Pinnacle M-Series Help

[John Morrow]

Hey all,

I have a Pinnacle M-Series. Lately when the temperature in my laser room gets above 75 degrees, the laser beam will shut itself off after a few minutes. This is usually when I am cutting material with a slow speed, high power vector. Occasionally, if I stop the file and send out a high speed, low power vector the beam will turn back on. I can then resume cutting, but only for a few more minutes.

I really know nothing about the electronics involved, but it seems there must be a thermal shutdown that is being tripped somewhere. Would it be on the motherboard? On the laser tube itself?

I've had this machine for about nine years, and it's been a champ until now.

Any help or direction much appreciated.

Thanks,

-John

[Richard Rumancik]

Hi John - does this machine have the Synrad J48 tube? I assume that first of all you have checked that all the fans are running and the tube and fans have been cleaned of dust etc.

If you have a 48 series tube there is a thermistor inside the tube. It outputs a signal to pins 1 (shutdown 60C) and pin 5 (high temp warning 54C) on the DB9 connector. Off hand I don't know if the mainboard is connected to these outputs and monitors them. You might be able to tap into the DB9 yourself and see what is there. You can download a 48 series manual. I would look at pin 5 as it is pure thermal data while pin 1 reports multiple possible failure modes including thermal.

I don't know if there is any thermal protection on the Mainboard. Is your mainboard cooling fan running properly? There could be internal thermal protection on some other devices eg the motor controller. When you have a failure, do you lose the beam, motion control, or both?

If you have a Coherent tube I'd check if there is thermal sensor in the tube.