Looking for info

[olddude]

I bought a 5x10 Premier Plasma cutting table from a guy awhile back. I got everything but the plasma cutter he wanted to keep that. It took me awhile to get the money for a new plasma cutter then when I did it took over 6 months to get the machine from the dealer....thanks China. Well I finally got the machine and have it plugged in but I remember seeing somewhere that with this table you had to go inside of the plasma machine and run a jumper someplace. The printed out manual I got mentions this and it says to go on the net and I could find printed information on how to do this. Well I have searched all over and can't find anything on it anywhere. I made a couple calls to Premier but never could get up with the person I need to talk to so I was hoping someone here might have one of these tables and could tell me what I have to do to get this thing going. Thanks!!!

[WyoGreen]

I don't think it's so much the table as the plasma torch. Do you have a machine torch or a hand torch? If a hand torch you often have to bypass some safety circuity so the torch will fire. This safety wiring is to prevent the hand torch from firing accidentality while laying on something. The machine torch does not have this circuity. I imagine the wiring changes are different on every plasma machine brand. So we will need to know which plasma machine you bought.
As an aside, I hope your didn't buy a High Frequency Start machine, as they have their own problems.

Steve

[olddude]

Oh Sorry I thought I had posted what machine I bought. It's a Hypertherm powermax 85 and I bought the one that came with both torches and the remote pendant what ever that is. I already had the machine torch that came with the table but at the price I figured I would get another in case I had some kind of crash later on. That package seemed like the best bang for the buck to me. I understood I couldn't use both at the same time but was wondering if it would be possible to unplug the machine torch then plug in the hand torch to make a few random cuts from time to time. I would hate to think I would have to buy another machine for this.

[olddude]

Also all of the directions were supposed to be on the computer that came with the table but I never was able to find it on there and I have looked all over for this information on the net with no luck. I have a hand printed booklet that came with it also but a lot of the pages are missing and it seems the ones with this info are the ones missing. I did see one line that said I could see pictures and directions of how this was done on their site but I haven't been able to find it.

[weldguy]

Hey olddude, you can just unplug your machine torch, plug in the hand torch and do manual cutting. I do it all the time with my Pmax 65.

As for connecting it to your plasma table I wanted to ask if your Pmax 85 came with a CPC port, I suspect it might have if it was a package sold with a machine style torch.

If you are not sure what the CPC port is see the image below where the round CPC port is shown.

CPC.png

[olddude]

Thanks and yes it does have the round CNC interface I'm not sure about the other one. The control box did have a made up 2 wire cable that had a banged up round plug on the end that I assumed went into that port. I made up that cable and fixed the end cap the best I could then pushed it into the port but haven't tried it out yet to see if the torch will fire.. I didn't want to hook something up wrong and blow my new machine up before I found out for sure how it was supposed to be wired. I'm still not sure about they are talking about as far as this jumper wire that needs to be wired into the machine.

[djreiswig]

They might be talking about a jumper to use the hand torch and fire it from the cpc. If you have a machine torch you won't have to worry about it.
The rs-485 port is use to set the amperage and air pressure remotely. This only works if your software has this feature. It's not necessary, but convenient.
You can certainly switch to the hand torch to cut. Just have to move the work lead to whatever you are cutting.
The remote pendant is pretty worthless. Just a switch to turn the machine torch on and off from the cpc.
Mine is stuck in a drawer somewhere, unused.

[acourtjester]

I used the remote pendant cable to connect to my DIY tables by adding some new pins into the connector for the THC. thanks Hypertherm.

[weldguy]

OK great, the CPC port will make it easier. You should not have to open the machine or use a jumper nor do you need the rectangular plug.

It would be wise to double check the wiring in your round plug to be sure it is correct for your Pmax 85 unless you are 100% certain it is wired for a Hypertherm machine.

At the very least you will need pins 3 and 4 hooked up to fire the torch, essentially if those two pins are connected to each other the torch will fire.

If you can get your controller to fire the torch then you can try to cut a simple straight line and see where that goes. If any problems arise during that post back with your results.

[olddude]

Thanks guys, I know the guy that had the table used it with a PM 85. It was probably 3 or 4 years older than the one I now have and not sure if it had a CPC port built in. I guess it probably did because of the round plug that is in the mass of wires coming out of the table control box. I may be wrong, but I seem to remember that there were only 2 pins in that round plug and not sure witch ones they are. I'll do some more looking when I get back to the shop. Another thing I was wondering where is the best place to hook the Work cable to the table. This is a bolt together table and not sure if just hooking to the outside frame would work.

[tnbndr]

You can unplug your machine torch and plug in the hand torch for cutting. That is how I cut up the skeletons that are left on the table after cutting a full sheet of art or parts. Faster than a cutoff wheel in a grinder.
I always put the work cable on the sheet I am cutting, hand or machine, guarantees a good circuit.

[olddude]

You can unplug your machine torch and plug in the hand torch for cutting. That is how I cut up the skeletons that are left on the table after cutting a full sheet of art or parts. Faster than a cutoff wheel in a grinder.
I always put the work cable on the sheet I am cutting, hand or machine, guarantees a good circuit.

Thanks, that's what I thought but just wanted to be sure.

[acourtjester]

I have a non-painted place on my table I connect the work lead from the Plasma unit. There is also about a # 8 wire I have attached at the same point which has a clamp on the other end that I clamp to the cut metal. This allows me to use the Plasma to cut with the hand torch and the work lead is free from the table. On a bolted together table you don't know if they painted the parts before assembly which would make for a poor connection.

ground clamp.jpg

[djreiswig]

I used the remote pendant cable to connect to my DIY tables by adding some new pins into the connector for the THC. thanks Hypertherm.

That's resourceful.

[djreiswig]

You can unplug your machine torch and plug in the hand torch for cutting. That is how I cut up the skeletons that are left on the table after cutting a full sheet of art or parts. Faster than a cutoff wheel in a grinder.
I always put the work cable on the sheet I am cutting, hand or machine, guarantees a good circuit.

Thanks, that's what I thought but just wanted to be sure.

I took the clamp off of my work lead and installed a welding ground magnet. Then I stick it to the sheet. Or for stainless I clamp a vise grip to the sheet and stick it to that.

[acourtjester]

I took the clamp off of my work lead and installed a welding ground magnet. Then I stick it to the sheet. Or for stainless I clamp a vise grip to the sheet and stick it to that.

More great examples for member to see.

[olddude]

Merry Christmas......I have a big round magnet and some ground clamps I can use. I was just worried that the torch or the gantry might get tangled up with the wire but I guess I could come in from the back straight into the piece of plate close to the corner. Sorry for all the dumb questions I'm really new to this. I guess I should look around and find someone that has one of these things that would hopefully give me a point or two about how all this stuff is done. I'm fighting computer problems now. I brought the computer up to the house so I could do some updates and try an get some of the u-tube vids on the machine to go by but Windows 7 don't like my wify adapter. Every time I try to get on the net windows is looking for a name and password and I don't have a clue what that might be. That D-link adapter works on every other computer I have, all I had to do was plug it in and the machine would download the drivers and it would go to work. It works on all the XP machines I have and the Windows 10 machine I have at home but it don't like windows 7. I guess I'll have to burn some disks with the vids on them and work from there.

[acourtjester]

As they say the only dumb question is the one not asked, No one is born knowing everything. Understand we all started with similar questions and problems. Address each question by itself, and the info you have about it. Where are you located there may be another member near you to help. You may not have the plug and play option set. Win 7 should act the same as the XP or win 10 when you add a new item. List the brand of computer you are having problems with and the if the win 7 is 32 or 64 bit version. Do you understand how to get into the BIOS if needed, some use F2 others use the delete key on boot up.

[olddude]

As they say the only dumb question is the one not asked, No one is born knowing everything. Understand we all started with similar questions and problems. Address each question by itself, and the info you have about it. Where are you located there may be another member near you to help. You may not have the plug and play option set. Win 7 should act the same as the XP or win 10 when you add a new item. List the brand of computer you are having problems with and the if the win 7 is 32 or 64 bit version. Do you understand how to get into the BIOS if needed, some use F2 others use the delete key on boot up.

Thanks I'm running Windows 7 pro sp1 32 bit system 2GB ram on a Dell optiplex 360. After I installed the wifi drivers I on boot up started getting that ApsSearch interface could not be located in the dynamic link library. I uninstalled those drivers and those error boxes went away so I'll give up on that for now. I can still get on the internet by plugging straight into the cable box. The main thing I wanted to do was get the latest updates and I also wanted to download some of the u-tube videos to have for use in the shop as I have no internet out there. Now I'm thinking I'll just buy one of those ext hard drives and download to it then hopefully I'll be able to get that stuff off of the ext hard drive via USB cable. After looking at the computer specs I don't have enough Ram to download all that stuff anyway. I'll probably add a couple more Gigs of ram to hopefully speed things up a little.
I'm in Virginia in the Richmond area and have been looking for someone close that may be willing to help. I know a guy that knows the machine but getting him over here is another thing.

Oh and I'm working on getting that plug and play option restored

[acourtjester]

Well you have a plan to get thing moving forward, You can buy a USB stick with lots of storage to transfer data to the shop PC. You can buy them a Walmart cheap
https://www.walmart.com/ip/SanDisk-64GB ... t=In-store
And you can get one of these to see if you can get WIFI in the shop, not sure how far your router will get. They do make ones with an external antenna too for longer range.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/234348308856?h ... Swwoleq3By