Rabbit Laser(:

[Steve Middleton]

Last week, about Tuesday I think, things were going well and then they stopped going at all. In that the machine would not power up. I tried to troubleshoot it Wed morning without success so I called Rabbit. Carole was very helpful and assured me it could only be one of three things. I checked and we finally found a fourth thing which she told me they would have "never considered". She had the defective part in stock and sent it out with several apologies and it arrived Friday afternoon. Saturday I installed the new part but nothing changed.....I spent a couple hours checking and double checking and found that I now DO have power into the machine....the male power input is also contains a fuew and a solder joint blew instead of the fuse. Now the fuse is ok and I've verified power "inside" but there's no power to the on/off switch or the emergency stop button. There is, however, continuity across them both so I've gone as far as my skills will take me. I'm not alarmed at this point. I've read lots of good comments about Rabbit's support so I'm keeping a positive outlook and we'll how things go this week. And thanks for listening

[Kev Williams]

Probably the controller. My LS900's controller went south a week ago, kinda did the same thing, the machine just went dark... After digging in, I found the laser powered up via the power supply, and parts of the CPU were getting power but nothing beyond that, no fans, lights, display... For the 2nd time in 42 years I had to deal with New Hermes/Gravograph's customer service directly, and since they're not known for cheap pricing, I had to grit my teeth and send them the CPU. Much to my pleasant surprise, I guess it wasn't totalled as the repair cost is only $370...! (I was expecting 4x that)

So here's hoping you good luck on a fast & relatively painless fix!

[Bill George]

Steve is your machine 120 or 240 volts? The Chinese are not very good at keeping the colors correct so you will to check incoming wires across the two main power lines and not the wire that appears to be the ground. Sometimes they fuse both sides of the line, even on 120 volts which is not right. FYI after troubleshooting for 50 years I can tell you right now you can have continuity and the connection wire could be the size of a human hair, enough to make your ohm meter think its fine..... but its not because as soon as you put a load on that connection you will get zero volts.

So #1 visually check everything, pull on wires and tighten screws a great deal of the time you will find whats wrong that way.

#2 check with your voltmeter both sides of the line. If you can ID the neutral wire put a jumper clip on it to one of your meter leads. Then hopscotch the other meter lead tracing power from where its good to each point in the line until you do not get power. If your working with 240 volts make sure your meter lead jumper wire is insulated and can not touch metal.

#3 if your working with 240 volts, you can have one fuse blown or poor connection and get feed back that makes you think all is well, its not.

[Steve Middleton]

My machine is 120 volt. I'm definitely not a "tech" so I'm very glad my machine is still under warranty! Rabbit told me it could ONLY be 3 things.....a fuse, the emergency stop switch, or the on/off switch. I have power past the fuse but nothing else. We'll see how tomorrow goes. I'm still believing Rabbit will take care of me. Time will tell!

[Bill George]

My machine is 120 volt. I'm definitely not a "tech" so I'm very glad my machine is still under warranty! Rabbit told me it could ONLY be 3 things.....a fuse, the emergency stop switch, or the on/off switch. I have power past the fuse but nothing else. We'll see how tomorrow goes. I'm still believing Rabbit will take care of me. Time will tell!

Frankly it would be easier for you just to purchase and learn how to use a good digital VOM or multimeter. There are some decent ones for around $50 or so. I pay about 3x that but thats just me. Learn your machine and how to check for power. Once your machine is out of warranty your going to need to fix and repair/replace yourself.

BTW when your troubleshooting the words "never happened before" comes up from time to time.

[Kev Williams]

Frankly it would be easier for you just to purchase and learn how to use a good digital VOM or multimeter. There are some decent ones for around $50 or so. I pay about 3x that but thats just me. Learn your machine and how to check for power. Once your machine is out of warranty your going to need to fix and repair/replace yourself.

BTW when your troubleshooting the words "never happened before" comes up from time to time.

for simple troubleshooting a $3 Harbor Freight meter works fine. I have a nice Fluke but rarely use it

And 'never happened before' is almost a given! When my Triumph started acting crazy, the factory techs were clueless, never happened before! I found it was a broken X stepper motor wire within the gantry drag-chain, the techs were happy to know that as a machine in Mexico was doing the same thing, and that was its problem too! And I've had the same thing happen twice since - So much for 'never'...

[Bill George]

Actually I have a couple of those "free" Harbor Freight digital meters. Had to replace the leads on one after the dog ate them, the new were extra leads I had. They are handy for quick troubleshooting or checking batteries, but my goto is a older Fluke.

[Steve Middleton]

I've had a Volt/Ohm meter for a long time. Spent an hour with Rabbit support Tuesday without resolution. I spoke with Ray Wednesday and he's going to be in the area in the near future but no confirmation on what that means? For now I'm trying to be patient and assuming the best. I have a bunch of files in RD Works ready to run for an event weekend after this but time will tell......

[Jerome Stanek]

do you have a switch on the door

[Steve Middleton]

Update.............Barring any changes Ray will be here Friday next week. I've read all your comments and given them a lot of thought. I may well be in over my head? I knew that in January when I began considering this adventure. In Feb I purchased Corel and spent 60 days(?) 4-5 hours/day learning to navigate the software, on an elementary level, knowing if I couldn't do that I had no business moving forward. Once I did that I read and read....both this forum and others before finally writing the check and ordering a laser. My background is NOT in this area but I really want to do it. I've read your comments and also read between the lines and considered my limitations and the things you've not said explicitly............."out of kindness I suppose" as the song says. LOL. I began looking for an electronics tech/consultant in the area because, as many people have mentioned, there will be problems and it just makes sense. Please keep me in your thoughts and I really appreciate the forum!

[Bill George]

Well if you have a VOM I am assuming you have used it in the past. Your local tech will not know about laser machines and he will be learning as he goes. I just wanted to point I that I took people from zero to learning how to troubleshoot basics in the 12 years I taught, plus lots of others before that. The key is learning to use the meter. It took my students just a few weeks.

[Mike Null]

Steve
You paid extra bucks for your Rabbit because of the tech support. I would not spend more for a local guy who may not know anything.

Lasers of this type are basically DYI machines and you can handle it with the help of the forum and the supplier. I also came out of a marketing backgound with zero laser or graphics experience and I've been able to handle all the technical stuff myself, with the aid of telephone tech support.

[Steve Middleton]

I understand how to use a VOM. Had a music store for 20 years and taught myself/learned to repair and trouble shoot electric guitars, etc. but I understand the laser is MUCH more complex. Rabbit uses Face Time and I've not found a compatible Android equivalent so an I Pad is on my list to facilitate communication. I have a VOIP phone in the shop but depending on where I am the reception is pretty bad and I imagine that contributed to the difficulty I had working with tech support. I've learned quite a bit already, LOL.

[Kev Williams]

The basic line voltage wiring in a laser is no more complex than anything else, the complex parts are what they eventually connect to!

Your problem seems to be the line power is being interrupted before it gets to any complex parts. The troubleshooting then begins by tracking the line in wiring. That's what I did when my CPU went out in my LS900... First I checked the switch for continuity- check... then I followed the TWO hot wires from the switch, one to the laser's power supply, one to the CPU-- the power supply was working and supplying 30 volts to the laser tube, and I found power at the CPU, and that part of the CPU was "hot", by virtue of one of the heat sinks was heating up- but nothing beyond that...

I'm thinking you need to do the same thing, just follow the hot to anywhere it terminates before 'moving on'-- And just a note on switches, continuity doesn't necessarily mean it'll carry an electrical load, both sides of the switch need to checked to insure that you have volts on the incoming and outgoing terminals. Hopefully you can find the point at which you have power in but no power out, and hopefully it'll just be a failed switch

[Steve Middleton]

Makes sense. I'll give it a try. Thanks for the input.