yes they do. i ran the laptop without a power cord on it. same with the tablet. i have a video im uploading to drive that shows the issue a bit more
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you can see in the line test the voltage is showing at 53v this is the issue I’m fighting right now. previously it was varying between 25v and 113v during cuts. I narrowed it down to the airplane connector between the board and the vim box. now that it has been bypassed the voltage is steady, but still very low.
Your operating system of the laptop and tablet could update and change the allocation of power to the peripherals (USB, etc). See if they are set to max performance. If the battery gets below 30% or so, it may start cutting power to the USB port. Advise plugging laptop in with the ground plug adapter that has no ground prong.
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the tablet is a windows surface pro, both with and without the power supply i have it set to max performance. although i will see about setting up a powered usb adapter
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To the control box yes, to the charger, no
back in the shop this morning and back at it. retested the ohms from the table to the box, still reading 0ohms. ran a test cut and im getting 72.5v out of the raw arc voltage at the plasma, and 0.45v at the pins going into the board. doing some quick math 0.45x50=22.5v which is what the table is reading as live voltage. 72.5v/50=1.45v. so i am losing 1v somewhere between the vim box and the control board. when testing yesterday with the vim box disconnected from the control board i was getting about 1v more than when it is connected. this issue is not isolated to 1 board as i do have a spare and it is consistant.
The VIM does not reduce voltage to 50:1. It reduces it to something like 73:1 before sending it to the board.
This is why you still have to run 50:1 divided voltage through the VIM.
This still doesn’t fix your problem, though.
What voltage do you get out of the output port on the VIM?
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coming out of the vim box i have 2v. you can see it HERE
Ok. Plug the cable into the VIM and see if you get the same at the other end of the cable.
If you get 2 volts at the output and only .45 at the board, it’s getting lost in the cable or the connection to the board.
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2v at the BOARD
showing 25v in FIRECONTROL
i resoldered all the connections and i believe this is now why im getting the full 2v to the board rather than .45 i was getting.
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i also went ahead and tried the second thc chip i have, no major changes in how it acts. next step in my mind would be to swap to the second motion board and try it with both thc chips
Do you have a small gas powered generator at home that you could use to power first adjust your computer and second just the Crossfire control box?
yes, I have a generator, but I guess I’m not following what you’re asking. run the control box off the generator?
Are you thinking about a ground loop scenario?
Yes, first run the computer off the genset and see if your problem persists.
if so, then run the crossfire off the generator.
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Alrighty everyone. after 3 months and $3000 i figured out what the issue was. the two connectors on the z axis that do the touch off sensing were loose and causing the torch to misread the height. I had a “competitor”(buddy) come by and weld up a new water pan for a 5x10 table I’m fixing up and he took a look at my table. went through all the tests i went through, tested both Hypertherm’s, checked for continuity and finally made his way up to my z axis and literally the one wire that I didn’t check he fiddled with it and the issue went away. i am beyond furious with myself. anyone want to buy a Hypertherm and machine torch?
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Post it in the for sale section here, Facebook marketplace (ewww) Ebay, and Craigslist.