Shenhui Problem Please Help

[michael reimer]

Hello,

Got our Shenhui 80W up and running today. Did the alignment and did some practice cuts on 1/8 inch acrylic. No problem. Went to do a second or third cut and we has a very minor flare up on the paper of the acrylic. Hit is with a spray bottle and the unit finished.

After this happened, the laser will not fire at all. I have power to the laser side, fuses good, checked all connections and nothing. Did a test fire, nothing.

Have an email into Shenhui, any suggestions would be appreciated.

Mike

[Bill George]

Hello,

Got our Shenhui 80W up and running today. Did the alignment and did some practice cuts on 1/8 inch acrylic. No problem. Went to do a second or third cut and we has a very minor flare up on the paper of the acrylic. Hit is with a spray bottle and the unit finished.

After this happened, the laser will not fire at all. I have power to the laser side, fuses good, checked all connections and nothing. Did a test fire, nothing.

Have an email into Shenhui, any suggestions would be appreciated.

Mike

Mike so the machine ran after you put the fire out and now won't fire at all? I wonder in all the haste maybe the door safety switch got damaged or the door is not 100% closed?

[michael reimer]

I was running it with the door wide open. It does not seem to have a door interlock at all. When I say fire, i am taking like 1/2 inch for like 1 second.

[Walt Langhans]

If you have gmail you can chat with Joy Yang, haifengshangu@gmail.com

[michael reimer]

Ok does anyone know the best time of day to contact Shenhui for technical support? Obviously there is a time difference so I can set my alarm.....

[Lucy Lee]

If door leave wide open ,you should make the magnet on the safety switch. and Chinese time usually is from 9:00-17:00 ,Chinese time(East 8 Zone )


I was running it with the door wide open. It does not seem to have a door interlock at all. When I say fire, i am taking like 1/2 inch for like 1 second.

[Rodne Gold]

Skype is the best way to communicate
Check that your chiller is running and the flow valve is working.

[michael reimer]

Rodne,

I know for sure the chiller is running. Also if I pinch the hose at the tube the alarm goes off. So I bee live I am getting flow.

Any other ideas???

Mike

[Dave Sheldrake]

Flow sensor stuck? (If it has one)

I doubt the fire caused the issue, more likely just happened to be at the same time (there is very little round the head that would affect the trigger of the tube)

Tends to be door switches or interlocks usually on machines that have them.

cheers

Dave

[Rodne Gold]

Did you get a spare tube with yours? I would suggest replacing the tube as the first port of call re diagnosis.
Make sure that flow thru the tube is totally bubble free...a small bubble can make the tube crack

Another issue can be grounding , I had a few issues until I grounded the machine with a grounding rod...

[Bill George]

Rodne,

I know for sure the chiller is running. Also if I pinch the hose at the tube the alarm goes off. So I bee live I am getting flow.

Any other ideas???

Mike

Are you 100% sure there is not a door safety switch? I know you said you were running with the door open, but maybe it had malfunctioned and now its stuck the other way. Even Lucy Lee said something about a magnet on the safety switch.

[Frank barry]

sounds like a door switch I would be very surprised if you don't have one
I never have a problem contacting them I would suggest early morning for you as your Europe based or if you contact Yarde Feng he lives on line and is always happy to help even though he has left the company
cheers Frank

[Kev Williams]

No door switch on my Triumph.

Do you have a power meter, and is it indicating power?

Could the mirror above the lens, or the lens itself, have cracked from the water spray? Could one of the mirrors have fallen out or moved (for whatever reason) to the point the beam isn't even reaching the lens?

If you haven't yet, you might put some test material on the first mirror to see if the laser definitely isn't firing-

[Johan de Waal]

Also check your E-stops (emergency stops) - there is no indication anywhere if you accidentally triggered one of the two (mine has two) spent hours trying to find out why the laser wouldn't ire only to find the one E-stop on mine got triggered....not sure how the Estops are wired but seems one is for the laser itself and the other for the controls. but they are not interlocked meaning the controls will remain on and you can move the head around but it won't fire if the e-stop on the laser itself has been triggered.

[George M. Perzel]

I am not aware of any Shenhui that has a magnetic door protection system-easy to add if you want one but does not come equipped.
Michael
When you load a file and push start, what does the display say?
Best Regards,
George
Laserarts

[Khalid Nazim]

First thing to check if the laser tube is firing. To do that, put a test paper in front of the first mirror (the first one next to the exit of the laser tube) and then fire the laser to see if you get a burn mark. If you get a burn mark, then its a simple alignment issue which you can correct by following the alignment process.

If you are not getting the burn mark on the first mirror then it would mean that your laser is not firing and in that case you can either use your spare tube first to check if the issue is with the power supply or controller or if the tube was damaged.

This is how I would approach this problem.

And as other Shenhui owners said, there is no door switch on Shenhuis.

Regards
Khalid

[Dave Sheldrake]

Ummm fitting a new tube on a machine that may have a dead PSU isn't a great idea, *if* the psu has killed the tube all you will achieve is killing another tube.

cheers

Dave

[michael reimer]

Update, I wanted first to say thank you all for all your help and ideas relating to my laser tube not firing. I went to the office early this morning with the hopes of isolating this issue. Lets just say me and the laser are very familiar with each other at this point. I am actually very happy this issue came up so now I pretty much know my way around the machine and they are really not that complex at all.

I have isolated my issue to the Laser Power Supply. It is basically DOA. I opened my box of spares and installed it in about 10 minutes....... Up and running with zero issues. Again thank you very much for all the help it is very much appreciated.

Mike

PS I have an email into Shenhui for a replacement and am waiting on a response. For the record Joy has also been very helpful via email.

[Dave Sheldrake]

That's why you never stick a new tube on a suspect PSU ;)

cheers

Dave

[Frank barry]

Hi I am glad you are back up and running and thank you for letting us know what the problem was and how you fixed it in the end I have that will be a help to others one day
cheers Frank

[Rodne Gold]

According to the original post
I have power to the laser side, fuses good, checked all connections and nothing. Did a test fire, nothing.
I had assumed the PS checked out ok...

[michael reimer]

Rodney

Sorry if I have out bad info. I never knew that the PSU is on the left side. I pretty much know all components now.

What is the main issue that makes the PSU fail?

Mike

[Rodne Gold]

Im not sure what makes it fail , we had one Power supply (Reci) failure , but it was only the fuse in the Power supply box itself , we replaced the fuse and it never had an issue after that - been going 3 years now.

[michael reimer]

Rodney

Do you know if the power supply that shenhui uses has a fuse inside?


Mike

[michael reimer]

Does anyone know the normal voltage that is on the incoming side of the Laser Power Supply?

[George M. Perzel]

Michael;
Assume you mean AC power input, which is 220VAC on my unit. There are also signal voltage inputs.
Best Regards,
George
Laserarts

[michael reimer]

George,

No I am speaking of the voltage going into the actual laser power supply located on the left hand side of the unit.

I have a 80w reco and I don't have 220 at all.

[Walt Langhans]

George,

No I am speaking of the voltage going into the actual laser power supply located on the left hand side of the unit.

I have a 80w reco and I don't have 220 at all.

Yeah, it should be whatever you are plugged into. So if you're just plugged into a normal wall socket it will be 110 - 120

[Bill George]

I guess I am getting confused. In one of the posts you said you checked the PS for the tube and all was ok. Next you say you replaced the PS and now its working fine. Now you are wondering what the input or line voltage should be? Like George said its whatever your machine came wired for, either 120 or 240 vac. There should be at least 2 line voltage power supplies for your machine, one for the DC controls and to drive the stepper motors and the other a high voltage supply, still DC but high voltage for the tube. Either one could cause your tube not to fire.

So which one did you replace?

[michael reimer]

I replaces the unit that feeds the actual tube. It is working fine. I am just making sure the line voltage going into the unit is what is should be so I don't blow out a second unit.

Mike

[Bill George]

Get a good digital meter and check the incoming voltage should be within +/- 10 % of the rated input voltage. I have no idea where you are located but if you have a lot of thunderstorms it might be a good idea to either unplug the machine when you leave for the day, Or get some sort of power line conditioner or protection and install. It could be just a bad China made power supply as others have pointed out.

[michael reimer]

Thank you sir. I checked it and it is at 110 volts. It is good to go now. I am going to look at the dead one and get it operational.