Pinnacle ZX Problem

[Wyatt Wolfe]

Hey guys, hoping someone has experienced this problem and can help..

While doing etching ( doesn't matter what substrate) my laser is all of a sudden making marks at the end of each stroke... so say I am etching a 2 x 2 logo on acrylic... when it finishes, I will have 2 lines, 2 inches long down the left and right side, right where the laser ended each stroke... they are not as deep as the etching themselves.. but are ruining my material none the less.... any help?

[Larry Bratton]

Wyatt:
Kevin Huffman is a member here and is a Pinnacle tech. Note the above post by Gail LaPorte, she too is having a problem with a Mercury Pinnacle and Kevin has rendered some advice, maybe he can help here.

[Richard Rumancik]

You probably need to adjust the tickle setting on your laser. There is probably a jumper or switch on the main board which will allow you to do this. To ensure a laser fires instantaneously on command, they apply a bias voltage so it is close to the threshold of firing. But if the tickle is set too high it will fire when it should not. So you need to reduce it to the next lower value and see if the phantom lines go away. Sorry, I don't have the instructions for your machine but maybe you can search on "tickle" for your model and see what comes up. You could also try searching on the equivalent GCC model (I think it is a LaserPro Explorer but not sure).

[Richard Rumancik]

Wyatt, I have a photo of an older Mercury mainboard, not the Explorer. But they may have implemented the function in a similar manner. It is probably set with either a jumper or a dip switch. If you are not confident then wait for your rep. I have attached a couple documents for the Mercury. I can't say if they will help in your case or or not.

[Gary Hair]

Not sure if it's in the maintenance manual or not, but I have it. It's 1.3mb and I can't upload it here. PM your email and I'll send it to you.

Gary

[Wyatt Wolfe]

Based on the looks of the uploaded files, I would say it is a tickle setting problem ( we just transported the laser from Texas to Arizona) I looked at the motherboard, and it looks nothing like the mercury, but I am only seeing one set of jumpers, and without someone for sure telling me the settings, I am going to err on the side of sanity and not touch anything... I have 30K wrapped up in this machine and don't want to hose it up... I hope Kevin can pop in here and give some help... because the place I bought it has not responded to several emails sent to them... (probably where Kevin works argggg)

edit: the jumpers available on the mainboard are JP48 & JP49

[Richard Rumancik]

Wyatt, I found something for the Explorer II with Synrad tube - again, not sure if this applies to you. If you have the Coherent tube the procedure may be different. Anyhow, it looks like on this machine they set the tickle from the control panel. That's a lot better than the jumper method. Yes, best to be cautious if not sure.

The other option is to send a PM to Rodne as I believe he would be familiar with this procedure for the Explorer. Otherwise you will need to wait till tech support is back from vacation.

[Wyatt Wolfe]

I actually found the problem and corrected it... the tube that runs from the lower mirror to the first table mirror had slid down in to the housing, and was causing an impingement of the laser pulse.. slid it back up, and we are off and running again.. thanks everyone for the info and help...