LaserPro Mercury III, motor? encoders? belt?

[Alex Boon]

Hi there,
Out of sudden 3 month old Mercury III started stretching engraving which we do pretty much at same speed and power. Machine was turned off for about 15 minutes and couldn't make it work again after that. Tried file which has been engraved successfully hour earlier, cleaned rails, belts, rollers. Mirrors and lens are clean and tight, there is no movement in head, but higher the speed, more stretched engraving is. If I were to engrave a square, it would be fine at low speed, but would become a parallelogram at higher speeds. Had quite a few issues with this machine so far, I don't know if it's just me having bad luck, or is it always like that?

Any ideas what may be the cause behind engraving like on photo?
Your help would be really appreciated


IMG_9650.jpg

[Hilton Lister]

Check the pulleys that drive the belt. They sometimes are loose when checked with an allen key, but feel tight when checked by hand.

[Gary Hair]

have you checked the encoder? If yours is similar to my Explorer then it's under a plastic shroud at the end of the stepper. Dust can get in there and really screw things up. It seems a bit too evenly skewed to make me believe that is the problem, but you never know.

[Jim Reinhard]

Did check all the movements in test mode.hold the down arrow and auto focus on start up to get there.Maybe a bearing bad or sticking?
.also coukd try reinstalling or upgrading the firmware.

[Bill George]

Hi there,
Out of sudden 3 month old Mercury III started stretching engraving which we do pretty much at same speed and power. Machine was turned off for about 15 minutes and couldn't make it work again after that. Tried file which has been engraved successfully hour earlier, cleaned rails, belts, rollers. Mirrors and lens are clean and tight, there is no movement in head, but higher the speed, more stretched engraving is. If I were to engrave a square, it would be fine at low speed, but would become a parallelogram at higher speeds. Had quite a few issues with this machine so far, I don't know if it's just me having bad luck, or is it always like that?

Any ideas what may be the cause behind engraving like on photo?
Your help would be really appreciated

I guess since its only 3 months old I'd get the Warranty people involved. Just guessing it looks like a loose belt or pulley all have been suggested. Even a bearing that has a bad spot could cause skipping.

[Alex Boon]

Thanks for all your suggestions. As Bill said, machine is on warranty, but unfortunately you can wait ages before it's fixed here in UK, especially when you live so far away from their offices. Called techs and been told that most likely there is some sort of motor malfunction. We are not allowed to touch anything, as this void warranty, just wait. I wonder if 120 of my customers will be so patient waiting for their orders. I guess not. Time for plan C. Will probably need another laser...