Neanderthal needs help with multiple issues. Diy cnc

[Ezalyconfuzd1]

Hi. I'm relatively new to cnc plasma cutters. Built everything myself. Lol wich is good and bad. I'm running nema 17 stepper motors. (I know they're small.) I'm also running GRBL 1.1 32bit 3 axis controller with lightburn software and a Hobart Airforce 40I 240V 40amp Plasma cutter. I've been continuously working out bugs here and there. Right now I'm working on getting my Dani THC7SDP Stand alone/Mack 3 unit to work. And I've got questions.

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[Ezalyconfuzd1]

My first question being. Where am I supposed to put the voltage reading wire on the plasma side? I put the negative on the ground clamp. But I'm not sure if I'm supposed to put the torch side positive on the torch red side or torch white.

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[Ezalyconfuzd1]

Also when I tried to read the voltage on these 2 I got 334V and 621V. It's a single phase 240V 40amp machine and I was cutting 11gauge . Are those numbers even possible? Did I just read it wrong and it was 33.4Vs and 62.1Vs?

[Ezalyconfuzd1]

Also I can locate my torch white wire at the torch head because of the larger gauge but I have zero Idea where the torch red wires would be. Anyone know where the torch reds are?

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[Ezalyconfuzd1]

I've been using plasma cutters freehand for years and have been using my table for a couple months now.... I just now realized that the "Ground clap" is actually the positive side and the torch head is the Negative side.... glade I didn't fry anything because of this.

[acourtjester]

I am assuming you have taken apart a hand torch and am now trying to reconnect the wiring from the Plasma unit and the torch.
Do you have a schematic of the Plasma unit (Hobart Airforce 40I 240V 40amp) this would give you the info your looking for, if you know how to read one. What did you do with the original torch cable, you should just reconnect that to the torch head, minus the hand grip parts.
The actual name for the lead from the plasma unit should be "work lead" not ground as it is really a return path for the plasma circuit. I know many do use the term ground but it is not that.
You did not state where you read those voltages and why, if you are looking for the plasma voltage used for the THC it will be some where from about 70 to 150 volts DC. Be very careful you can get killed just poking around.

[weldguy]

Looks like your doing pretty good so far.

The THC connections tot he plasma cutter are simple and you are correct the ground clamp lead will be your positive connection location for your THC.

Before completing the connections be sure that your THC is capable of accepting RAW arc voltage which is what you accessing since your plasma does have a built in voltage divider. Your THC may work off RAW voltage, it may have a built in voltage divider, or it may be expecting a divided voltage signal so confirm that first.

Your negative THC input connection will connect to the wire or group of wires that feed current to the electrode in your plasma torch. Ignore what color the wire or wires are, just be sure that it is the the wire or wires feeding the electrode. Should be pretty obvious.

Anyway hope this helps and let us know how it works out

[Ezalyconfuzd1]

Looks like your doing pretty good so far.

The THC connections tot he plasma cutter are simple and you are correct the ground clamp lead will be your positive connection location for your THC.

Before completing the connections be sure that your THC is capable of accepting RAW arc voltage which is what you accessing since your plasma does have a built in voltage divider. Your THC may work off RAW voltage, it may have a built in voltage divider, or it may be expecting a divided voltage signal so confirm that first.

Your negative THC input connection will connect to the wire or group of wires that feed current to the electrode in your plasma torch. Ignore what color the wire or wires are, just be sure that it is the the wire or wires feeding the electrode. Should be pretty obvious.

Anyway hope this helps and let us know how it works out

Thank you. I actually just got that part figured out this morning after the positive/negative mishap. Haha. Yes it does except RAW power up to 600V DC.

I can't find a schematic on how I'm supposed to hook this up to the stepper motors I have. They have the built in stepper driver/controllers and this is THC works off both Mach3 or as a stand alone unit. Any idea what I'm supposed to do with this? Or if my Pull + pull- Dir+ Dir - would just hook directly up to my A+ A- B+ B-? And if so what are the correlating letters? I wired it the way it said but it acted like everything was fighting each other with the dual drivers.

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[weldguy]

I am not familiar with what your working with I may have misunderstood your post above but from what I am seeing you should not have had to touch any of the wires from the stepper motor. It looks like you just connect the pulse and direction wires from your BOB to the THC unit inputs and connect the pulse and direction wires from the THC outputs to your stepper driver and motor wiring is untouched. Did your Z motor work before? Did you mess with the Z motor wires?

[robertspark]

NO!

don't connect dir and step to A+/A-/B+/B-

you need a stepper motor driver!

[Ezalyconfuzd1]

I am not familiar with what your working with I may have misunderstood your post above but from what I am seeing you should have had to touch any of the wires from the stepper motor. It looks like you just connect the pulse and direction wires from your BOB to the THC unit inputs and connect the pulse and direction wires from the THC outputs to your stepper driver and motor wiring is untouched. Did your Z motor work before? Did you mess with the Z motor wires?

Z motor works everytime I reconnect to original wiring.

[Ezalyconfuzd1]

NO!

don't connect dir and step to A+/A-/B+/B-

you need a stepper motor driver!

OK I just finally understand what the pul in outs are. Basically just a pass through to continue the signal from BOB to stepper motor driver. Then stepper motor driver pushes the pulses through A+ A- B+ B-. So am I just getting my motor driver setup wrong? This is my driver. I have the tabs on NA and 1.5amps.

[Ezalyconfuzd1]

Wait that says NC not NA does that mean No current?

[Ezalyconfuzd1]

Damnit! I had the stepper motor Off. Haha it's now on 800 same as my software calibration

[Ezalyconfuzd1]

Lol it works great now that I have it set to the same 800 calibration as my software

[Ezalyconfuzd1]

Thanks for the help guys

[weldguy]

Sweet! Always nice to sort things out without seeing the magic smoke so many of us are familiar with.

[Ezalyconfuzd1]

Sweet! Always nice to sort things out without seeing the magic smoke so many of us are familiar with.

Lol well maybe spoke too soon. Everything does work BUT my stepper motor driver won't stay on for longer than 30 seconds. If I flip the switches on it it'll come back on for another 30 seconds. I tried switching to different power sources, and also running it through the THC controller. Nothing changed. Any ideas? The blue indicator light shows inside of the driver everytime I press up down on the controller so the 5v in parts working, and it's seeing the pulse in, but there's no 12v supply (green light) Any ideas?

[Ezalyconfuzd1]

Just remembered I had one of these. Haha I ordered 2 almost like I knew how dumb I am with dc electronics.

[acourtjester]

You may have a wiring error and the driver is shutting off due to a shorted condition. Start with one axis at a time forget about the THC for now you are trying to do to many things at once. Attached are 2 drawing that may help, you do not need to have any connections to the driver for the enable circuit. Only Power and input and output signals show in the drawings. there are 2 motor wire color labels show use the one the matches your motors.
the ground shown on the driver is actually the common signal connection and should be jumped on the driver so both the step and dir common wires are the same. Do not flip switches with power on

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SIGNAL MOTORS.jpg

[Ezalyconfuzd1]

You may have a wiring error and the driver is shutting off due to a shorted condition. Start with one axis at a time forget about the THC for now you are trying to do to many things at once. Attached are 2 drawing that may help, you do not need to have any connections to the driver for the enable circuit. Only Power and input and output signals show in the drawings. there are 2 motor wire color labels show use the one the matches your motors.
the ground shown on the driver is actually the common signal connection and should be jumped on the driver so both the step and dir common wires are the same. Do not flip switches with power on
motor color 2.jpg
motor small color.jpg
SIGNAL MOTORS.jpg

OK thank you for that info.... yeahhhhh... I flipped switches, pulled and replaced wires, swapped wires all while it was on. I'll giver a shot again tomorrow. With the new one first then the old one if the new one doesn't work.

[Ezalyconfuzd1]

I'll giver a shot tomorrow and make sure everything is in place and switches are flipped before I put power to it.

Does anyone know specifically what this is called? I need the round in 2 post out connector adaptor piece. I've already got a 5 amp 120V to 12V adapter.

[acourtjester]

You can find them on eBay look through the different vendors for the best price they very some what. Not sure if you are in the US. Also check the dimensions I am not sure these are the same or they are all generic and the same sizes.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/395131777377?h ... BMprDbiqFj

https://www.ebay.com/itm/325144646599?h ... R6aw24qhYw

[Ezalyconfuzd1]

You can find them on eBay look through the different vendors for the best price they very some what. Not sure if you are in the US. Also check the dimensions I am not sure these are the same or they are all generic and the same sizes.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/395131777377?h ... BMprDbiqFj

https://www.ebay.com/itm/325144646599?h ... R6aw24qhYw

Thank you. They seem to all be the 2.1mmx 5.5 size standard.

[Ezalyconfuzd1]

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OK so I've got more info. If I use the software to move the torch the driver stays on until I use the THC box itself's up down control with my finger. And vise versa. If I use the THC box controls first it'll stay on until I press the software controls. Any ideas? I'm assuming something doesn't like the back feeding its getting. Is there a signal "check valve" I can use? As of now im fine just using the THC for torch height manually until I arch. Lol here's my Catastrophe for my controls. Gonna build an enclosure next.