Valid arc lost

I am running a Hypertherm 65 with a MESA 7i96 and a THCAD 5. When I am cutting every now and then I will get an error that says This error happens when the arc appears to be fine. I am wondering what causes this error.

Is this since you changed over to Mode 1?

Yes. For now, I have to take another thin piece of metal and place it under the torch so when it starts up it has metal to strike to arc on. It gives me this error about four times for about 25 minutes of cutting.

Well the machine controls the Arc OK signal so it may be a physical connection problem.

You should also check that the Cut Parameters are correct.

Okay, thanks phillc54 I will check my cut parameters again. Just so I better understand this error message is the only way that this error happens when the Arc OK signal turns off or are there other things that can cause this error.

Yes, that error message means that the Arc OK signal was lost.

Lower the cut height.