Fine Horizontal Lines when Raster engraving, epilog laser

[John Breznicky]

Hey Guys, first post on here, been reading for a while.

I have a 2 month old epilog helix 50watt 18"x24" laser. It's primary use is to engrave/cut acrylic and thin woods.

Everything has run quite smoothly since purchase, until today. When raster engraving, I'm getting very fine lines in areas that contain no artwork that should no be getting engraved. Artwork is rather simple and this problem has happened suddenly, I have been engraving steadily since purchase with no issues. Photos show what I'm trying to explain.

Artwork is vector artwork at 60%K
Raster speed is 50/ Power is 95

Troubleshooting I have tried (based on epilog service call):
Cleaning optics
Aligning laser
Re-installing epilog driver

Has anyone see this before? Any suggestions appreciated!

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[Henri Sallinen]

The only problems I've faced with a Epilog laser (that affected the engraving) was because of a dirty encoder strip. But I'm not sure that cleaning it would resolve this kind of a issue. Hopefully your problem gets resolved. Good luck!

[Rodne Gold]

There is a sort of "warm up" voltage applied to the laser (Trickle/Tickle) which can change over time , if its too much , you can see the ghost engraving where there should be none , ask Epilog if it may be this and how to set it lower.

[Mike Null]

I had that occur when I was operating Epilogs several years back. In my situation the problem repeated itself on every job and at the same place every time. I believe Rodney is correct and you'll need to contact Epilog.

At one point I had to replace the mother board in one of the machines but I do not recall that this issue was related to that.

[John Breznicky]

I had that occur when I was operating Epilogs several years back. In my situation the problem repeated itself on every job and at the same place every time. I believe Rodney is correct and you'll need to contact Epilog.

At one point I had to replace the mother board in one of the machines but I do not recall that this issue was related to that.

Thanks for the reply. Have been on the phone with them for the past 3 days and they've had me go through all types of trouble shooting measures. Their latest theory is that its a driver or file issue and not the hardware. I'm a bit skeptical as the files I'm using have not changed and I've re-installed the driver.

I guess today will be day 4 on the phone with epilog!

[Chris DeGerolamo]

Are you pressing 'go' before the job is completely sent??

[John Breznicky]

Are you pressing 'go' before the job is completely sent??

Nope, I've always waited until the job is completely sent, until green light is off. Like I said earlier, It's a pretty sudden and abrupt problem, no issues for 2 months.

[Kev Williams]

Cable issue maybe?

My old Universal laser has done similar stunts, but my problem was always LPT cable related. I used to share the machine with 2 computers using a simple port switch, and whenever the line-thing happened I could always fix it by cleaning the switch, switching the port or whatever. I'm sure you're using a USB connection, but I've known USB cables and ports to go bad. It doesn't take much bad data to create engraving you don't need!

Try switching cables and USB ports and see if that helps, at least it's a cheap troubleshoot--

[John Breznicky]

Cable issue maybe?

My old Universal laser has done similar stunts, but my problem was always LPT cable related. I used to share the machine with 2 computers using a simple port switch, and whenever the line-thing happened I could always fix it by cleaning the switch, switching the port or whatever. I'm sure you're using a USB connection, but I've known USB cables and ports to go bad. It doesn't take much bad data to create engraving you don't need!

Try switching cables and USB ports and see if that helps, at least it's a cheap troubleshoot--

Thanks for the tip Kev, I'll give it a shot. Currently printing with ethernet, using the crossover cable over our network, which Epilog verified is the preferred method. Worth a shot though.

[Chuck Stone]

it looks like tickle voltage to me, too.
But I'm no laser technician.
Did you ask Epilog about 'tickle' specifically?

[John Breznicky]

it looks like tickle voltage to me, too.
But I'm no laser technician.
Did you ask Epilog about 'tickle' specifically?

Latest from epilog, they are sending a replacement laser tube. 50 watts are backordered, but hopefully I'll be back in business soon!

[Mike Null]

I also experienced Kev's example on my old ULS. Sometimes just reattaching the cable solved the problem.

[Larry Bratton]

Hummmm,,another tube?? and 50 watt is BACKORDERED..I just went through a tube replacement last week of a 40 watt tube and they too were BACKORDERED .
They sent me a Coherent tube..wonder what's going on ?

Have you tried connecting your laser directly to your computer via Ethernet and use just a straight Ethernet cable? Crossover cable could be the issue or something in the network. You could try a USB connection also just to see. USB works OK (sometimes) but straight Ethernet connection is great.

[John Breznicky]

Hummmm,,another tube?? and 50 watt is BACKORDERED..I just went through a tube replacement last week of a 40 watt tube and they too were BACKORDERED .
They sent me a Coherent tube..wonder what's going on ?

Have you tried connecting your laser directly to your computer via Ethernet and use just a straight Ethernet cable? Crossover cable could be the issue or something in the network. You could try a USB connection also just to see. USB works OK (sometimes) but straight Ethernet connection is great.

I have it connected via usb currently and am having the same issue. The odd thing of it all is that our files have been the same and the conditions/method have been consistent. It was a sudden issue, which lead me to believe it was a sudden mechanical failure. The fact that convinced epilog it wasn't a data or file issue was when they asked me to monitor the behavior when simply hitting "go" again and not re-transmitting the job from the computer. They felt that if it was a data transmission error that the lines that are showing up would be typical each time I re-sent the job by hitting "go". Which makes total sense to me, but unfortunately, that was not the case. The lines show up in a random and unpredictable way and are different from job to job.

It's frustrating that the tube is backordered but at least once it's back in stock it will ship overnight.

[Chuck Stone]

the more you describe it, the more it sounds like the tickle voltage.
The tube is pre-ionized when the machine is on, but not quite
enough to power the beam. That threshold is the 'tickle' voltage, as
Rodney described it. Think of it as a standby voltage. It should be
juuuuuust high enough to be on the verge of firing the tube, but
not quite. If it is set too high, it might sometimes fire the beam when
it isn't supposed to. This sounds like what you describe.

It could be that you'd be back in business by turning a tiny screw.
(potentiometer) or a Config setting..