Wired up new Arcdroid with trigger wires tapped in parallel to the Orange and Purple wires inside a Hypertherm Powermax 600 (found in forums and tested they were the torch start wires beforehand). Tried to do a quick test without cutting (thus no ground connection). It triggered the torch and air on, one weak start spark against table through a layer of cardboard, then it started to home (instead of following cut pattern) with the torch now stuck on, even when Arcdroid was quickly powered off. Afterward we found the start wires must have shorted together to keep the torch on, but electrically this should be no different than holding the trigger or closing the relay which makes no sense. In other words, there should have been no voltage differential across the wires, thus no reason to arc or cause them to short together through insulation/shrinkwrap/etc.. Disconnected everything. Verified Powermax still works normally.
But now Arcdroid trigger circuit will not activate at all. Opened the case, and did continuity testing and everything looks good from the terminal posts as far back as the relay output contacts. I saw in another post someone was having a problem with their plasma cutter not starting reliably but they said they heard Arcdroid clicking its relay every time it tried to start. I do not hear any clicking. Even made a test pattern that is just a bunch of dashed lines, and other than noises while raising/lowering the head, I don’t hear any clicking to indicate that the relay is working.
Can the relay be tested safely in situ, or does it have to be removed to test? If the relay is bad, that’s easy to replace. If it’s not triggering the relay any more, that’s a bigger problem. I looked at both sides of the control board and I don’t see anything toasted.
Check you’re plasma is set to 2T not 4T also test on metal not card board and ground to the metal not the table finally test your airflow if you have low air pressure and the plasma won’t work
Do you have an ohmmeter/multimeter? Easy to check function of the Droid’s plasma contact.
Do not have the plasma connected. Turn on Droid, and home it. Use simple trace and just do a circle of say 3”. Save the file and reload it. Don’t be concerned with tuning. Unplug the stylus and leave it in place. Make sure the plasma icon is not turned off. Set your meter to ohms/continuity and verify its working by touching the probes together. Put the test leads on the droids plasma contact screws. It should be open. Hit run on the droid. After the stylus contacts the surface and starts the circle put the meter to the plasma start connections and check for continuity again, contacts should be closed. If not, you have a problem…
Yes sorry, I should have mentioned I already did that. It’s an open circuit at Arcdroid’s plasma trigger terminals, and it remains so while it’s attempting to cut the pattern. That’s why I’m focused internally at the relay. It’s either not getting triggered, or the relay itself is dead and not closing.
Can you post up a pic of the relay in question? 8 pins? Should be easy to figure which pins are contacts and which two are the coil. There should be labeling on the relay itself.
I’m an idiot. Because the torch fired up on the first attempt, we thought we had done everything right on the Arcdroid initially. But that was apparently due to an intermittent short in the torch trigger wires. What we missed in the startup instructions was the Torch on/off button on the screen. It was off. Turn it on, and it works fine. smacks forehead
BobD, thanks for your tips. “operator panel plasma enable on” got me pointed in the right direction.
