ULS laser not firing, sound familiar?

[Pete Bejmuk]

My ULS PS-50 is refusing to fire its beam today. It can receive files and it the head moves correctly, but no beam.

I've looked at the archives for this problem, so...

1) The magnet safeties are all in place.
2) I use a water chiller, and it is circulating at the correct temp.
3) I've tried a test/alignment mode fire, still nothing coming out of the initial window



my system has 3 indicator lights "ready" beam" and "laser". Ready is blinking most of the time, and generally when the chiller is on and the safeties are in place the "laser" light normally stays on (the "beam" light only comes on when it's firing).

neither of the laser or beam lights are coming on. I'm guessing the tube is most likely dead (it's a old used system). typically with a dead tube, does the "laser" indicator light still come on? or does a suddenly dead tube mean that the "laser" light likewise conk out?

[Dee Gallo]

Pete-

I don't know about ULS, but my ancient Epilog had a little plastic slide which could cover over the beam... which I did not know about until I thought it was dead, bought a new one (AND a backup) and while packing up the dead one found the flap.... duh. So I ended up selling the old one anyway for what I paid for it used and the guy was thrilled to have it to make his anodized labels. I hope your problem is that simple.

cheers, dee

[Ron Hartl]

I had a similar thing happen to my ULS, I just rebooted the pc, problem solved. Go figure.

[Mike Mackenzie]

Pete,

You may have a shutter switch that is sticking when you flip the switch for the laser on/off do you hear anything on the left side of the tube?

There is a shutter that opens and closes with that switch. You can remove it and see if the laser fires.

Is the yellow beam indicator light on?

[Pete Bejmuk]

neither the laser (red) nor the beam (yelow) lights come on at all when the laser switch is on. when toggling the laser switch, I don't hear anything from the left part of the laser in back. If the shutter is not working, how easy would it be to fix or replace it?

i'm picking up some magnets later today to check if the magnet interlocks are possibly not working correctly. I'll be sure to wear protective gear when doing testing this.

[Mike Mackenzie]

Pete,

Have you checked to see if water is flowing through the tube? Take the out hose and put it into a garbage can or bucket and turn the system on. The water from the chiller should flow through and into the bucket. If the chiller is not cooling the tube then the thermal sensor will shut down the laser tube.


The yellow “BEAM” indicator light will illuminate when the laser is being pulsed. This
provides a visual cue that the laser is firing. This indicator light actually signals that the
laser control board is signaling the laser to fire, so the light will continue to blink even if the
power to the laser is turned off.

The yellow lite not coming on looks like the laser tube may have finally gone out.

[Pete Bejmuk]

the water is flowing. I did notice something though: previously, when the laser was firing during a raster job, if I lifted the lid the safety interlock would stop the job. this isn't happening now - I run a raster job, and can open and close the top door without causing the job to stop. I never noticed if this is the case if the laser isn't on. I took some fridge magnets from home and placed them on the interlocks with no succes - however, do the flimsy "business card"-type magnets generate enough of a field to be detected by the interlocks? or do I need something stronger?

[Barry Clark]

Just tried the flimsy magnet thing pete. They aren't strong enough.