DHC2 quit running

[Eagle Mtn Metal Works]

Ha guys need help.
I have the DHC2 with the Hypertherm 1250 with fine cut tip. I had a fellow pc cutter over working with me to get the setting set and the machine up and running today. After everything was set we made several cuts with no problems. After he left I made another set up file to cut and everything cut ok with no problems. When I set up the next file everything went to h#$@. I lost the cut control signal after I initialized so I reset everything and tried to re-cut it. It started to cut and dropped off the metal and got hung up on the table and popped the Z of the roller. I shut down everything put it back together into the rollers and turned everything back on. I did a diagnostic test and that when the ark voltage showed 1.23 and the pc could not connect to the machine it recognizes it but will not connect to the pc. Any help will be grateful. Thanks. I have the table on a sepreate earth ground from the controller and the PC. The PC and the controller is plug into a UPS and the UPS is plugged into a surge protector with noise filter in it. The power ground for the machine is separated from the table and is a seperate circuit from the plasma cutter with no wires bundled. I have ran a extra ground wire from the pc cabinet to the screw that holds the port on the controller to give it a good port cable ground also like George said to do. I hope that someone can help me get this up and running . This is the second controller and Plasma tec guys could not find the problem the last time it went out they said that could be grounding problem but it is hooked up the way the manual said to hook up to earth ground. This machine is still under warranty.
Hope that I have given enough information to get the picture.

[MQUICK]

Go to device manager on your computer and see if it still recognizes the parallel port. It will show a question mark on that device if it does not. I just went through this kind of problem and it turned out that something failed on the motherboard itself, not allowing it to communicate with the port. You may be lucky and it could be just the PCI card. (if you're not using one on the mother board) I had to replace the computer. I hope it's just something simple. Good luck.

[Eagle Mtn Metal Works]

Thank's this is to a new computer to. I ordered it just for the Plasma Cam.

[geo4932]

The fact that the torch ran off the metal means that you do not have the drawing located where your metal is. You can us the "MOVE TO" command to move the torch to different locations on the drawing to make sure that the drawing is where the metal is or move the metal.
You did not say if the computer has a built in parallel port or if it is an add-on PCI card. Are you computer savvy enough to check the computer BIOS or the Windows Device Manager?

[Eagle Mtn Metal Works]

George - (Rod's wife responding) this is a built in parallel port. This is a brand new computer ordered specifically for the Plasma Cam only with no other software loaded. I checked the parallel port and it was there. The computer when you did the autodetect and it detects fine, but then when he went to do the diagnostic test, it came up with a message and one of the things listed said something with parallel port and a couple other things. We took everything down, I reloaded the software, reset the settings and went through everything again and it cut several things (5 circles, a lizard and something else with no issues. Rod has not tried to cut anything else today, but his concern is that the voltage is higher than it was initially. It is 1.23 and is a little higher than what you had told us. Do we need to worry about that? I ordered a different parallel port from oneof the vendors you listed Qualtex but it is not interchangeable with what is in there as it is built into the board itself. I wish the techs from your shop who told us to make sure we ordered the desktop with the parallel port had told us the specifications needed, but that did not happen. I have some tech guys that I am going to reach out to and see if there is any other way to add this recommended parallel port. That will take time - in the meantime, we will keep working through things, but Rod wants to know if he should worry about this voltage at all. If so how do we fix this voltage as he has done all the necessary tests from the manual in the original setup before the first controller failed. With this second controller it is not as low as you said it should be. All of the grounding is set per the manual and Rod being an electrician does know about grounding. This has not been a grounding issue. We really need to know if this is an issue that can cause further failures with the voltage at 1.23.

The gentlemen that has been helping us has used Plasma Cam for more than 6 years and just went to the bigger machine. He has been very helpful.

[Eagle Mtn Metal Works]

WE are finally up and running the correct way. I would like to thank Todd Piercey with Mountain Master Truck Equipment LLC and Tech Support from PC for the help with the training and the Info on the CPU in changing the setting in the Bios on the CPU. Thanks guys very much.