Customer Conversation | Machine Freezing & Power Supply

💬 Original transcript

🧑 CUSTOMER:

Hi Costy, hope everything is fine. Listen, your small foam cutting machine keeps freezing. I can't get it to work, I don't understand. I send a print job and after a while it freezes. I tried several times, changed USB cables, used the offline controller — I can't figure it out.

🧑 CUSTOMER:

I always used 2cm or 3cm normal polystyrene foam. So I always stayed at 50% temperature. Now this is expanded polystyrene for house insulation, 6cm thick, and I have to set it to 100%, otherwise the hot wire bends — when it moves, the exposed part doesn't stay straight, it curves because it doesn't melt properly. Anyway, the machine started freezing when I started using this thicker foam. So maybe it's the power supply... I don't know. For now it's still running, hasn't frozen yet.

🔧 COSTYCNC (internal comment):

So he increased the temperature and the 12V 3A power supply can't handle it.

🔧 COSTYCNC (note):

After he changed to a 12V 5A power supply...

🧑 CUSTOMER (after replacement):

Well, I don't have the foam to test yet, but I ran two prints of an 80cm text and the machine worked correctly. So it was freezing because it was under stress and the wire was bending while cutting. Hehe. So tomorrow I'll buy the foam and do the test. By lowering the speed and going slower, the wire stays straight, no stress, and it should cut. If it works like this, it will work tomorrow too. Thanks.

🔧 COSTYCNC (final analysis):

The customer thinks it was due to mechanical stress, but the cause was the power supply. He never called me — that's a sign he solved it by changing the power supply.

⚠️ IMPORTANT NOTE — Temperature is in % (percentage), NOT degrees Celsius:
In the control software, the hot wire temperature is set as a percentage (e.g., 50%, 100%).
When the customer writes "50 degrees" or "100 degrees", they mean 50% and 100%.

🎯 WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED (CostyCNC technical analysis):

✅ The customer increased the temperature from 50% to 100% to cut 6cm thick EPS foam.
✅ The original 12V 3A power supply cannot provide enough current to keep the wire at 100% while also powering the motors under load.
✅ Result: the machine freezes (voltage drop / thermal protection / controller reset).
✅ Solution: replace with a 12V 5A power supply (or higher).
✅ After the replacement, the machine works correctly — even at 100% temperature.

📌 Low speed is recommended for thick foam (better cut quality), but it is NOT the solution to the power supply problem. The real issue was the 3A power supply not handling 100% temperature.

📌 SUMMARY FOR THE CUSTOMER (if he reads this page):

Dear customer, you solved the problem by changing from a 12V 3A to a 12V 5A power supply. This is proof that the issue was the power supply, not "mechanical stress".

You can continue using low speed (which is good practice for thick foam anyway), but now the machine won't freeze because the 5A power supply handles 100% temperature.

If you switched back to the 3A power supply, the freezing would return as soon as you go above a certain temperature (e.g., above 70-80%).

Thanks for choosing CostyCNC! 👍

🔧 Folder context: /guide/risoluzione-trasformatore-sotto-sforzo-costycnc/en/
📅 Real case: customers with thick foam (6cm+) and high temperature (90-100%) → if the machine freezes, 90% of the time it's the 12V 3A power supply not being enough. Solution: 12V 5A.