Need laser repair...

[Joe Sabine]

Years ago I purchased a "J" Series Pinnacle laser and loved it. Several years ago it started going into autofocus at random times and became unusable for that reason. We purchased a large format laser and pushed this one to the back of the shop. We now have a need for it because of its small footprint and vector cutting ability.

To say the company from which we purchased it had poor customer support would be to suggest they had any so we are looking for anyone who can repair it or point me in the right direction. Any help will be appreciated.

[Mark Sipes]

Did I miss where you are loacted ????? USA or ......other

[Gary Hair]

Who did you purchase it from?

[Tony Lenkic]

Many have reported having good experience with JORLINK INC., GCC rep in eastern USA.

You may check if Rob Bosworth (member here) of usedlasers.com does repair on GCC machines.

[Joe Sabine]

Sorry...I am in San Angelo, Texas but realize there will be no one nearby. I would be willing to take/ship the laser a reasonable distance.

Since I made a somewhat derogatory comment about where it was purchased and I don't want to get into that kind of argument I will just say it was purchased from a firm in Dallas. They seemed about the closest dealer in lasers at the time.

[Dan Hintz]

Have you considered removing the autofocus sensor and be done with it? The wiring is probably getting wonky.

[Joe Sabine]

Have you considered removing the autofocus sensor and be done with it? The wiring is probably getting wonky.

Well...not sure what the autofocus sensor is. If you are talking about the plunger that makes contact to stop the upward movement of the table the answer is yes. I also replaced a portion of the ribbon cable and then disconnected the cable...all with no improvement.

If it is on a board somewhere I am unfamiliar with it.

Sometimes, it would focus just fine and run an entire job. Sometimes, it would focus fine then, somewhere in the middle of the job it would just move the table up until it contacted the plunger...then move down the required offset then repeat that sequence until we managed to stop the laser. Sometimes, when trying to focus initially, it would go right into the erratic re-focus mode. While I found the autofocus quite handy, I could live without it if I could just use the machine.

Dan...I see you have a Stinger. Are you on the Camheads forum? I haven't been on much lately but use my Stinger almost daily.

Joe

[Mark Sipes]

Have you made contact with Roy in Arlington?

Engraving Concepts
Contact: Roy Brewer
P.O. Box 120322
Arlington, TX 76012
(817) 460-8122 phone
(817) 469-8560 fax
sales@engravingconcepts.com (%20sales@engravingconcepts.com)
www.engravingconcepts.com (http://www.engravingconcepts.com/)

[Gary Hair]

I will just say it was purchased from a firm in Dallas. They seemed about the closest dealer in lasers at the time.

That tells me all I need to know, I got my laser from the same place (I think). I can highly recommend LaserProNA, they helped me out of a jam with an X rail when mine went bad. We are not supposed to hotlink so type www laserprona com with the appropriate dots. Tell them Gary with laser Image recommended them - won't get you or I anything but I'm sure they'll appreciate the referral.

Gary

[Rodne Gold]

I wonder if its not your LCD/control panel going bad - there really is no programmeable Z axis on the older GCC machines that would make it randomly AF...

[Joe Sabine]

I wonder if its not your LCD/control panel going bad - there really is no programmeable Z axis on the older GCC machines that would make it randomly AF...

We have replaced the panel with the membrane switches on it but have done nothing to the LCD screen...

[Rodne Gold]

Check grounds of the lcd/membrane panel , check the limit switches of the table , try disabling table movement when booting (a machine option) , remove and reseat all cables/ribbons/wires/ram on the motherboard.

[Joe Sabine]

Check grounds of the lcd/membrane panel , check the limit switches of the table , try disabling table movement when booting (a machine option) , remove and reseat all cables/ribbons/wires/ram on the motherboard.

Thank you...I will try all of that. If you disable table movement will you still be able to manually focus?

[Rodne Gold]

Yes, you will be able to.

[Mike Null]

Joe
Do a search here for Pinnacle lasers. If it's the company I think it is their tech is a member here. You can email him.

I don't want to further identify the company as I may be wrong.

[Richard Rumancik]

. . . Sometimes, it would focus just fine and run an entire job. Sometimes, it would focus fine then, somewhere in the middle of the job it would just move the table up until it contacted the plunger...then move down the required offset then repeat that sequence until we managed to stop the laser. Sometimes, when trying to focus initially, it would go right into the erratic re-focus mode. While I found the autofocus quite handy, I could live without it if I could just use the machine.

Joe, you say you replaced the operator panel. Check the wiring that goes from the op panel to mainboard for any shorts or pinched wiring. If this is okay, then it would seem to me that the phantom command to autofocus is coming from the mainboard and not the control panel. I don't know if you can inhibit z-axis by breaking a wire to the plunger circuit - I will check if I have any info on this.

An erroneous command could originate on the mainboard due to noise issues or even bad layout. You probably don't want to change mainboards for this. If you want to get this running inexpensively, what I would suggest is to figure out how you can disable the z-stepper motor after the job is focused, just prior to running the job.

Suppose that you could add a switch to lock-out the z-motor functionality during lasering. Then it can't autofocus on it's own during lasering. The trick is finding out where you can add the lockout switch. I don't think you can add it to the motor winding itself (load) as switching windings open is usually bad on the motor driver. But if you can get some schematics or a tech to help maybe you can find a place to add a switch to inhibit z-axis motion. (On the motor power side?) If you wired it like a lid-switch, you could focus with lid open, and it would lock-out z-axis with lid closed. (This would be okay, correct?)