Help need with replacing power supply

[Walt Langhans]

Also I've noticed the LED on the power supply is trying to tell me something but I don't know what it is.

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[Glen Monaghan]

According to the legend below the warning triangle, the L means no laser signal.

[Keith Colson]

L says no laser signal and 0 is no milliamps, Maye because it is off. I found a manual, not an exact mach but explains all the connections.

google power supply datasheet c02 daniel bauen

It sounds like you have it all connected up OK but you need to set your current (milliamps) There are two ways. You can manually connect a 5K pot as the manual shows or you can adjust it as your laser machine intended.

Adjustment as intended is either a pot/adjuster or a software adjustment where you do it through the PC or control panel.

The wire "IN" goes to the thing that sets the current, either a digital chip which means you adjust in software or a potentiometer which you can turn with a screwdriver. You may need the manual or some settings software to do this.

Good luck
Keith

[Walt Langhans]

You can manually connect a 5K pot as the manual shows or you can adjust it as your laser machine intended.

What's a/the 5K pot?

[Dave Sheldrake]

You need to turn down the PSU Walt, I would hazard a guess it's turned right up to max-Q and is outputting the units top power.

Double check the rating for the tube and turn the PSU down or it will kill your tube pretty quickly.

cheers

Dave

[Keith Colson]

What's a/the 5K pot?

Type potentiometer into Google and look at the pictures. You can add one of these to manually set the power You would need to leave the "IN" wire disconnected and do it as per the diagram in the power supply manual.

Pot has 3 wires. The middle wire goes to "IN". The left side goes to Gnd and the right side goes to "5v". If you get left and right mixed up that's OK, it just means you turn the pot backwards for more power.

Cheers
Keith

[Walt Langhans]

Got it operating correctly! YEAH Joy Yang from Shenhui tech support!

Turns out there is a small hole in on the side that give you access to a screw that adjust the power of the unit. So I set the max power on the laser control pad to 99.9 press the pulse button and adjusted the power down via the screw till the amp meter read 28. It's a little late to be running the laser here, so I'll run it in the morning and see what happens.

Thanks for the help everyone!

[Robert Walters]

Again, SOME type of manual or instruction sheet SHOULD HAVE BEEN INCLUDED!!!

Even the one I found earlier didn't mention a power adjustment setting or even a LED status display.


Walt,

Ask the guy you got the PS from to send you a manual (PDF) , then post a copy here for others in the future.

[Walt Langhans]

I would hazard a guess it's turned right up to max-Q and is outputting the units top power.

Yup, good guess. However now I'm having issues with the lower power settings... blah... why can't this stuff ever be easy lol!

[Dave Sheldrake]

When you say "Lower" Walt how low do you mean?, RECI's after a settling period will often not fire reliably under 15%

The setting you need is the run current and not the strike current,

Draw a line in your package, say 150mm long, set the machine on a nice thick bit of wood and run it at 2mm per second at 100% power,
After the initial strike make sure the meter reads no more than 27 milliamps as it runs, adjust the power supplies pot to compensate then always run the laser at a maximum of 90% power to allow for dirty supply spikes.

cheers

Dave

[Walt Langhans]

When you say "Lower" Walt how low do you mean?, RECI's after a settling period will often not fire reliably under 15%

Before the new power supply I had setting in Laserworks at power 10. I never bothered to note what the amp meter was reading when it was running at this setting. However it marked MDF, Acrylic, and grayboard just fine. Now I've had to increase that 10 to a 30 to get the same results.

I looked at some RECI manuals on-line but I can find the right one for my tube. It seems it's either 27mA or 32mA for the for the high end setting. The way I have it now running at 100 from the software results in the control panel reading 98% power and the amp meter reads 27.

So I'm thinking that I might could crank it up to 32 but for the longer life of the tube I think I'm better off just upping my lower end in the software.

However with that said, I'm always up for the advice of the more experienced

OH YEAH... almost forgot. When I started the laser up today it ran for about an hour then stopped firing. I shut down, checked the fuse and it was NOT blown. I put it back in started it up and it ran fine for the next 10 hours so I'm hoping it was just that I put the fuse in loosely the first time, but in the interest of full disclosure I want to give you guys all the info I have.

[Bruce Dorworth]

Walt, can you post a picture of your connections on the new power supply? There are adjustments on the power supply so you can control the max current.

Bruce

[Dave Sheldrake]

No more than 27 Walt, 32 will shorten the tube life by quite a bit. As you say, just up the lower end in the software (when a tube fires it is subject to a spike, if that spike is too high you risk burning the electrodes in the tube) RECI have a max limit for warranty as well from memory I *think* its 28 but can't remember off hand.

cheers

Dave

[Kev Williams]

This might be contrary to popular opinion, but I would think you should set the maximum output higher (32mA?) and adjust the UPPER end down in the software? I'm hardly a brain about this stuff, but it seems to me that engraving with a laser is very much like playing music with an amplifier- The main reason for high-power amplifiers in good stereo systems isn't to have more brute force to play music LOUD, it's so music can be played at 'normal' volume levels effortlessly, and the extra power is available for easily reproducing the occasional crescendo's with no effect on the lower level output.

I may be wrong, but it just seems the same would be true with your laser's controller; having a higher available maximum output let the laser work at lower levels with less effort...?

If you have a meter on your laser, it's easy to monitor your max output while vector cutting. On my Triumph, my power level set to 71% equals a solid 27mA while vectoring. I never go past this setting while vector cutting. But it's nice to know more power is there if I need it, if only for a few seconds...

[Dave Sheldrake]

It will shorten the tube life by quite a bit Kev, when the tube fires it receives a spike current from the supply to initiate the arc / plasma, that current is relative to the PSU's run current so setting run at 32 you may well end up striking at 38 to 40.

cheers

Dave