Versalaser 3.50 need help, no laser

[Al Stewart]

I have a 3 year old Versalaser 3.50 40 watt, running on Vista OS.
Has been running fine, but used only about an hour or two per month. Today, the laser is not firing. Job looks to be running, but no laser. Opening the door turns on the red dot and job continues to run as expected.

I have 48V on both power supplies. Oh, please say it isn't the la$er tube.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
Al

[Tom Bull]

My Epilog gave me a scare the other day. Resolved it by just cleaning the magnets/swithches on the door safety interlock. They didn't seem too bad, but just wiping them off fixed it, (or maybe an answer to prayer!) anyway it was certainly disconcerting at the moment.

[Al Stewart]

Thanks, Tom, but I think that since the red pointer goes on and off when I open and close the door the switches are working. Unless there are dual switches, one for laser one for red dot...I doubt it has that.

[Tom Bull]

A lot of other functions work with door open, so maybe it is laser beam only. Sure easy to try.

[donald bugansky]

I know everyone thinks that they can just use magnets to bypass the safety locks but sometimes it doesn't always work.....where something (magnet or switch) wasn't hitting/lining up right, hence we immediately think there's a problem with the laser or power supplies.... so here's a thought to help speed up the process of elimination.

Kind of where Tom was referring to cleaning the magnets to make sure it wasn't a safety interlock issue.

It was by accident that I fell upon this and not sure if it's available on all lasers but worth the check. My laser has a port inside the unit right below the top edge right next to the beam that performs the auto focus, where I plug in this device (it's a plug you can buy from any musical store) which defeats all the safety locks an such without me having to rig up a bunch of magnets. I saw this device when they installed the laser as they were preforming tests. It allowed them to run all the setup test with the top open, front door open and side panels off.

I inquired to what it did and after they told me I thought it would be convenient for laser power testing and such and ended up buying it from them for $10. This way, you know for sure you have disabled any safety lockout devices and can determine the real problem quicker.

Good luck.

[Mike Null]

Bugs

The magnets will work fine on your machine in two places--the front door and the top cover. Just buy a pair of the magnets that are in the machine and you'll never have a problem. But what is the device called. That sounds interesting.

[donald bugansky]

Mike,

Attached are 3 pics,
#1 with just the test port showing,
#2 is the plug (it's used by bands and plugs into speaker & amps so if you trip on a cord and pull out the cord, this unit saves the amp/speakers from blowing up)
#3 the plug installed. When installed, you can remove any panels, lid open, etc and the unit will still run. Great for testing purposes.

Scott at tech support will give you any additional details you require.

Thx - Bugs