Hypertherm powermax 600 to legacy plasmacam

[Mr62Buick]

I'm a newby here so please be kind.

I purchased a legacy plasma cam table that was modified and converted over fifteen to twenty years ago.

A business had taken a 4 / 4 table and made a 5 foot by 9 foot water table for a plasma.Cam that was built in two thousand four. The computer software and everything is original to 2004 and runs a Windows XP program.And amazingly the computer works great and has even an upgraded hard drive of fifty six gigs.

When I bought the table, It came with everything minus the plasma cutter. The plasma cutter they had was a small suitcase type possibly around a two hundred size. The plasma cutter they had was made by Hypertherm, which was good.Because I have a Hypertherm power.Max six hundred which i'm finding out was discontinued in two thousand and eight.

I contacted Hypertherm, they told me about a retro fit Torch kit. I purchased that because I do not have a pigtail on my Hypertherm 600 to attach to any plasma table plus It had a hand torch and not the candlestick type for a plasma table. Also, the plasma table did not have the hand held pistol grip style connection for the table, It had the candlestick style holder so I had to upgrade regardless anyway.

Now that I have the upgraded Torch for my hyperthermic 600, here's my problem. The Torch has a 3 wire plugin and the plasma cam has a 4 wire plugin. So of course, how am I supposed to get this to work when I don't have a wiring schema for either one of them. I contacted hypertherm and i'm waiting for an email back on the wiring schematic just for the 3 pin plug.

Now With plasmacam, it's going to be another story because I am not the registered last owner of the setup so they refuse to talk to me until I registered under it in my name.Which of course as everybody knows they want your first unborn son and everything else and I haven't gone that for yet.

I think they were also a little miffed because they wanted to try and sell me an entire upgrade package which includes, Of course, about $4000 worth of misc and I think it might also be because they want me to download software or something like that. That is a payable renewable license or something like that. So it's continually generating money. Meanwhile, I have the software program that has been bought and paid for by the original owner. That is not hooked up to the internet at all. Its duty free so to speak.

So my question is how do I hook up the 4 wire plasma cam to the 3 wire plug in on the Hypertherm Retrofit candlestick style upgraded Torch so they can communicate together and turn on the plasma Torch. To actually start doing some stuff. Does anybody know how the wiring is hooked up?

[plasmanewbie]

Typical Plasmacam story, hear it all the time. Very frustrating I am sure.

The Plasmacam does not get wired to the torch, the 3 wires on your new torch must just plug into one of the circuit boards inside your Powermax 600. The Plasmacam hookup is completely separate from that and the conection will also be made to the circuit board inside the Powermax 600. Not sure about Plasmacam but most basic connections are 4 wire, 2 wires to trigger the plasma cutter on and off, and 2 wires to bring arc voltage back to the controller for your auto height control.

Do you have a circuit board schematic for your Powermax 600 we could look at to determine where the connections should be made?

[Mr62Buick]

I just received an email from hypertherm and they stated that the two top wires on the 3 pin plug are the trigger wires and the bottom was a ground. Then I received and email from another plasma guru and he stated the black/white wires are also the trigger on the plasmacam. The red is mean for the height adjustment to which I do not have. I contacted plasmacam, but because I am not the registered owner and did not pay for the upgrade, they said they wouldn't touch me unless I bought the designedge software which to me makes me not want to ever work with plasmacam. Here, we MIGHT help you, but spend $4000 on an upgrade you don't need.

So yes, you are right, I only need 3 wires hooked up and with you and hypertherm helping me out, I am excited to see if this works! I just bought a new upgraded pc and swapped all of the software to it as I am using the original 2004 windows XP software with no internet browser, and nothing can be updated since it is not updatable.

[rdj357]

First, I'm glad you are up and going! I hope it works well and makes you a lot of money!

Second, this is not true, " I have the software program that has been bought and paid for by the original owner." The original owner of the table owned a LICENSE to use the software. That license is subject to terms and conditions that they agreed to. You do not own a license until the ownership is transferred into your name.

Third, PlasmaCAM decided several years ago to discontinue support for software ore-DesignEdge. It makes sense from a business standpoint and the only problem I personally see with it is that they did it without any warning and didn't tell anyone until they tried to get support, usually when their table was not working so the shock of needing an upgrade for continued support seems like blackmail instead of the reasonable business plan that it is.

The ownership transfer costs nothing but it does require a signed form from the last registered owner or other paperwork that ultimately shows you to be the owner. You are correct that without an upgrade they will not help you but there are many, many owners that help people every day including myself. Some day it might be worth looking into getting height control working since it seems you have a DHC table which does have height control (just not ohmic sensing) and if you have the original software installation files, you could update to a brand new computer that would be much more reliable.

[plasmanewbie]

Glad your getting things sorted out. Let us know how it works out for you.