Pinnacle 30 watt Laser wont engrave or cut? Help!

[shawn miniaci]

hello, i have a pinnacle 30 watt m series that was purchased by me from sign warehouse in 2008. it was bought and used for a very, very breif time then kept in heated storage ever since. i had hired a friend to run the laser so i never paid much attention to corel, though i do know a little about the machine and how to operate it. the problem that im having is i make a file in corel, print, then the file shows up on the lasers lcd screen but does nothing, no engrave, nothing. the laser seems to be working fine when auto focused on material, im pretty sure it may be corel? i downloaded the driver for the laser from the sign wh site, it installed fine. i am new at corel so im not sure if i need to turn something on or off . i made the corel file in black and swiched to hair line, ive messed with setting for ever and have searched for days on the internet. I cant figure this out, some one please help!!! i am using corel draw 12

[Rodne Gold]

In Corel , turn OFF all colour managment and try again. Check that all your safety interlocks on the machine lid and panels are working.

[Dan Hintz]

In addition to Rodney's comments, make sure the layers you're concerned about do not have printing disabled (little red circle and slash over the printer symbol in the layer properties panel).

[Martin Boekers]

This may sound basic, but make sure file size and page size
in the driver are the same. The graphic make be off the page.
Typically if that's it the head won't move when you start to engrave.
If your vectoring make sur line size is correct to vector.

Can you test fire the laser? If so try that to make sure it fires.
I hate to say it, if it's not firing the tube may be bad. It's not good
for tubes to sit for extended times without firing.

[Richard Rumancik]

Shawn, do you have the Pinnacle/Mercury color palette loaded? If you are drawing in true 100% black from an other palette, it should still work but the first things you need to do when setting up a GCC laser is turn off color managment as Rodne said and then load the RGB palette with 16 colors (actually I add white fill to the GCC palette to make 17 colors). If you need the RGB palette PM me, but you should have it on your system.

When you do a print preview, does it show the proper (expected) preview image?

I'd say you should make a new file after you have checked color management and loaded the RGB palette. Draw a box using .0001" line width and add some text inside -all 100% black. Match us page size with the laser driver etc and assign values for Black eg speed = 30% P = 100%. Then see what the laser does with it on a scrap of wood.

Another possibility could be bad RAM sticks or dirty contacts. Maybe try reseating the RAM. You should be able to test the RAM from the control panel in diagnostic mode.

You said: " the laser seems to be working fine when auto focused on material"

What exactly do you mean by "working fine"? Do you just mean the auto focus is working? The red beam you see has nothing to do with the co2 laser working.

It seems like the laser is either not getting the full file (RAM problem) or there is something wrong with the file such that it can't plot it.

[Mike vonBuelow]

also make sure the raster or vector setting are correct - that issue cost me 30 minutes of trying to figure out my non-working dilemma

[shawn miniaci]

hey rodney, how exactly do you go about turning off the color managment ?

[shawn miniaci]

i havent been able to get the laser to fire at all, like it gets the file that im sending then the laser goes to the top left corner and thats it, the time starts on the lcd screen and it says 0 dpi? i think i might not have corel set right. im trying to find the color managment but having a rough time.

[shawn miniaci]

yes, i guess i mean everything but the laser is workin fine. i think the issue im having is corel . i hope.

[Richard Rumancik]

Color management is under "Tools". Here it is for X4. Older versions are similar.

[Richard Rumancik]

Shawn, I'll send you a file called Pinnacle.cpl. You'll have to PM your email address as I forgot that I can't PM an attachment. If you have X4 you need to find this folder:

c:\Program files\CorelDraw Graphics Suite X4\Languages\EN\Custom Data\Palettes

Inside the palettes folder I have an RGB folder and a CMYK folder. Just copy the Pinnacle.cpl file beside the folders.

Then to get it loaded, go to CorelDraw ->window ->color palettes>open palette

then you should see the CMYK folder, RGB folder, and your new Pinnacle.cpl palette. Select it, and it will be loaded on the right side of the screen. You might want to close any other palettes you have open to make more drawing space.

If you have a different version of CorelDraw search for the CMYK folder or RGB folder and you can discover the path.

[shawn miniaci]

well i changed the color managment and still getting nothing to happen. does any one know about the light by the lcd screen marked laser? mine comes on when the lid is shut, is this good or bad news, im starting to think the laser is broken or somthing. bought in 08 this thing only has 2-3 hours of actual cutting time on it. how could i tell if the tube is bad?

[Kevin Huffman]

Hey Shawn,

You do know that you do have lifetime technical support with that machine correct?
I will send you an email via your yahoo.com email address.

[shawn miniaci]

turns out it was the cable that came with the machine. the one that is spiced off to usb. i used an old desk top i had with an old serial cable and works like brand new.

[AL Ursich]

And as pointed out a few posts ago.... IS your Corel Paper Size the same size as your Computer Bed? AND is the Bed Size correct in the Print Driver? Sounds so much like a paper size problem.

AL

[shawn miniaci]

anyone know where to get the driver for the usb adapter for a pinnacle 30 watt laser?

[shawn miniaci]

it was cause i dont have the driver for the usb connector, used an old desk top and printer serial cable and worked.