Plasmacam with Hypertherm 1000

[railmaker]

I have a Samson 510 by plasmacam. I have had it for about13 years. I run a Hypertherm 1000. Lately it has been randomly firing and intermittently showing the red fault light and saying it can’t sense the material. I have checked the wiring for any fault areas, but have not found any. Could this just be the ohmic sensing head or a problem with the cutter itself? Any help would be much appreciated. TIA

[rdj357]

IF the torch is randomly firing then you likely have a sticking control pad button. Use Machine Diagnostics to look to see if the test button is yellow or flashing yellow when not being pressed. Not sensing the material can be an issue with connection between the ohmic wiring and the shield but it may also be related to the issues on the control pad.

[railmaker]

Thank you! I will check in diagnostics today and pull the torch apart and clean the head and install a new retaining cap, shield, electrode and nozzle. thanks again.

[weldguy]

Curious what you find out, please post back with your findings

[railmaker]

I tried the diagnostics. Sometimes it showed the xy being solid yellow but no flashing yellow. I activated all the buttons several times. After the machine is initialized and I run the diagnostics, it becomes inactive and I have to reinitialize it. Could it be the control box is to cold, because it is very cold in my shop right now. I have not checked out the torch head yet.

[Joe Jones]

Remove the controller box and check to see if the main wiring harness plug has worked itself out of the box plug. The wiring harness moves, and that movement finds its way down to the controller. if the plug is not FULLY inserted and LOCKED in with that crappy little tab, the plug will wiggle out over time, until one or more of the contacts is not fully engaged.

Joe