Mesa THCAD-10

n2fastcars75 wrote:

I was getting a -36 reading on the axis gui all the time without any change after firing the torch .....

You should have stopped there and check everything, that should read 0 when THCAD is wired and set up properly regarding scaling and offset.

n2fastcars75 wrote:

I looked though the manuals and did notice that the thcad-10 board should have a cr2 yellow and cr5 green led working on the board. Im only getting the one yellow led.

The green one should blink when THACD is powered.

n2fastcars75 wrote:

Another thing i did see as well is that the 7i96s has jumpers for the encoders on it. Im thinking it needs to be set for single-ended (TTL)? There's a commet about only needing to use a + wire to the encoder? Im using fout+ to encoder+ and fout- to encoder- does this sound right?

Yes it is correct, and no do not move the jumpers.

n2fastcars75 wrote:

I also have 65 or so volts coming into the thcad-10 board with the 2.5m ohm resistor on the pin that is connected to the ground lead. Does this sound right?

That does not seem OK on many levels, even with the torch on you should get under 10V on THACD inputs, so make sure the shop, plasma source, machine, computer, ALL have proper grounding, This is not negotiable on plasma machines, no ground usually means dead parts.

n2fastcars75 wrote:

I see others say you need 1m ohm on each pin.

Does not matter much, i prefer 2, but i mostly use old plasma sources so it makes it safer in case a wire is nicked on the way to THCAD.

Its been a while and made many changes last night and still cant get thc to work. Still have a negative voltage on qtplasmac gui. I got it installed and running thinking it might make things easier. Made all changes adding extra grounds to table. 8 foot grounding rod connected to table with welding lead wire. Isolated my control box from the plasma table as well. Also added relay for torch on function and for arc ok i added a optocoupler so the plasma cutter is isolated as much as i can. Hoping this was all worth the time. i have everything working and made test cuts. I have checked everything i know to check on the thcad-10. everything is wired 100% as manual states. As well i have changed setting in the qtplasmac gui to try and get it to 0 volts. If i put a 0 in voltage scale it will give me 0 volts. Im guessing i have a blown thcad-10 or encoder is blown. Im wondering if i cant use a tool i have for working on cars. I have a PicoScope oscilloscope to maybe check thcad-10 or encoder? I have had it for a long time and had forgot i even had it. Used it a long time ago to test a ignition coil on a car along with some other stuff. Any advise would be great! Thank you for the input so far.   

Make a new config, this one will probably not work.
Use PncConf.

Can you post a backup of the config made from the backup button on the settings tab. Also what resistors you used and the zero an 10 volt frequencies from the THCAD-10 card.

The hal file is edited and modified, stuff that are normally found on custom.hal are there.
I found out the hard way that QtPlasmaC does not like messing with it's files.

I'm using a high voltage 2.4 m ohm on the ground side. I'll have to get a new config made tomorrow after work. 0 volts is 117.6 and 10 volts 941.3. I'll have to get the other stuff from the settings tab tomorrow.

n2fastcars75 wrote:

I'm using a high voltage 2.4 m ohm on the ground side. I'll have to get a new config made tomorrow after work. 0 volts is 117.6 and 10 volts 941.3. I'll have to get the other stuff from the settings tab tomorrow.

I am not sure why you have:

Usually this should be an INM Input.

Not sure about this either:


Are these numbers similar to yours in the Paramaters tab?:

The hal file is edited and modified, stuff that are normally found on custom.hal are there.

Apart from the two lines above it seems quite normal.

Encoder scaling/mode has missing -,
...

Crikey, I must be getting too old for this. I went through the hal file several times and missed that one. 

    ok i created a new config with pncconfig wizard. My arc voltage is still a negitive number -34. I will need to do some work on ini for limits and home stuff. The wizard always gets me confused when setting up limit and home switches. I do better just changing them in the ini. Didnt see anything about encoder scale in the hal this time either. I picked mode 1 on qtplasmac gui screen page on wizard. Im pretty sure i did as well on the first config. I have thcad-10 picked F jumper 32 and it moved to that on the board. 0v 117.6 full scale 10v 941.3 and divider set to 24. Not sure 24 is right for divider? Theres a realtime page in wizard is this where you set scale? Add hal components? Im guessing this is what i dont have?