Torchmate goes offline halfway though a cut!!

[kazuo]

I am having some problems with the torchmate my dad bought. It starts to cut then goes offline. I get a message saying torchmate could not connect to the signal generator and to check connections, make sure the signal generator is turned on, etc... Of course everything is turned on and connected so I turn off the signal generator and turn it back on and start again. Sometimes it cuts for a while other times it just goes offline again.

I talked to a tech at torchmate and he gave some instructions on changing jumpers inside the signal generator and how to check for a proper ground for the table. Both of which I did and both of which had no effect.

Anyone else have this problem?

[CNCTECHNICIAN1]

what kind of connectors does torchmate use? The reason I ask is if they are just standard rs 232 style connectors (d sub) then sometimes the pins can get pushed back in and you may have to re seat the pins in the connector until they click back in place.

[hotrodder]

I was going to suggest the material ground. The cut can stop due to a bad ground. I always ground directly to my material.
Good luck!

[kazuo]

The signal generator uses a USB. We grounded the plasma cutter chassis and the table to a ground rod driven into the ground outside the shop. None of that worked so we switched out the computer and that seemed to solve the problem.

Looks like the USB's on the old computer were not staying active, if that's the right word, the last time the sig. gen. went off line the USB mouse did as well. That was my clue and it seemed to solve the problem.

[Mike@Torchmate]

The signal generator uses a USB. We grounded the plasma cutter chassis and the table to a ground rod driven into the ground outside the shop. None of that worked so we switched out the computer and that seemed to solve the problem.

Looks like the USB's on the old computer were not staying active, if that's the right word, the last time the sig. gen. went off line the USB mouse did as well. That was my clue and it seemed to solve the problem.

That's good to hear, typically when this issue occurs some kind of RF interference interferes with the USB communications giving the machine that error. But if the USB itself is having problems, it can look like the same symptoms.

-Mike