laser stopped firing in middle of job

[daniel coyle]

Yesterday I ran my 100W Laserworld YH9060 at relatively high power for about 5 hours and it ran well right to the end. Today I tried to replicate the same job more or less and the laser fired during the job for a few seconds and then stopped. I have not been able to get it to fire or test fire again. I have regularly had problems with this machine including the laser not firing. Last time I "fixed" it by recalibrating the laser power settings. No idea why that worked but last time it didn't shut off in the middle of something.

[Bill George]

Can you safely get to your power supply? Are the power lights and others lighted and the fan running? I don't have any idea what a Laserworld has for a tube or supply, perhaps others can help. But seeing if you have power to the unit is pretty basic.

[daniel coyle]

I replaced the power supply not too long ago. The fan is still running, I knew to check that. It uses a RECI tube and the supply is a chinese model that rates up to 130W I believe. If the supply IS still good, what else might it be? Is there a safe way to determine if the controller is "speaking" with the power source to initiate the laser? Or, a safe way to determine if the laser tube is actually getting any signal so that I can see if it is the tube or not?

[Neville Stewart]

Hadn't used my laser Ina while and didn't look to check water flow as I have an alarm on it, anyway, had a bubble at the hot wire side of tube. It ran for about 5 mins then stopped. Took me a while to find that the heat had cracked the inner tube. Hope it's not that.

[daniel coyle]

Thanks for that Neville. It had only run for about 5 seconds yesterday before it stopped. I have had cracks in tubes before and don't see one on quick inspection right now. Doesn't seem that 5 seconds is enough time to overheat and die, right?

[Neville Stewart]

No I would think it would take more than that. So it fires for 5 seconds any and every time but stops? I would think power supply then. Sounds like a component shorts or opens under load and resets. China is about closed down right now so you probably can't get help there til March. Sorry I couldn't help more. The good news is that your tube seems intact at least.

[daniel coyle]

It SEEMS like a short or controller issue and not the tube (or, hopefully, the powersource since it is so new) but I did take a video of the amp meter on the powersource as I continually did test pulses of the laser. You will see that the amp meter registers nothing. http://youtu.be/geY3poI869A

[daniel coyle]

HI Bill, the fan is running but when I test "pulse" the laser the ammeter does not register anything (and, of course, there is no laser firing) I made a video of the ammeter as I pulsed the test button. Any thoughts? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geY3poI869A

[daniel coyle]

this is what the chinese sent me to diagnose. I can't figure out how to attach a word doc. to this post (anyone?) so I just copied and pasted. I don't think the associated pics will show. the first suggestion, below, is to connect the positive and negative lines at the powersource and pulse the laser to see if the ammeter registers. Is this safe?


The solution for no laser out going
Firstly pls connect the positive and negative cable (from the powersource) together and cover it well.Then press the test button and check the ammeter whether it has number or beat.If no,pls change a new power supply.

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If the power supply is ok,then connect high-voltage lines and the negative cable to the laser tube high-voltage lines and the laser tube connector as original shown in Figure.And cover silicone tube to prevent sparking.
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If the spark is still,pls increase the temperature from water chiller and adjust it to 25.If the temperature is so low,it will lead in static electricity.
If you can't solve this problem,pls check all cable connections whether it's good.








Pls check the both side high voltage from laser tube whether it's connection is well.

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Please let the high-voltage line and interface of laser tube far away from machine metal parts.Don't keep them near to it.Because it will lead more than 1000V voltage when the machine are working.If it's too near,it's much easier to lead the sparks!
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[Bill George]

We just went through the troubleshoot the HV PS thing about 2 or 3 weeks ago. If you have a mA meter in the - negative lead of the HV PS and use the Test button on the control panel and get nothing it may be the PS. Remember the PS requires 120 or 240 volts AC to power and a 5 volt or similar control signal. My laser came with a large green resistor to clip the PS HV leads onto, a jumper block to go on the PS input control and instructions per a video from GWeike.

Remember in all cases the HV line can be in the neighborhood of 20,000 volts!

[daniel coyle]

Thanks Bill. I am not an electrician but have some sense of what you wrote. Laserworld wants me to directly connect the black and red leads from the PS and then test, seeing what the ammeter says. Is that safe/effective or do I need the other accessories you mentioned (resistor, jumper block etc.)? Would you be willing/able to send me the Gweike instructions?
307394

[Bill George]

Thanks Bill. I am not an electrician but have some sense of what you wrote. Laserworld wants me to directly connect the black and red leads from the PS and then test, seeing what the ammeter says. Is that safe/effective or do I need the other accessories you mentioned (resistor, jumper block etc.)? Would you be willing/able to send me the Gweike instructions?
307394

The Link to the You Tube video was posted on here maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago, do a search for my power supply won't work or something close. I would never directly short the HV leads together without some sort of resistor.
The one that came with mine is 100 K Ohms or 100,000 Ohms. I'd say if you could find something close and pretty high wattage it would be better than shorting the leads.

Try here for the Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WRWCPxQlGPs

[Clark Pace]

Hello. Another thought.

So is your machine 110 or 220? The reason I ask is we had a machine shipped from China, and it was rated 220. We went through 2 power supplies, and here is what we found. We had wired our circuit for 220, but 220 USA rated can be higher just as 110 is usually not really 110v. Ours was actually running at 242 Volts. The company said the machine really worked best a 208 - 224.

Well we had an electrician come and set our power to exactly 220 volts. Never had any problems after that.

P.S. We used what is called a buck transformer. You can also use a variac, but hey are very expensive. Buck transformers are around $100 from grainger. We had an electrician install it. Beyond my knowledge on how to wire it up.

[Bill George]

In some parts of the world your lucky to have 110 volts, here in the US most areas are running at least 115 volts as nominal. My area has pretty decent power distribution so I see anywhere from 120 - 122 volts. Double that number for the 220 volt lines equivalent.
I would consider it a poor design that a PS rated for 220 can't run on 240 volts.