laser will not fire

[Nigel Morgan]

Hello All,

I can't get the laser to fire the beam today, can't think what it might be, perhaps the magnets on the lid, is there anyway to disconnect this mechansim or check it.

Cheers

Nigel

Epilog Helix

[Anthony Scira]

Have you run the whole file ? Sometimes it takes a little while for the laser to fire if it has been sitting dormant for awhile.

[Nigel Morgan]

Just ran it for 20 mins, still nothing firing

[Rodne Gold]

What type of tube do you have in the laser?
Most tubes will have a LED on them that will go on when the laser gets a signal to fire , the bad news is that if the LED goes on and there is no beam , the tube is almost certain to be a gonner unless the power supply to the laser has gone bad (also normally a led that lights up if there is power)
If the lase led is not lighting up when the laser should fire , then its good news as it's miost likely NOT the tube but the machine , it means the laser is not getting a signal to fire and you can diagnose from there.
You can normally trace the wires from the magnetic safety interlocks to where it goes to the motherboard or wherever it goes and short them out (make the circuit) at that point , should defeat the magnets and SAFETY interlocks - note the word SAFETY!!!!

[Nigel Morgan]

I have a Coherent tube, only replaced October 2010.
When I started the laser today, it travelled to the start of the first cut and just stopped with the error "X/Y dissabled" , I had to restart the machine 2 times before it would actually run so to speak, but not fire, I think this is probably a MB fault.

[Rodne Gold]

Most likely a machine/mb fault then. I don't have an epilog or know the machines , but here's some generic advice.
If you have shaft or strip encoders , look at them and clean if dirty. Check cables to the MB are seated correctly , if there is a ribbon cable somewhere , it can be cracked where it moves. Odd that it runs but does not fire.. Try that safety interconnect defeat.
We had an issue with one of our spirits , same story , run no fire , we traced it to the emergency stop switch..took 2 days to find!!!

[Larry Bratton]

Call Epilog tech support. If it's a 2010 tube and it came from Epilog it is still in warranty.

[Rangarajan Saravana kumar]

Hi

The laser does not fire immediately means
Problem in RF fault.
Connecting cable.
Tube generally goes diminishing it's power
Not instantly

[Pete Bejmuk]

I had the same problem last month. Turns out the laser wasn't firing because the cooling system wasn't working properly (the cooling and the magnetic interlocks are the most common culprits).

Often one of the magnets may fall out of the interlocks - check the floor of the laser cabinet or the floor around the machine.

[Nigel Morgan]

Have had a few emails with tech support today, all interlocks are fine, I sent a photo of the MB to them showing all the lights on, they seem to think it's the tube, I replaced it last October so it's under warranty, I'm hoping they have sent a replacement out today to me.

[Larry Bratton]

Have had a few emails with tech support today, all interlocks are fine, I sent a photo of the MB to them showing all the lights on, they seem to think it's the tube, I replaced it last October so it's under warranty, I'm hoping they have sent a replacement out today to me.

Did you give them a credit card to guarantee the return? If they got the order in time you more than likely will have a new tube tomorrow. Good luck, hope that takes care of it for you.

[Nigel Morgan]

Hard times here in Christchurch at the moment, I will have to send my tube first to Epilog, what is a killer is the shipping is about $300 NZ

[Larry Bratton]

Beats a couple of thousand for a tube though.

[Bill Cunningham]

If you have a credit card, they will ship you the new tube, and you can replace it right away. Then stick the old one in the same box and ship it back by the cheapest insured method with tracking. At least that's what they did for me (I'm in Canada). They probably just get a authorization on the card for the amount before they ship, and only actually charge the card if they don't get the old one back.. I would imagine, if you can at least send them a tracking number for the returned tube, I doubt if they will charge your card unless it vanishes in route, and then you just claim with the post office or what ever..