Long story short, a lot of things were changed before I replaced the the 7i97t. Since then, I have have been cutting with zero issues. The thcad for arc volts is reading accurately while cutting. The thcad for ohmic is not hooked up. I can't get it to work, but maybe that's a good thing because it sounds like it's a bad idea with hf start.
The longer story is that this machine didn't have a home. So while its new home was being built, I set it up temporarily in my shop, so I could attempt to retrofit it with linuxcnc. When I fired up the torch for the first time, it damaged the 7i97t. This was with both ohmic and arc volts hooked up, so its anybodys guess what caused it. I added some grounds and an emi filter and few other things then replaced the 7i97t. Then I got it working great with a non hf plasma(except I didn't hook up ohmic).
Then after it was moved into its new home, we added several ground rods and hooked it up to the hf start plasma the way you had just advised. It's been cutting great.
I know I ask a lot stupid questions but I do appreciate the help.
