Centroid Community CNC Support Forum

Greetings,

My Acorn plasma is doing everything right but touching off. Neither in the Test Run Automatic Touch Off Cycle nor the Torch_Calibration.cnc.

When I attempt to run an automatic touch off, input 9 is triggered as soon as my grounded plate is touched. Yet he torch continues going down another .2" till my magnetic breakaway trips input 3.

The machine is set up without a Torch Floating Switch.

The test fire works and is practically instantaneously with the “Torch Test Fire” button.

The plasma is a Hypertherm Powermax45. Grounding is solid.

The Acorn motion control is all good. Much better than the CS-Lab Mach3 system it replaced.

I have green LEDs lit on both THC boards. The fiber optic cable transmits a red light as seen at the THC-RX end.

The THC-TX has its own 24VDC PS and the positive divider voltage is referenced to THC TX GND.

Some characteristics of this table are:

the THC-TX board is located on the torch carriage;
the fiber optic cable is 25' from the THC-TX to the THC-RX;
The cable was made and test by Centroid
the THC-RX board is in a seperate NEMA enclosure under the table.
the D-sub-9 cable from the THC-RX is 5' long.
I am using v4.66r2.
Photos and a report are attached.

Is 25' too long for the fiber optic cable.

Any help is appreciated.

Best Regards

Rich

Sounds like a configuration issue. On the Torch Touch Off Configuration page in the wizard do you have the first item switched to "NO"? Post screen shots of your wizards setup for the torch.

When you touch the work lead to the tip of the torch do you get the "torch touch" message in the message window? I know you stated you see input 9 go green but do you also get the message?

Shawn I think you were correct. I'm not sure why. Before I performed my last test, I upgraded to V6.22r2. I made a cursory check to make certain that all my settings came thru when I loaded my most recent report. Upon checking this morning, the inputs and outputs didn't copy. After adjusting them, I made only one change. The Torch Touch Off Configuration screen doesn't let me select NO. It is "greyed out". For no other reason than curiosity, I changed the second option from closed to open. Shouldn't matter because I don't have a floating switch input.

Did that make it work or did upgrading to V6.22r2? No idea. But it is working.

My next challenging is to adjust the cut height. I spec'd .06". It is cutting at .024".

This is another issue so I will post if I can't find a post where the issue was already addressed.

Thanks Shawn.

Best Regardss

Rich

Glad you got it sorted out Rich. I know I've missed a few settings from time to time doing the manual configuration. It happens. This is why Centroid suggests to take screen shots of each page in the wizard once you get everything working. This saved my bacon a few times.

As for your cut height issue, it's a voltage issue. Did you perform the calibration with a flat piece of material and confirm that it was .06" from the torch at the beginning and end of the calibration cut? You can do this with a "dry run" setting or just manually moving the torch and measuring with a feeler gauge. This is critical in my opinion.

That said, you can't always use the "book" numbers and you'll need to adjust the voltage for your machine and your cutting environment. For the material you are cutting does it pierce at the the correct "book" height and then move to .06" cut height but then after the THC active delay is over it moves to .024" ????

The .06" cut height is the critical value so you'd have to adjust the target volts so you get the .06" cut height. Air quality and electrode wear will both effect the voltage/cut height.

The Profiles included in the Profile manager are from the Hypertherm 85xp. The 45xp Cut charts should be used. You can Check the height by using the Touch off button and changing your Safe Height in the Profile Manager. When a Test Touch off is performed the Torch will retract to the Safe Height. Just check the distance from the torch tip to the material after a test touch is performed and compare to the Safe Height distance.

Dry Run will operate at different Heights depending on what is selected in the THC Configuration menu. Dry Run by default runs at the safe Height. This can be changed to run at the Pierce or Cut Height. THC Configuration menu is in the Profile Manager.