Universal Laser Users I need some help!

[matt heinzel]

Ok so this has been an interesting set of days. First our machine stopped going up and down. Turned out to be a bad Zaxis board, so we ordered a replacement. In the mean time they upgraded us to the newest firmware. Well today I stuck the "bad" board back in and it is working again!

So here are the problems.
The new firmware overwrote all of our custom settings for materials. Any ideas how to get these back?
Also no mater what I do the software thinks my machine is 32x24 instead of the 24x12 that it is. So when I send a print job the carriage slams into the end of the machine since it thinks it has another 8 inches to go.
Tech support gave me a possible solution involving resetting something in the software that didn't work.

Then there is a new issue that I found. The laser beam is splitting before it leaves the back window of the system, the main beam does its normal thing, but the other less powerful beam hits the bottom of the first mirror and continues its way down to the second mirror and down. The result is a nice dot next to a long distorted dot. Any ideas? I am still waiting to hear back from tech on this one.

Lucky we have 4 systems so we are not out of business at the moment.

[Mike Mackenzie]

Matt,

A lot of times it is just the bottom limit switch on that board that is dirty use a cue tip with some cleaner and clean that switch.

Doing a firmware upgrade will not wipe out any custom printer settings you had saved.

Depending on the driver version can have an effect on saved settings but not firmware.

What firmware did they send you?

Did you do a driver update as well?

If so what version did you load?

ULS does not make a 32x24 system so something got scrambled they make a 32x18 and maybe you loaded that driver by mistake.

You should UN install the driver and re install the one for your system.

When you turn on the system look at the display window and it will tell you what system you have and then you load that driver.

With the split beam make sure your arm assembly is properly riding in the tracks and that it is square, Then pop the laser tube off and re install it see if either one of those things takes care of that.

What system did this happen to?

[Paul Brinkmeyer]

Then there is a new issue that I found. The laser beam is splitting before it leaves the back window of the system, the main beam does its normal thing, but the other less powerful beam hits the bottom of the first mirror and continues its way down to the second mirror and down. The result is a nice dot next to a long distorted dot. Any ideas? I am still waiting to hear back from tech on this one.

If you think the beam is split because of two red dots, it might be just the red pointer that is doing that...not the actual laser beam. I had this happen with tubes from ULS before. On one tube, the red pointer was like a football, and a second round one beside it. But the laser beam was not split.

[matt heinzel]

Thanks for the replies. I guess I meant driver not firmware, sorry about the typo. Yeah they sent me the most current driver and when I go to my custom settings they are wrong. The bed say it is 32x18 once again my mistake. I was frustrated and typing too fast to think about what I was saying. I did a burn test on the alignment and there is only one hole so the pointer issue might be right. The tube is seated correctly and the arm is square. I have un-installed and reinstalled 3 times with no change to the bed, I should probably ask them if I should install an older driver to see if that fixes the issue. I am running a PLS360 which they don't even sell anymore.

[Paul Brinkmeyer]

Yes, I have lost all my custom settings a few times during upgrades. After the first time, I always write down all my custom settings before any updates. I also tried to go back to an older driver and it never brought back any custom settings. I never had any problem with table size.

Yeah they sent me the most current driver and when I go to my custom settings they are wrong. I should probably ask them if I should install an older driver to see if that fixes the issue. I am running a PLS360 which they don't even sell anymore.

[Dave Yanke]

Not to hijack and on a side note, how do you find out what the latest firmware/driver version is? There does not seem to be anywhere on the site.

[Dan Hintz]

The install notes (somewhere) tell you to save the database if you want to keep settings. Their install program completely removes/deletes the database file. I'm always tweaking, so I rarely put anything in their anyway... it just hasn't become a part of my general workflow, though I admit it should be.

[Mike Mackenzie]

Matt,

Did they have you run the VLS ID correction program? it sounds like the cpu has changed its ID and thinks it is the PLS 6.60. I am not sure if this will help or not but it might be worth the try.

I would ask the service department.

Also with the custom settings you should always back up to a different folder before doing any upgrades this safeguards any settings.

[Scott Shepherd]

I had that happen once and they told me where the files are located on the drive. I went there and all the settings were there and I was able to get it rebuilt.

As an aside, the latest drivers have an "update" button on them that goes out to ULS servers and gets any updated drivers.

[matt heinzel]

Yeah they had me turn the system on and then press some keys on the keyboard type a code in and then select the correct machine. Thanks for all of your help. I am in the process of redoing the materials I had setup. If anyone knows where the original files might be let me know since we back our computers up on a external HD.

[kyle bonnell]

When I updated my drivers on my main machine I noticed that it ran a lot slower than the other machine running the original driver. More than a minute difference with the same engraving. ULS fixed a shifting problem and made another problem in the process. I just went back to the old driver since there really wasn't anything wrong with it in the first place.

[Scott Shepherd]

Kyle, make sure you send a report of that to them. They are always working on the drivers and if we don't send them actual feedback, they won't fix it. I worked with them on some vector issues and had good success getting them to make changes that resolves some issues. Of course, the next driver that came out, messed some of them back up, but for a brief, short time, we were right on target

Keep them in the loop, they do pass the info to software engineers and it is most helpful for them to see and hear of actual examples. They will research them and fix what they can, in my experience.