I've got the mp1000 thc from Tom at CandCNC. Anyways, table works great, limits work, homing works the problem I'm having is that when I try to move the table with power to the plasma it fires right away and shuts power off to the motors. I've installed the card from Tom in the plasma machine. I actually talked to Tom to confirm I was wiring it correctly. So this is where I'm at. Plasma table that will draw with a felt all my dxf files but won't cut steel with the plasma. A little frustrating. I've checked all my pin settings in mach3 but just cant seem to figure out what the problem is. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!! Also, the THC isn't working. I can reference the z axis (THC) but I can't get it to work with the plasma. I also noticed the screen on mach 3 (using the included screen from Tom) shows the x axis, y axis, z axis, THC. isn't the z axis the THC?

Thought I'd add some pictures of my table. The last two pictures are of the card I have mounted in the plasma and where the wires are going. As far as I can see Everything should be good here.

The plasma fires when you move the table?? ....manually jog or under program control? The wrong Post in SheetCAM turns the "spindle" (torch in this case) on at the beginning of a move. (bad). Is this with the Hand controller? If it is, disconnect the Hand Controller until we get the plasma cutting properly.

It's essential you get good grounding on the table and the plasma unit (local earth ground). Needs to be a ground rod with heavy stranded wire from the table frame and a separate run from the plasma chassis. Electronics are all grounded back through AC safety ground. Noise from the cutting can get back into the reset circuit and cause the unit to shutdown. An e-stop in MACH will not shut the Power off but a fault in a servo, or gobs of noise will.

There is a safety ground spade lug (green wire on the AC cord coming in). It's not tied to anything in the unit. The DC supply "floats" and drives the motors. To help with noise reduction you should connect the other side of the dual spade on safety ground down to the heavy aluminum sub-plate. That will put it at AC safety ground.

If you can fire the torch manually (short across the Torch Switch terminals on the THC Sensor card) and the power resets it's a major noise problem. Proper separation of grounds and good grounding of the table should cure it.

Lets address one issue at a time. We can probably work through it faster on the CandCNCSupport forum.


Does the torch fire from the Mach Screen (Torch button)?
Does the Torch light come on the MP1000-THC box?
If you are close to the metal does the Arc Good LED come on?
Does firing the torch from the screen reset the power? (there is a main relay on the power control board and an LED on the card that shows when it is on).

After grounding the table and plasma get the control box out from under the table and further from the plasma unit.


Tom Caudle
www.CandCNC.com

Thanks for the quick reply Tom

The plasma fires when you move the table?? ....manually jog or under program control? The wrong Post in SheetCAM turns the "spindle" (torch in this case) on at the beginning of a move. (bad). Is this with the Hand controller? If it is, disconnect the Hand Controller until we get the plasma cutting properly.

Either manually or program control will fire plasma

It's essential you get good grounding on the table and the plasma unit (local earth ground). Needs to be a ground rod with heavy stranded wire from the table frame and a separate run from the plasma chassis. Electronics are all grounded back through AC safety ground. Noise from the cutting can get back into the reset circuit and cause the unit to shutdown. An e-stop in MACH will not shut the Power off but a fault in a servo, or gobs of noise will.

There is a safety ground spade lug (green wire on the AC cord coming in). It's not tied to anything in the unit. The DC supply "floats" and drives the motors. To help with noise reduction you should connect the other side of the dual spade on safety ground down to the heavy aluminum sub-plate. That will put it at AC safety ground.

I did the above suggestion already

If you can fire the torch manually (short across the Torch Switch terminals on the THC Sensor card) and the power resets it's a major noise problem. Proper separation of grounds and good grounding of the table should cure it.

Lets address one issue at a time. We can probably work through it faster on the CandCNCSupport forum.


Does the torch fire from the Mach Screen (Torch button)?

Yes

Does the Torch light come on the MP1000-THC box?

Yes, but it also comes on when just moving the axis around with power off to the plasma. As soon as I move the table I can here a relay on the card tripping.

If you are close to the metal does the Arc Good LED come on?

I don't think so, I'll have to check that

Does firing the torch from the screen reset the power? (there is a main relay on the power control board and an LED on the card that shows when it is on).

No, I don't think it did. I'll have to double check that

After grounding the table and plasma get the control box out from under the table and further from the plasma unit.

How far... I'll have to lengthen some cables. Just wanted to keep everything out of the way.


Tom Caudle
www.CandCNC.com (http://www.CandCNC.com)

Some signal is mixed up. The Torch fires with a signal from PORT2 PIN1. If the Torch LED is coming on on the MP1000 then that means the signal is coming from the PC. Check your setup to make sure no other pin but Output 1 is mapped to Port2 pin1 (torch relay). If it is, disable it.

So if you scroll from the keyboard (X or Y) with the THC Sensor card disconnected from the plasma does the relay click on the card?

Does it click as soon as you come out of RESET and the CP lamp on the MP1000 comes on?

Nothing else is going to work until we find out why the torch relay on the sensor card is firing on simple movement.

Do you have the MP1000-THC profile loaded and selected in MACH?

It would help me if you contacted me off-list (tom@candcnc.com) so I can get your customer file and see exactly which products (and when) were shipped. I don't find any information under your Zone handle.

TOM C

Since I added the pendant control I haven't been able to control the table axis with the keyboard. Not even if I unplug it and reboot and disable plug-in.

Lower righthand corner of screen. Use the mouse. Click the MPG Jog Mode button until keyboard scroll control comes back. OR hit TAB and use the Jog Mode Toggle to turn on "Cont".

DO NOT LOAD AND RUN PENDANT UNTIL THE TORCH FIRING PROBLEM IS RESOLVED>

CNCZone is not my support site. Please login to CandCNCSupport Forum on Yahoo.

Future posts need to be directed there.