Anything welding

I see, so it is reading the voltage correctly, as, well the wrong voltage.

 

Just based on your initial responses, I can tell you're very fluent on the subject.

I'll try to answer as best as I can but it's been very repetitive for me for the last 3 days lol

I'm going to post the pictures and videos I posted there over here for ya.

 

I did look over on your thread, I didn't go too deep, I just wanted to throw some ideas out. I'm really digging in my brain on this one, it's quite strange.

 

@RedManRocket

Here is the initial height sensing switch in action when I ran that non-firing program I just posted the G code for -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcaCSCMqPek

Pictures of the contacts and components, all clean and tight -



A separate video, but from another angle of that same run -

https://youtu.be/PV_4iylUudI?si=gDu4NEnGxP_to5bq

Regardless of the height I zero my torch to, it still results in the same .02" height

 

Someone even mentioned adjusting the speed of my Z axis as it ran that file; I ran it and it did result in a change of speed on the Z axis -



But still had the same exact result of .02"

 

If it were me I would do something silly like put an additional piece of 10GA or whatever material under the torch, let it find that height, and remove the additional piece and allow it to cut just to see what it does.

 

Force THC to work; did something like that but not to that extreme.

I put (cause I have multiple cut outs) 10 gauge on dross left over that was stuck to the slat; THC did it's thing and showed ACTIVE and moved as needed to maintain an average 93.7v which = .02" cut height

 

I'm really leaning to a software issue because it seems so consistent. Can you update your firmware or possibly roll back? Did this just start randomly or possible after an update?

 

i'm going to laugh so hard if they come back that it's that fancy connector that i insisted you install.

 

What is this fancy connector you speak of?

 

I'm still on the same Firecontrol version that has worked just fine since January of this year.

When did it start, unsure, but the only changes that occurred (which leads me to something may have been cooked) is -

Around October, I had a THC issue.

Voltage provided to the voltage input module can be read as DIVIDED, or RAW.

From January up to October, I ran DIVIDED. Long story short, I fried a resistor (number 8) in the DIVIDED circuit.

I got a new voltage input module sent however, I went ahead and wired up for RAW voltage and continued using the same module as they are separate circuits.

So going from DIV to RAW is the only change; in my troubleshooting process I did incorporate the new voltage input module but yielded the same exact results meaning the module is not the issue.

That's why these pieces say "OLD" and "NEW"



Now to answer your question about 'when did it occur' or better yet, why did I notice?

I think I didn't notice it right away because I had only been cutting 16 gauge since October. It's too thin to show any real beveling.

I ordered a new torch and in anticipation, I wanted to create test cut files the same way I did in January when I set everything up.

I'm a 'perfectionist' in a sense in that, I wanted to properly set my torch height correctly for the new torch as I was physically removing the old one.



That's when I noticed my cut height did not change and well..how we are where we are now.

 

This -



But if anything, the cable run is physically shorter and would not introduce any resistance to make a difference.

The initial pierce still shows 120v if you watch the videos -

https://youtu.be/ROaB3EerrgA?si=BWpnoJB0JXiJM3G3

https://youtu.be/XrwJ8EV2VFo?si=GBrH3qKNK4JKErN2

Plus, if it was the port (consisting of only 2 wires) why would a non-firing run result in the same incorrect height?

 

Welp, I would say that resistor getting cooked must've caused some kind of internal problem if replacing the module didn't fix anything. Unfortunately I'm not familiar with specific machine. I would still possibly try to do some kind of work with the firmware. I had an incident where I over clocked my CPU on my PC and it seemed to work but then I would have intermittent screen freezing. I feared I damaged something during the over clock and removed it immediately but the problem persisted. I tiddled with it for a while but ending up reflashing and updating my BIOS and the problem luckily went away.

 

I'll be trying that tomorrow; I cut all this out already. It's not just the pieces cut out, but the many cuts on the larger panels where I would pause mid cut to measure height multiple times



All 1/4" and 10 gauge

 

I hope an easy reflash will alleviate the problem

 

seriously though, your setup before was 2 open wires that were somewhat separated from each other. combining those 2 wires into the loom makes it look nicer, but depending on the frequency you're dealing with, could introduce EMI between wires.

i really doubt any part of this is your problem, it really sounds like a software issue.. i would try a different pc if possible.

 

I posted on FB; two other people are assuming the same as I did - an item/fault somewhere along the torch height control setup that may have been damaged when my resistor blew out.

 

Did you turn off the software and restart? My Mach3 is like that. Exit the program and restart and things are normal.

 

Oh I did/have.

I'll try downloading a different version of Firecontrol tomorrow but I'd like to hear what Langmuir suggests when they talk tomorrow.

 

But yes @soundman98 it'd be much easier if I simply had an extra laptop to install a different version of Firecontrol for testing.

This would be troubleshooting step number 287 or so