Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: kevlar129bp on March 11, 2010, 07:11:30 PM
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Hello all,
Currently I have got Mach (newest version) running my gantry plasma. The box is an AMD T-bird, 1.5 Gb ram, XP Pro, ATI Video, on-board parallel port. Until today, all seemed well, as it has been cutting well. Upon running a new part this morning, I got 8 arc starts into the part and "it" quit. "It" being, when the plasma goes to pilot, the computer totally freezes.
My closest observations:
COMPUTER:
mouse - (optical, lit up, no movement)
video - (frozen)
keyboard - (ps2, no 3 finger salute, no Windows key)
PLASMA:
on M03 - relay clicks, pilot starts, computer freezes, relay releases, pilot extinguishes
What I've tried so far:
modified g code to rid it of the torch dwells - no change - computer freeze
fire the torch with M03 button on screen, not running toolpath - computer freeze
manually trigger plasma on test piece of steel, Mach loaded on computer - torch fires, cuts, NO computer freeze
disconnected PC and blew it out with air - lot's of dust ;D - - no change - computer freeze
Any thoughts or other tests I haven't done that you guys can think of?
I'm at a loss at this point...
Thanks all,
Chris
Registered Mach license holder
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Hi Chris,
Could be a noise issue - check that you haven't pulled off a ground connection cable somewhere.
Tweakie.
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Thanks Tweakie,
I was thinking the same thing... I don't think anything else seems logical. I was going to mount up my buddy's Hypertherm, but I think I need to go through the wiring first, like you suggested.
I'll let you know what I find...
Thanks again,
Chris
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Have you tried executing an M03 with the plasma machine off? IE: Just cycle the relays without the torch actually firing. If it only freezes when the torch actually fires it's most likely noise/grounding issues. Are you using a THC? Are all inputs opto-isolated?