Results 1 to 5 of 5

Thread: Dark cloud: my LS900 is fritzing out...

  1. #1

    Dark cloud: my LS900 is fritzing out...

    --But there is a silver lining...

    Yesterday I noticed the X stepper motor 'thumping'... Uh oh...

    Occasionally when the rotary's plugged in it'll thump. I can make it quit by wiggling the rotary's plug. But it's never thumped otherwise till yesterday.

    It's been idle all day till about an hour ago when I started a stainless job. While setting up the next job all of a sudden the laser starts making racket and the laser head is thrashing back & forth, so a hit the pause button as fast as I could. When i hit the reset, the head was 'stuck' briefly until the Y got home, then the X went home. I rebooted, and tried to pick up the job where it left off. About 3 sweeps in the racket started again-- best way I can describe it, is if you took a Dremel tool running full blast and then pressed the whole thing against the laser box... or an extremely amplified dentist's drill.

    And a bunch of dollar signs with wings started to fly away... I just paid off the IS7000 last week, so it just figures ...

    But- after a little trial and error testing, I discovered the machine is acting EXACTLY like the Triumph did when it was messing up-- as in, only the X is messing up, and it only messes up at certain Y coordinates. Both machines, not ironcially, messed up at around the half-way point. And the problem with the Triumph was:
    This broken wire ------- within the drag chain...
    brokenwire.jpgchain3.jpg

    --the repetitive bending within the chain does take it's toll.

    And the silver lining? I KNOW this is the problem with the LS900, because I was lucky enough to actually see a wire spark in the chain when slewing the head up and down. So all I need to do is spend a couple of hours repairing some wires and connections, and I can put those flying $$$ back in their cage...
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  2. #2
    fixed!

    This machine looks like a nightmare to work on but it was actually easier than the Triumph. To remove the side, there's one screw on the top, in back, it has to come out. In the box there's 2 screws to just loosen, and the whole side pulls out. The chain & wires are right there.

    No sense of humor with this chain, but when I finally got the links out of the way, this is what I found-

    9wire1.jpg9wire2.jpg

    I snipped it in half, trimmed the ends... Now they're too short, so found some wire in the back room, opened up a 1/2" length and tinned it, then soldered it between the green wires...
    9wire3.jpg

    I covered the repair with the heat shrink plus some black tape for good measure.
    To get the chain apart I had to snip sections out of it! Like I said, no sense of humor... At least the Chinese put removable cross bars in their chains!
    9wire4.jpg

    To cover the open spots I just put electric tape over the bars. How long it'll stay, who knows. I also put down a piece of tape under the chain.
    9wire5.jpg

    And the machine runs like it did--day before yesterday!

    I'm happy, once again I avoided spending any money to fix a dead machine!
    Last edited by Kev Williams; 10-11-2017 at 3:05 AM.
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  3. #3
    Don't you just love a happy ending. Well done!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Iowa USA
    Posts
    4,441
    Nice job, but.... you need to plan on replacing that entire bundle of wires sometime. You could pre-make a splice in bundle color for color and then do the splicing out of the flexing area. Since all those wires have been flexing for years, its just a matter of time before they all break.
    Retired Guy- Central Iowa.HVAC/R , Cloudray Galvo Fiber , -Windows 10

  5. #5
    The Chinese machines are easy to work on and the individual parts don't cost a fortune. I had a wire break in the LS3040 I had many years ago - easy to spot and easy to fix.
    G. Weike LG900N 100W RECI RDWorks V8
    Leiming LM2513FL 1kW Raycus fiber laser cutter
    Wisely 50W Raycus engraver

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •