Red sail x700 power dropped by half

[jarrod lineberry]

My nearly new red sail x700 50watt laser went from 62watts at the tube a few days ago to 31watts today. I have only used it a few minutes since it was reading 62watts. It seems like it did it from the last time I used it til today. It is running off a 120v to 240 volt step up converter. Any ideas?

[Dave Sheldrake]

If a 50 watt tube (that in reality is a high gain 40-45) is putting out 62 watts then it's being over driven by a large percentage. What current is it set to?

[jarrod lineberry]

I didn't see a current sitting on the menu and I didn't see an adjustment on the power supply. what should it be amd how do I check it and change it if need be?

[Bill George]

I didn't see a current sitting on the menu and I didn't see an adjustment on the power supply. what should it be amd how do I check it and change it if need be?

Current is a meter reading on either your installed mA (milliamp) meter or one you use to measure the current to the tube.
Even my low cost G.Wieke laser had one. It can be checked with a portable meter, but since your dealing with 20,000 volts or so I will let someone else do the instructing.

[jarrod lineberry]

I have a DC clamp meter. Do you think that might work?

[jarrod lineberry]

Could it be in the controller? The reason I am asking it because I was engraving a test picture on a piece of tile the last time it was working properly. A few seconds after the engraving started, the display went blank. The engraving continued until the job was finished and after it finished the screen reset and came up in chinese. Luckily I remembered where the menu was to change language and switched it back. It did this twice when I tried to engrave a picture. Is it possible something caused it to default to a really low power setting in the controller when it reset the language and presumably restored everything to default. It has the rdlc320-a controller.

[Ron Gosnell]

I have a DC clamp meter. Do you think that might work?


If it scales down to milliamp readings it will work.

Don't use it on the high voltage wire (usually red) on the back side of the tube.

Gozzie

[jarrod lineberry]

DC clamp meter didn't work. I used my regular meter on the ground side of the tube and it was only 8mA. Any idea where to go from here?

[Bill George]

DC clamp meter didn't work. I used my regular meter on the ground side of the tube and it was only 8mA. Any idea where to go from here?

LightObject dot com carries this one > http://www.lightobject.com/DC-0-100mA-Analog-Panel-Meter-P242.aspx

Remember it goes in the Neg. high voltage lead from the tube. Remember also if you get between the ground wire from the tube to the ground provided you will be in Series with about 20,000 volts DC. The meter goes there, not your hands.

[jarrod lineberry]

Thanks I need to get one of those meters. Anybody know if you can jump the power supply to get it to fire at.100% to see if the problem is with the supply or the controller?

[Ron Gosnell]

Thanks I need to get one of those meters. Anybody know if you can jump the power supply to get it to fire at.100% to see if the problem is with the supply or the controller?

What kind of controller ?

Make sure you keep your min and max power settings set at the same levels for testing. It will make a difference in how the controller and power supply interact with each other.
It appears to me that when the min setting is lower than the max, power at the tube is lower as an average. I have been playing with that for a couple of days trying to
figure out how that works but the farther the 2 settings are apart from each other the lower the output power is to the tube. Dunno why yet.

Gozzie

[jarrod lineberry]

Rdlc320-a. I will give that a try, now it is set at 98%max and 6%min. It worked fine before, but something happened when it reset back to Chinese language.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Have a look for the test button on the Tube PSU, you also need to disconnect the line from the machine card then press the test button if it has one

[jarrod lineberry]

you also need to disconnect the line from the machine card then press the test button if it has one

Are you talking about a wire that goes from the controller to the laser psu?

[Dave Sheldrake]

Are you talking about a wire that goes from the controller to the laser psu?

yup, thats the one

[jarrod lineberry]

I pushed the test button and it was only 8mA still. Does that mean the psu is bad? Can the tube be bad? Is there anything else I can try.?

[Dave Sheldrake]

sadly it could be one, the other or both :(

If a "50" watt tube is pumping 62 watts then there is a problem anyhows, that would lead me to think it's likely the tube BUT a bad tube can take out a PSU as well :( (and the PSU is pumping too much current to get 60+ watts from a tube that has a ceiling of a realistic 45 watts. If you do fit a new tube then the current will need to be adjusted via the tiny screw hole POT next to the test button.

CXheck all the connections first though, a loose connection can also cause a power drop very quickly...when a tube or PSU goes bad it usually happens over days not minutes or instantly

[jarrod lineberry]

The laser has less than an hour burn time on it. Surely even it if was set too high it wouldn't go out that quick, would it? It seemed to happen all at once. It's odd to me that it dropped down but didn't go out. Would a loose connection most likely be on the high voltage wire. Is there a troubleshooting procedure?

[Bill George]

Like Dave said you might have 40 watt tube that is/ was overdriven. Welcome to the world of Chinese lasers with no support and maybe you have a warranty and maybe not. If the tube measures 1 meter long or 39.5 inches you might have a 45 watt tube. A true 60 watt tube is 49 inches long or 1250 mm.

It could be a loose connection however, would not hurt to check.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Surely even it if was set too high it wouldn't go out that quick, would it?

I've seen cheaper overdriven tubes die in minutes :(

[hugh bunker]

Just had a similar problem with my re-badged redsail 60 watt, turned out the ground had vibrated a little loose. It is inside the lower right hand side door. It was still snug but not tight. I tightened it up and all was well.

[jarrod lineberry]

I checked that and couldn't find a problem. I did away with the 110v converter and it is doing better, but still not as good as it was before. It is at 38w and using 10-11mA. I wonder if it was way overdriven and it caused some damage to either the tube or power supply.

[Bill George]

I checked that and couldn't find a problem. I did away with the 110v converter and it is doing better, but still not as good as it was before. It is at 38w and using 10-11mA. I wonder if it was way overdriven and it caused some damage to either the tube or power supply.
I think that has already been covered and we are assuming you have checked all connections.

[jarrod lineberry]

Problem was cause by the power supply having the ground and one AC leg swapped at the factory. It burnt a tracing on my power supply. I can't believe it worked at all after that.