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Thread: Laser will fire for pulse and test but only for a second.

  1. #1
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    Laser will fire for pulse and test but only for a second.

    Hello! Obviously I’m new here, or at least a new member. I’ve searched the threads here for answers to almost everything that has gone wrong with my laser. Although I think I’ve read maybe 100 threads this time, none of them have the exact same symptoms as I currently do. I am hoping that someone here can maybe point me in the right direction. My omtech 80w laser will fire for a split second when I hit pulse on the controller or when I unplug the Ethernet amp meter and 6 pin controller connection and hit test. If I hold either one, the laser fires and sputters/stops. I made sure it’s set to continuous fire (the 0 in the settings) as I read on a different thread. It engraved most of a job and just quit engraving very well, then went to cut and made it 80% of the way around and stopped firing altogether. Then after a few days of troubleshooting the whole ‘laser will only pulse and won’t run any job from lightburn thing) I ran the file in the controller (the little test one) and it didn’t engrave the name portion but the squares at different powers engraved fine. It didn’t cut though. About a week after that, I put a brand new power supply in, same problem. I changed the controller, loaded my last working backup settings and same issue. I can see the tube with bright pink light at seemingly full strength when I hit test or pulse and it sort of fizzles to no light. I did take videos of that. I have disabled the door sensor and water protection both and the problem is still there. I reenabled them to make sure I didn’t cause any problems accidentally. I’ve also checked everything I have seen recommended with a multimeter. The power supply is at 120v. The controller has 5v as do all the motors and such. I tested for continuity on probably every dang connection and I made sure every single one of the 120 plus connections in the machine are solid and secure. At this point, I’m really wondering if it is my tube. I’ve only had it 5 months or so and I’ve had to replace two power supplies already which seems odd to me. I only run it at 40% power max and my chiller 5200 is set to 15° Celsius.

    Other maybe relevant details, it has been getting pretty cold here but my laser is in the insulated and climate controlled garage (it is close to the garage door though which isn’t completely insulated) I also had to replace the focal lens about two weeks before this happened because the old one was completely cracked somehow. I do clean the machine regularly following all the advice here and none of the optics are cloudy. I went from what I believe was a 2” lens to 2.5” because that’s all I could find. I did a ramp test and set everything and ran probably 40 successful jobs before the current issue.

  2. #2
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    Update, tried another new power supply, same problem still except now I have no pulse fire at all.

  3. #3
    2 power supplies in 5 months? Under warranty I hope? Sounds like the tube is bad, or maybe the high-voltage wire is 'iffy'...? Tube should be under warranty too-?

    I've owned a Triumph (Chinese) 1300x900 machine, it'll be 9 years old this thanksgiving. While I've had stepper motor wiring issues with it, and had to replace the controller about 3 years ago, the 80w RECI tube and power supplies still work fine, *for the most part*-- I'm having an issue when firing at below 25% power- which is around 34% actual since 72% power hits a "full" 26mA-- Anyway, I'm getting an erratic firing that I can see when cutting, and it also lightly 'bounces' the meter needle when it does it. But 26% and above power entered and the beam and meter are rock solid. It used to be rock solid down to even 9% power. The tube's beam is still very much pink, and it doesn't seem to fluctuate like the meter and cutting beam, but still, I'm assuming my tube isn't long for this world. But for certain, I can't complain!

    What stands out to me in your message, and may or may not be part of your problem (?) is how COLD you have the chiller set to... For like 4 years I ran my RECI with an un-refrigerated chiller before I got my 5200, and mine is set so it kicks on at 20.2c and off at 19.4c (66° and °69 F), and it'll WARM the water if my garage is too cold. Your 15c equates to only 59°F - BUT I'm not sure if that's too cold or not to be honest.

    Anyway, a loose tube wire or the tube going away sounds most logical to me...
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  4. #4
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    Thank you so much for the response!

    Thankfully I am under warranty but the manufacturer (omtech via Amazon) actually sent me the first replacement power supply (of 4 total in 5 months) and it wasn’t the same one in the machine and was fairly mangled. I had to change all the wiring out but that worked for awhile. I’ve also reconnected the HV wire (which was soldered poorly) and I’m pretty confident I did a good job especially because it does fire fully for the first half a second or so. I didn’t solder it because I was under the impression you shouldn’t try to solder that type of metal. Should I have? I was really hoping it wasn’t the tube because I’m terrified to replace it.

    I do believe I’ll end up just buying a tube myself (because the manufacturer doesn’t seem willing to help without 35745 videos and all sorts of other stuff) so I’m open to recommendations if you have any! I’ve read good things about the RECI tubes and you seem to like yours. Would that be a good one? Do they happen to make not glass ones? That’s the part that scares me most actually because I’m a little shaky and also not an electrician by any means either.

    Also, you mentioned the chiller temp, it’s actually set to 18 but it doesn’t warm the water and since the laser isn’t firing, that’s basically room temp I believe because nothing is heating the water up. I had to dig out my glowforge pro and it operates just fine, but slower than a snail by comparison which I cannot stand! It is in the same area as the OMTech.
    Last edited by Marybeth Gresham; 11-16-2022 at 1:27 PM.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Marybeth Gresham View Post
    Thank you so much for the response!

    Thankfully I am under warranty but the manufacturer (omtech via Amazon) actually sent me the first replacement power supply (of 4 total in 5 months) and it wasn’t the same one in the machine and was fairly mangled. I had to change all the wiring out but that worked for awhile. I’ve also reconnected the HV wire (which was soldered poorly) and I’m pretty confident I did a good job especially because it does fire fully for the first half a second or so. I didn’t solder it because I was under the impression you shouldn’t try to solder that type of metal. Should I have? I was really hoping it wasn’t the tube because I’m terrified to replace it.

    I do believe I’ll end up just buying a tube myself (because the manufacturer doesn’t seem willing to help without 35745 videos and all sorts of other stuff) so I’m open to recommendations if you have any! I’ve read good things about the RECI tubes and you seem to like yours. Would that be a good one? Do they happen to make not glass ones? That’s the part that scares me most actually because I’m a little shaky and also not an electrician by any means either.

    Also, you mentioned the chiller temp, it’s actually set to 18 but it doesn’t warm the water and since the laser isn’t firing, that’s basically room temp I believe because nothing is heating the water up. I had to dig out my glowforge pro and it operates just fine, but slower than a snail by comparison which I cannot stand! It is in the same area as the OMTech.
    Frankly I would return the machine and get your money back. This is way over what an owner should be expected to do. Contact Amazon and get it started ASAP. The chiller cools the water, not warms.
    Retired Guy- Central Iowa.HVAC/R , Cloudray Galvo Fiber , -Windows 10

  6. #6
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    I have filed a claim with Amazon and they will likely be refunding me since we can’t seem to get the seller to come get the machine. If I have to have a giant box in my shop, I may as well buy a tube and use it, right? 😁

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Marybeth Gresham View Post
    I have filed a claim with Amazon and they will likely be refunding me since we can’t seem to get the seller to come get the machine. If I have to have a giant box in my shop, I may as well buy a tube and use it, right? ��
    It sounds like the machine has some real issues and putting more new parts into it and not going to solve. If your experienced and want to rewire and install the correct parts to get it running right that's another story. A machine that has the power supply replaced 3 or 4 times has problems. Lightobject is expensive compared to other imports, but the machines they sell just work.
    Retired Guy- Central Iowa.HVAC/R , Cloudray Galvo Fiber , -Windows 10

  8. #8
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    Thank you for the suggestion! I will definitely look into one of those. Do you use one yourself? I would love a recommendation if you have one. I love my autofocus and 24x36 workspace.

    As much as I love 🙄 fixing this thing all the time, I would rather be filling orders. My one hurdle is, I have to do something with this one if they refund me because they don’t seem to be willing to come get it and I can’t actually get it out of my shop without major hassle. We actually converted the garage once this was in it. I still have the door but there’s basically a wall in front of it now. I also would probably struggle to get one in here unless is was much smaller but that’s not helpful, I want to utilize the larger workspace.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Marybeth Gresham View Post
    Thank you for the suggestion! I will definitely look into one of those. Do you use one yourself? I would love a recommendation if you have one. I love my autofocus and 24x36 workspace.

    As much as I love �� fixing this thing all the time, I would rather be filling orders. My one hurdle is, I have to do something with this one if they refund me because they don’t seem to be willing to come get it and I can’t actually get it out of my shop without major hassle. We actually converted the garage once this was in it. I still have the door but there’s basically a wall in front of it now. I also would probably struggle to get one in here unless is was much smaller but that’s not helpful, I want to utilize the larger workspace.
    I had a LightObject laser and it worked fine I ended up selling and buying a Cloudray fiber for doing metal and its been wonderful. Cloudray has decent machines also, never had one of their CO2 ones however. I would put your old one on Facebook marketplace and sell as is needs repair. Someone will buy.
    Retired Guy- Central Iowa.HVAC/R , Cloudray Galvo Fiber , -Windows 10

  10. #10
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    That’s a great idea! I’ve been so frustrated with it that I didn’t even think of that. The machine was $5000 new, what is a decent price for “needs repair/likely a tube” maybe half of that or less?

  11. #11
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    Well when you can buy working 80 watt machines for $3000 or so, I have no idea of the market value of yours. It would sell for maybe $1000 IF you can find a buyer.
    Retired Guy- Central Iowa.HVAC/R , Cloudray Galvo Fiber , -Windows 10

  12. #12
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    Thank you! That sounds reasonable to me. I appreciate the input.

  13. #13
    I too boxed in my garage after putting a dumpster-sized laser in it, but so far I've been lucky - Shame that you're having so much trouble. I have 19 various machines total, and while many aren't actively in use these days, they all DO work. (knock on my head!)

    Just want to bounce back to "chillers cool the water, not warms" -- while warming the water isn't a "design function" of a chiller, simply pumping water warms the water via friction, and fairly quickly. This morning when I turned on my chiller the garage thermometer showed 62°, and the chiller showed 17.2°C, which 62.9°F, so pretty close. About an hour later when I went into the garage the chiller was running, not for long as the temp showed 20.1 (68) while the garage thermometer showed only 63. I hadn't run the laser yet...
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  14. #14
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    That’s good to know! I didn’t really think of that. Hopefully you keep the problem free streak going!

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