Torchmate down since May 17'

[Cypress]

Well the ongoing saga with my table continues. I sent my accumove2 to a place in San Antonio for repairs. After 3 months I get my accumove2 back and it still doesnt work.

I send it off to Torchmate and they repair the controller and send it back to me quickly. Thank you Torchmate for all you do. I redid all my grounding as suggested. Hooked everything back up, had a few minor bugs and Denny from Torchmate was awesome in helping me address those, he even stayed after their normal closing hours to help me get my issues worked out.

Controller works, Machine head moves around the table like it's suppose to. Great...

Now the problem. Same as before.

Machine head moves to position.
Touches down, comes up to fire....just air. No arc
Look at my controller and the LED is off.
Controller Powerbrick is off and warm to touch.
No Fault on Plasma Cutter.

Plasma cutter works fine when not hooked up to the table.

I did not try to cut again. The last time I did that my Accumove2 smoked. I did switch out powerbricks and turned the controller back on and brought up the VMD. Controller is ok, and gantry moves around the table with no issues.

So the question...what would cause the power brick to trip, shut accumove down when the plasma tries to fire?

My Torchmate GS 4x4 has been 90% of my business and I'm pretty much dead in the water right now. I pray this never happens to any of you. I have faith the good folks at Torchmate will help me solve this maddening problem.

AJ

 

[Dnmeistr-LECS]

We will need to verify the plasma connections are terminated to the correct locations. Off the plasma interface cable you should have two sets of wires, labeled 3 and 4 as well as 12 and 14. Pair 3 and 4 is your plasma arc start wires and are connected to port 1 on the back of the Accumove box. Pair 12 and 14 are connected to the Input cable on the back of the Accumove box, this is the lower left round cable of the 8 exposed multicolored wires we are only going to use two wires red and black (the other colored wires can snip the exposed ends off and tie wrap out of the way).

Raw arc voltage wires from the plasma cutter will be connected to the red and black wires on the VFC box, on your TD 52 the raw arc voltage contacts are labeled Work and Electrode, see picture attached.

Next is grounding, both the VFC and Accumove box are grounded to the table using a ground lug, from the ground lug run another ground cable to one of your water table slats, also from the ground lug run another ground wire to an stand alone earth ground rod with nothing else connected to the ground rod.

 

[Cypress]

Thanks for the info. I will double check the interface. For the past two years I’ve had no issues running my table and have not changed any wiring connections. I do have a star ground on the table and on on he water table slats. All going to an earth ground 6ft away.

 

[Dnmeistr-LECS]

Somehow or another when the plasma cutter is being called upon to cut, it is backfeeding current into the Accumove causing it to shut off, isolate the plasma cutter from the Accumove. Turn Ok to Move off int he Tool Library, disconnect the input cable, bottom left round connector on the Accumove box, disconnect the Arc Start wires from port 1 of the Accumove box. Turn ohmic sensing off under job setup then jog the torch down to touch the material and press Set next to Top of Material. Cut in manual mode under the AVHC settings, disconnect the round plug (arc Voltage) from the VFC box. Remove the Accumove and VFC ground wires form the cutting table.

Run a job, when the torch drops down to pierce touch the Arc Start wires together to fire the plasma cutter, to see if it will run the job. If it performs, add the Input cable back in place and reenable Ok to Move under Tool Library, and run a job again. If successful, connect the Arc Start wires back to port 1 and run another job. Then you can ground the VFC box to the table and reconnect the Arc Voltage cable, reenable the Ohmic sense under Job Setup and run another job, to see if it is successful. Then finally ground the Accumove box to the table.

 

[Buzz Cooper]

I'm not sure what the problem is with the Accumove but it's scary for sure to know that the warranty runs out in two years. Mine started messing up after I had it about a month and continues to do the same things. I just sent my Accumove box back and they sent me a new one and right out of the box I had the same problems. My power source for the Accumove was putting out 52 volts instead of 24 and it was definitely back feeding power some how. It lost position on the table so I Datumed it and it crashed and wouldn't turn back on. Does your table ever bind up and not move? I have narrowed my initial problem down to this. The Table has two big flaws. Number one is the gear rack that the motors ride on are below the water line of the table.
The table needs a lift kit to lift both rails that the gantry rides on up by at least 4". The other solution would be to cut two 4" metal shields that run the length of the table and are right below the gantry to block the water splashing. As the table is now the water splashes all over the gear and rack every time you cut anything close to the edge. My initial binding and binding during a cut that causes the machine to lose position I believe all goes back to the splash issue which I think overloaded my Accumove and smoked it. Once the water gets on the gears and sits over night or a couple of days in between cuts it builds up a fine layer of rust and this causes it to bind up. I know this sounds crazy but I wire brushed the entire length of the gear rack and brush it off at the beginning of every day I cut and it hasn't bound up since. My next plan is to lift the rails 4" to 6" and install guards as well to isolate the water. The second flaw in the table is shipping. The Accumove box is hanging from a bracket under the table and while everything else is secured during transit it is allowed to bounce around under there like crazy!! Its the Brain, it should be in a foam lined box!! The machine works great when it works other than these problems and the AHC I had to turn off because it only worked for like a week. I do wish it was powder coated too since I have had mine since march and the paint is popping off everywhere from rust. My plan is to tear it down one day and powder coat everything that is metal. Hope your problems get better.

 

[Cypress]

I'm not sure what the problem is with the Accumove but it's scary for sure to know that the warranty runs out in two years. Mine started messing up after I had it about a month and continues to do the same things. I just sent my Accumove box back and they sent me a new one and right out of the box I had the same problems. My power source for the Accumove was putting out 52 volts instead of 24 and it was definitely back feeding power some how. It lost position on the table so I Datumed it and it crashed and wouldn't turn back on. Does your table ever bind up and not move? I have narrowed my initial problem down to this. The Table has two big flaws. Number one is the gear rack that the motors ride on are below the water line of the table.
The table needs a lift kit to lift both rails that the gantry rides on up by at least 4". The other solution would be to cut two 4" metal shields that run the length of the table and are right below the gantry to block the water splashing. As the table is now the water splashes all over the gear and rack every time you cut anything close to the edge. My initial binding and binding during a cut that causes the machine to lose position I believe all goes back to the splash issue which I think overloaded my Accumove and smoked it. Once the water gets on the gears and sits over night or a couple of days in between cuts it builds up a fine layer of rust and this causes it to bind up. I know this sounds crazy but I wire brushed the entire length of the gear rack and brush it off at the beginning of every day I cut and it hasn't bound up since. My next plan is to lift the rails 4" to 6" and install guards as well to isolate the water. The second flaw in the table is shipping. The Accumove box is hanging from a bracket under the table and while everything else is secured during transit it is allowed to bounce around under there like crazy!! Its the Brain, it should be in a foam lined box!! The machine works great when it works other than these problems and the AHC I had to turn off because it only worked for like a week. I do wish it was powder coated too since I have had mine since march and the paint is popping off everywhere from rust. My plan is to tear it down one day and powder coat everything that is metal. Hope your problems get better.

Thanks for chiming in and I hope your issues get worked out. I have an older Growth Series Table and have not had any splash or binding issues. My table and controller have ran well the last two years, this problem just recently started and I believe it may be the Plasma cutter back feeding into the controller when the plasma cutter tries to fire.