ethercut dthciv issue

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Corfabrication
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ethercut dthciv issue

Post by Corfabrication »

What would cause the torch height controller to "drive beyond" the voltage you command to it? I was trying to rip a sheet manually and the height keeps driving itself to 140+ volts. I have it set to 110. torch height drives itself from roughly .125 at the start of cut, to almost an inch once THC kicks in.
I have made cuts this way in the past, and even ran a few earlier in the day before this decided to go bonkers. I checked ground cable 4 times, air supply is strong and dry, tried all new consumables, tried powering everything down and starting over, tried a known cut file from something that ran good days ago, tried different material,
I checked voltage at the RAV cord going to the PMW sensor box,according to Luke it is correct compared to what mach says it is.

I have the bladrunner kit, thermal D cutmaster 82 power source, sheetcam, mach.. got the update for the update firmware etc.
any thought as to somewhere to look that I havent been already?
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Re: ethercut dthciv issue

Post by I Lean »

One dumb little thing that got me once...if you're typing in the voltage number rather than clicking the up/down buttons to change the desired voltage setpoint, it won't do anything unless you also click "Send to DTHC".

At least, that's an issue with my older system, that could easily have been recified in the last few years...in which case disregard. :)
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Re: ethercut dthciv issue

Post by Corfabrication »

i dont believe that to be the issue, it does the same thing if you run a manual cut and trigger THC, or with a g code file from sheetcam with programmed voltage (known good running file from 2 days ago.)
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Re: ethercut dthciv issue

Post by WyoGreen »

I had a weird problem the other day that drove me nuts for a few days until I tracked it down. Not saying this is your problem, but when you first start up Mach3, hit the tab key for the flyout screen, and look at the DCC action code box on the bottom of the flyout. It should be Zero. On mine it was reading 885, and that was screwing things up. If you have anything other than 0, manually enter 0 in the box and see if that solves your problem.

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Re: ethercut dthciv issue

Post by Corfabrication »

Here is a video I shot of the screen while trying to run a known good cut file that I have used in the past. Thc wierd: https://youtu.be/4AQgmjzF4Ys

Pierce height is .150 ish and I think cut height is supposed to be .120ish. It feeds itself up to about an inch before the fire goes out.
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Re: ethercut dthciv issue

Post by WyoGreen »

It looks like you get the initial voltage surge at the pierce and then the voltage display drops to 70 volts or so. It appears the THC is raising the torch in an attempt to raise the voltage up to the set voltage. So the problem seems to be, why is the voltage 70 volts instead of the 118 volts you had it set to be. You might try verifying the divided volts at the plasma power unit to make sure it's right.

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Re: ethercut dthciv issue

Post by Corfabrication »

and this morning brought the best feeling in the world :roll: . Everything runs properly. The great part is I changed nothing. ran the same cut file on the same piece of scrap, with the same consumables.
I predict it will be fine until I have a rush job to do,or a stainless plate to cut.
I guess time will tell.
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Re: ethercut dthciv issue

Post by tcaudle »

if you have the DTHC delay (time) set too low and the DTHC starts reading the volts while still spiking from a pierce then it may be locking out any motion. If you have the Tip Saver (Anti-dive) on it will lock down motion if the voltage exceeds more than the % of the preset volts value (typically about 2 or 4 %)

Another thing that can cause it to not move down (or up) is if you have set the min or max fault volts too tightly. Recommended is 200 mas and 50 min.
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Re: ethercut dthciv issue

Post by Corfabrication »

tcaudle wrote:if you have the DTHC delay (time) set too low and the DTHC starts reading the volts while still spiking from a pierce then it may be locking out any motion. If you have the Tip Saver (Anti-dive) on it will lock down motion if the voltage exceeds more than the % of the preset volts value (typically about 2 or 4 %)

Another thing that can cause it to not move down (or up) is if you have set the min or max fault volts too tightly. Recommended is 200 mas and 50 min.

would it be common for those to change themselves back and forth?

I literally changed nothing since yesterday, same piece of steel on the table,clamp in same spot i left it in when i left the shop last night,same consumables etc, even ran the same gcode files as a test.
About the only thing that feels worse than broken equipment is intermittent malfunctioning equipment.
Fingers crossed.
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Re: ethercut dthciv issue

Post by tcaudle »

We were doing some testing on another issue Friady and we had a complex sign on the table with lots of arcs. As it as cutting it would "stutter" on some of the arcs randomly. The tiny pause did not effect the cut but the DTHCIV is fast enough it reacted and drove the torch down because the voltage spiked some.

What the.......

Then I opened the ESS tuning under Plugin Control and noticed the Controller Frequency and the Number of Data points Mach pre-calculates were both ver close to each other....hunnn...

I lowered the Data points to 512 and the pause went away. I put it back and raised the Controller Freq to 2K and it went away again...hummmmm

Then I lower the data points and raised the controller freq and BAM it went away again and the numbers are even further apart.which should work even better. So if it seems to dive DURING a cut for no reason , check those values and set them so the Data points is at 512 and the Controller Freq is at 1K or 2K

There will be a new EtherCut Update by Monday on the website that will have a new 1.6 DTHCIV firmware that is out of testing and resolves a VERY random problem (sometimes will not happen unitl many hours of running) that cause the Z to get into ta loop and just ignore commands and very slowly creep down . It was hard to catch. We had to run a file that takes 4 hours to cut with over 600 pierces and cuts.
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Re: ethercut dthciv issue

Post by Corfabrication »

so far its been back to normal over here. I have only ran a handful of small parts, and manually ripped a few sheets of 1/4 a36 for my steel supplier, which i manually used the thc and it functions the same as it did in the past.

I havent had any issues with a dive during the cut, it was only the one day of the torch lifting from the material.
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Re: ethercut dthciv issue

Post by tnbndr »

I was cutting a sheet of 10 gauge yesterday and it just did not seem right. It was cutting through but lots of dross and the arc sounded different. When it was cutting I noticed the set Volts was 120 and I know when I set up all my tools that none of the tools set voltage was actually 120. I went back into SheetCam and checked my tool and the set voltage was 49, WTF! I checked a couple of other tools and they were all set to 49 for preset voltage. I reloaded my back up of my tool set and all were back to normal, usually between 106 and 112 from test cut results.
Something I will be keeping an eye on.
If anyone has any idea what would change these settings please share.
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Re: ethercut dthciv issue

Post by acourtjester »

I have seen that in SheetCam so I check it often to be sure it correct before post processing a file.
I have stopped saying OK to "do you want to save changes" and it seems to be OK.
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Re: ethercut dthciv issue

Post by Corfabrication »

just an update
I was experiencing more intermittent issues with the height control. I called and talked wit luke, we ran a series of tests. it was determined there might be an issue with the RAV card. Great news was I still had about a month of warranty left. bad news was i needed to send the card in before a replacement would be sent back. I opted to purchase a new card as i cannot be left without a functioning table( the rav also triggers my torch ON/OFF). The replacement card came,I installed and everything runs as it should again. After running a few test cuts, I swapped the old card back in and make a series of cuts. The THC malfunctioned on the second cut. I removed that rav and put the new one back in and everything has been fine. Now convinced the rav card is culprit, i sent it to CandCNC for warranty. A week or 2 go by and it comes back to me. Upon opening the package, I read the note saying tested OK.
So....I had a little free time. I once again put that rav back in and gave it a test cut. Should I have been surprised it caused THC issues on the first cut?
My email to luke after this was never returned.
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Re: ethercut dthciv issue

Post by muzza »

Gee, that's never happened before.

Glad you got it sorted though, a least you have it running again, that's the main thing.
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