Hello everyone. This is my first post here, so let me introduce myself first. I have not found an appropriate sub-forum for this, so I guess here is as good as anywhere. Anything in italics is just about me, so you can skip that entirely. In other forums I am a member of it is regarded as a good netiquette to give a brief info as to who one is before barging in and ask questions, so I guess it should be appropriate here as well.
I am a 29 year old biomedical scientist from Germany, but I have always been interested in electronics and mechanics. I was initially planning to build a smaller CNC machine when I stumbled upon laser engravers more or less by accident. Interested in that, I started working with one of the cheapest laser engravers available on Ebay about two years ago, did a few major tweaks on that machine but ran into buffer overflow problems (Software: NewlyDraw) pretty quickly. I got very helpful information from the largest German forum for laser engraving and started to post a few HOWTOs and manuals and quickly worked my way up to be a moderator of said forum
As I was really getting into the endless possibilities of laser engraving I purchased a larger Chinese, noname-model, fully DSP-controlled laser with a 30x50cm bed (12”x20”), usually referred to as “Shenhui G350”. Very satisfied with the value for money I intended to keep this machine for quite a while but someone pointed out a pretty shabby 40W GCC Spirit to me, which I took a look at and bought almost immediately. Other than complete cleaning (taking the machine apart to the last screw, machine had apparently never been cleaned) everything was good to go and the Synrad tube luckily still outputs approximately 40W. That is the machine that I am using for about three months now, other than needing the X-roller replaced everything is now as good as new again.
A few days ago I came across a listing on Ebay with someone selling a 25W GCC Laserpro Mercury which had suffered some damage from a burn in the engraving chamber. The laser was to be sold as a set with a TBH 265 LN air filter unit, which actually was the main point I was interested in the listing. I ended up buying both the laser and the air filter after having already found a prospective buyer for the laser tube should I not be able or willing to do a restoration.
I have no problems in sourcing spare parts as the local distributor of GCC parts for Germany really seems to have similar prices as can be found on Jorlink, so that is not the issue here.
I guess either the mainboard and/or the controller/LCD-Board have suffered some damage as well, which would basically render this whole project financially sustainable. Hence a short description on how the laser is behaving at the moment and questions regarding normal operation.
When the laser is powered on there is a beep, the LCD-board lights up, but there is nothing displayed. After a brief moment the Table is lowered until reaching the bottom end switch. That is it. If I try to go to the Diagnostics menu there is only a beep after powering up but no motor movement.
With my GCC Spirit both X- and Y-axes are homed after power up, but not the Z-axis. That is only the case when the rotary unit is plugged in. There the table is lowered, but then X and Y are homed. Trying to exclude a problem with the connector for the rotary unit (shorted pins) I disconnected the connector cable from the mainboard, but still the table is lowered until the limit switch is triggered. I do not get any movement for the other two motors. Also I guess I can exclude the optical sensors for both axes as at least the recieveing sensor bits show variation in resitance upon their exposition to light or darkness. Still the board they sit upon might have suffered a bit from the fire, although it looks fine to me after cleaning.
Hence, here my questions:
1.) What is the normal startup procedure of the Mercury? (Homing of X, Y, Firmware code and logo in display...)
2.) Is there any reason you can come up with that would make the unit lower the Z-axis and then stop? I have read that depending on the setup of the machine the Z-axis is also included in the initialization.
I am thinking about getting a new LCD unit (should the local distributor accept a return in case it is the mainboard after all) to see if that is the only problem regarding electronics.
Any input from you would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.
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