My hypertherm powermax, has started to cut out after about 15 minutes of use, the fault and the power light (self diagnostic mode) then flash... the unit will not reset for about half hour...
anything obvious or is this going to need to go in?
Its a fault on the cooling circuit (possibly a faulty fan). It is FOD (fan on demand) - or whatever they call it. I've had this where the unit works fine until it calls on the fan to operate, at which point you get the fault light. The reason it kicks back in after a while is that it cools down when you leave it, and you're back to working until you clock up enough amps / minutes to warrant the fan coming on again.
You're going to tell me the fan works fine now, aren't you?!
If what I've said sounds logical, here are a couple of quotes from some emails with H'therm tech support. I can't recommend them highly enough.
"...Now if you have the Red lightning bolt and Green AC light flashing – this is usually a sign that something is shorted. If you can cut for a while before this fault occurs I would look at the fan being the problem. The fan will only come on once it comes up to temperature."
"The easiest way to test for the fan is if it acts up again just unplug the fan from J1 and see if the problem goes away. It is hard to measure for a short on that type of fan. "
thanks AL thats a great help , funny I had a gut feeling that it could be the FOD, It may just be jammed IL lift the lid a check it spins.. If it does IL disconnect it and see what happens..
It did it once yesterday on the table, and again today whilst hand cutting...
any idea if hypertherm supply spares direct (If this is the issue)?
the time scale about 15 minutes of cutting ties in with when the fan (normaly cuts in) It hasent, dismatale tommorow blow down, check it spins sees what happens....
Snowy - I'm not sure about spares direct. I discussed the matter with a local supplier (Rapid Welding in Portsmouth I think) and the costs didn't seem too bad (even with my small wallet).
For what its worth, mine does this even though its very clean inside, so I have ruled out the dust-causing-short option.
Al, started this morning by pulling the cover, cleaned out checked the fan which span OK....
put the cover over lose, ran the machine same problem after about 10 minutes use, poped the cover machine ran straight away..
carried on lights flashed after about five, disconnected JP1 connected to the fan still wouldn't reset, fiddled again started to work...
after about 20 minutes of headscratching and the machine starting to work (again) I saw two coiled lose wires Id disconnected when the THC card was installed.. every-now and then when gas solenoid clicked and shook the machine, the wires would contact on the board, bit of tape and machine was fine......... strange the THC cards been in 12 months, wires must have just moved enough to cause a problem..
Well, I guess I'll check mine for loose cables! Is the THC card seperate to the CNC interface socket down on the right?
I think mine is probably a simple fix, I should scrape some pennies together and get it serviced. A tool like that deserves a bit of TLC. If I put a pound in a tin every time it made me grin, I'd have enough to buy another one by now...
My THC board sits in the bottom of the machine, (professionally installed with 2 cable ties and a slab of cardboard....
It taps off the two JP for the tip volts and then into the xfer pins in the unit, the socket on the back if I remember correctly doesn't send out any machine start signals, so you still have to install in the case...
cant remember why I had to remove 2 off the wires now, tho it was defiantly done for a reason....
Mind goes soft, can just about remember yesterday, last weeks a struggle