Joe Walmer
05-08-2015, 3:24 AM
I have a Gcc mercury 30 watt laser I bought from sign warehouse. It has been down for 2 years or so and I think the tube needs refilled or the RF is going bad. I started cutting a few jobs but then would go down to 10% power etc and would not cut anymore. When I finally shut it off it was down to happening within a minute or less. I opened it up expecting to find a synrad firestar v30 but found a j-48-2s oem version mfg date 2002. The people from signwarehouse told us about 30 times over 3 days "it was a firestar and the newest best laser out there" and what was what pushed us over the edge to buy at the time (2003).
I am planning on building my own laser and very soon but I was wondering instead of buying a new tube or fixing this one anywhere form 1000-1500 it seems estimate I was going to open it up and check the RF board. I have a oscilloscope I just bought and if I find something easy like the coil that fell out one the one guys post or if I have to replace a few components and re-tune it I should be able too. I should also be able to see if the RF is functioning correctly at the right frequency and it just needs a refill.
The other rout I would like to ask about is removing the laser tube, putting in a chinese tube and simply jumping the 5v fire signal of the maainboard to fire it and I could use a arduino microcotroller etc to control the power. I never engrave and almost always use the same power. I am wondering if this is possible in theory. I am hoping the laser will be tricked basically and it should act exactly like it always had.
I am just wondering if the 5v signal to fire from the mainboard is always constant or the ppi dpi settings PWM this signal from the mainboard. I will test all this with my oscilloscope when I get it up and running in a few days.
Another alternative is to find someone that has been dying for one of these mainboards to fix their machine and sell it then sell the laser tube to someone after I diagnose it on video etc. and then sell the laser machine to a refurbishing company etc or just save the frame to rebuild with a new control board and china tube.
I am planning on building my own laser and very soon but I was wondering instead of buying a new tube or fixing this one anywhere form 1000-1500 it seems estimate I was going to open it up and check the RF board. I have a oscilloscope I just bought and if I find something easy like the coil that fell out one the one guys post or if I have to replace a few components and re-tune it I should be able too. I should also be able to see if the RF is functioning correctly at the right frequency and it just needs a refill.
The other rout I would like to ask about is removing the laser tube, putting in a chinese tube and simply jumping the 5v fire signal of the maainboard to fire it and I could use a arduino microcotroller etc to control the power. I never engrave and almost always use the same power. I am wondering if this is possible in theory. I am hoping the laser will be tricked basically and it should act exactly like it always had.
I am just wondering if the 5v signal to fire from the mainboard is always constant or the ppi dpi settings PWM this signal from the mainboard. I will test all this with my oscilloscope when I get it up and running in a few days.
Another alternative is to find someone that has been dying for one of these mainboards to fix their machine and sell it then sell the laser tube to someone after I diagnose it on video etc. and then sell the laser machine to a refurbishing company etc or just save the frame to rebuild with a new control board and china tube.