Plasma Cutter causes communications lost with 7176.

Its all to ridiculous! I bought a new 5i25-7i76 because my old one lost their I/O. Now I have a new set of cards with I/O and I can't use them because they keep getting knocked out by the Cutter. $400 down the drain. I am no further ahead than I was a month ago. I will have to keep searching for a solution. At least now I know it's a transient issue. I might have to find some line reactors...or something.
thanks

Hi,

Okey.
Move your pc and Control box and usb cables from the iron machine. Dont let one wire touch the machine.

If the machine is working good without
Plasma arc?

So yes.

Do a program and do the plasma torch contact extern. Torch normally open contact by hand.

If this is good.
You are almost where you want to be.
Try to find your disturbing source step
By step.

Good luck. Mesa can not do anything
About your problem.

The machine works just fine UNTIL the trigger of the Cutter is set. I/O is no problem. Estop works, relay works.
As stated earlier, the Cutter was completely separated (the other side of the garage). NO physical connection. Only the same power line.

Oh, and I forgot, I have scanned through the Plasma files, but don't see anything relating to what I am experiencing. I will keep reading.
Thanks for your input.

Disconnect plasma start. Do this by hand in running program. Is machine cutting without problems?

It can a problem in the inverter plasma start wiring

Noise like this is certainly frustrating. I had similar issues with my 7i76e. Good grounding according to a Hypertherm document about a star ground was helpful and involved running a wire back to the star point from every stepper/servo motor.

I even purchased a USB oscilloscope to get a better handle on it all. One of the most effective things I did was replace the IEC power connector with an EMI filter like this. www.jaycar.com.au/iec-emi-power-line-filter-6-amp/p/MS4003
At one stage, I added a similar filter to the raw arc voltage in the plasma cutter itself. However, eventually I removed it and found it was not needed. In my case the noise was interfering with the arc voltage from the THCAD so it was impossible to do any THC adjustment.

The oscilloscope was useful as it helped me isolate the noise was coming from the control box, not the plasma cutter.

So welcome to the noobie plasma dance! I found there were so many things I had absolutely no clue about with electronics that is second nature to guys like PCW who are immersed in this stuff every day.

I have narrowed it down to a power line noise issue. I have already ordered a couple filters for my control circuits and computer. I am very familiar with the line transient issue, just did not think it would be the problem here. Step by step isolation of all the components including the gantry and table itself, an total removal of the plasma cutter is, to me, a clear indicator it is line noise.
I am even going one step further and get an input line reactor for the Plasma cutter. As this power line is also connect to all of my shop and ultimately my cottage electronics.
Line reactors are typically used in VFD applications with long leads to the motor, but there are three other applications of which this is two. But only one applies. Usually input reactors protect the power device (in this case the plasma cutter) from receiving line transients, but it can also stop the power device from introducing transients back into the supply lines.
Thanks for the feedback...pun intended!