cutter seemed to be working perfect. The voltage was consistent coming from the plasma cutter and if I changed the height of the torch, the voltage changed to match. (shimmed up one end of the material so the height of the torch increased)
I didn’t realize you had the CNC for a few years now and by the sounds of it, you kept good notes which is very good! The THC issue is new to me and surprised by what you’re describing few Everlast owners are connecting to the lugs instead of the back of the unit which sounds to me like something is going on with the plasma cutter. I think you shouldn’t have to modify the unit, in this case, tapping for raw voltage which you should get in the back of the CNC connector if you wanted to. Also, I would think Everlast would have said something about this. I know you’ve contacted someone from Everlast but did you try the Facebook forum? I get much better response from Everlast owners and the company that way.
I did have a 82i at one point but I didn’t hook it up to a CNC plasma table. I sold that to a friend of mine a few years back when he got his CrossFire Pro. His THC is connected to CNC port in the back and hasn’t had any problems since. I should be getting my XP in the next few days but won’t get a chance to assemble it for a few weeks until my shop gets built.
Getting back to your issue. It sounds to me like no matter how it’s connected either using raw voltage which you are using now or having used the CNC connection in the back which is the 50:1 voltage divider, it’ll work for a bit and then start losing voltage. It almost sounds like you have some electrical interference building up. Are any of your cords coiled up? Check your grounds?
It was easy to find posts where people had hooked up directly to the lugs on the everlast. I don’t understand everything but there seems to be a bit of an issue when hooking up to the CNC port at the back. I don’t remember for sure what it was but something there could cause problems. I had not problems hooking up to the CNC port, (there was not much room to work with because the connector is small) I thought I would just follow the Everlast instructions to start with. When I started to have problems I switched to direct connection to the lugs.
I agree with you, I think it is an electrical issue but it again goes beyond what I understand. I had unplugged my lap top etc. I plugged the electronics box into a separate circuit, put those things on the wires that clean up things. I may have a coiled wire someplace, I know I did to start with but will have to look and see if they still are. I wanted it to all look nice but have removed everything a number of times to check things out.
The other day I did not do any cutting but put a piece of metal on wood (keeping it off the slats), hooked up the ground to the metal and then did the THC test. It tested perfectly. This would seem like something is messing up the electrical.
This seems similar to the problems a couple of other users had, which was caused by the metal part of the USB port touching the enclosure. You can test that by sliding a piece of paper between the USB shell and the enclosure to prevent them from touching.
Good to know. Good tip!