Mother Board Blues

[Ashton Waters]

Well, the "mother" ( hope I have that spelled correctly) board died on me yesterday afternoon. Here I sit idle until Monday afternoon. The good news is that Epliog was very good about figuring out the problem and getting a new on on the way. I guess I can spend this time designing my next several projects and be ready to roll when UPS arrives.

[Joe Pelonio]

My sympathy on your loss, hopefully they get it to you fast and you get up and running soon.

[Keith Outten]

Ashton,

Which model Epilog do you own? How old is it?

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[Ashton Waters]

It's a Helix, model 8000, 45 W, and I've had it for about 4 months. I bought it new.

The problems started when the carriage would not return to it's home position, even after I recalibrated it. I called Epilog, they had me to run it through a couple of test. They shipped the mother board out yesterday and I should have it Monday.

I do have a question. Does anyone ground the cabinet as an extra protection from static shock?

[Richard Rumancik]

Ashton

The cabinet should be grounded adequately through the power cord. I suppose you could add another ground but I have not heard of people doing this to any type of similar equipment. How would the static get into the equipment? Through the operator panel? If you have noticed that you have been discharging to the op panel (static sparks when you walk across the room and touch the panel) then I suppose you could add a little conductive ground strip near the op panel to force the discharge to ground before your fingers touched the panel. But well designed equipment should not need that, and should have been tested for ESD immunity.

One suggestion: if you are using a flexible exhaust hose with a spiral wire in it, I would try to ground the wire to earth. Perhaps to an electrical conduit or water pipe. The reason is that air moving in a plastic duct can cause static build up in the duct which can then run down the wire. If the wire terminates "just close" to the laser frame you could have occasional static discharges.

Do you think your problem was static related?

I suspect more electronic problems are caused by bad power (transients) than ESD. I use a 2Kw UPS on my laser to alleviate that problem. For larger lasers that method gets very expensive. At a minimum I would have a good quality TVSS (Transient Voltage Surge Suppressor) in front of my laser. An electrician or utility rep could give you some advice. Some of these are hardwired at the power panel, some could be put into a box like a computer surge suppressor. In any event my personal feeling is that $25 computer surge suppressors are inadequate to protect a laser. After you figure out what you need you might consider eBay for good prices on line conditioners, TVSS, etc.

[Mike Null]

I suggest you go to Radio Shack and get a device which fastens to your wrist and with an alligator clip to a metal part in your cabinet. This will provide ground for you while you are replacing the board. Epilog may provide it with the motherboard. Either way it's still a good little item to have.

[Ashton Waters]

As promised, I received a new mother board for my laser this afternoon and it went in within a matter of minutes. I'm happy to say, I'm back up and running once again.

[Joe Pelonio]

Hurray, glad to hear you're back in business. Now hopefully Frank in the U.K. will get his mother board and back in action soon.