I have a OMTech 50w ruidia controller using Lightburn. It’s only been used about 15 times and not on any high power. I was engraving Acrylic then cut out, a 4 inch circle Did this maybe 6 times worked perfect. It’s only about 1/8inch thick used the setting on the Piece that came with it(300sp 45power) (cut @3mm 70power) , then the last one I found out it did not cut thru but just made a small line enough to see. So first i cleaned the mirrors and realigned them, the lens was dirty cleaned that too. Laser fires when i hit the pulse button. Checked the tube can’t see anything wrong with it. So then I installed milliamp meter I had bought and never put in, So when I hit the pulse the meter drops below the 0 mark and I ran a bit of the circle and meter is not showing any amps, so i’m stuck now what do I check now? Any help would be appreciated, I’m new to the Co2 laser world. Thank You!
If the laser is firing but miliamp meter is showing 0, I would think you have it connected wrong, because there must be power for it to fire.
I had a similar problem that you describe and it was because my power supply was turned up to high, and was over powering the tube so after a short time running the tube would cut out.
I suggest you check the connections for the Meter, turn you max laser power to 99%, fire the laser then check the miliamps, should be 30 MAX (29 is good)
If that is ok then run a job and watch the meter for fluctuations, as it could also be a faulty power supply.
Of course it could be something completely different, but if the above is wrong then you could destroy your tube (like mine did, I had to have new tube and power supply £1100…ouch!!) So worth checking!
Swap the meter connections. It’s going negative.
I probably have the same animal as you. My machine is also a 50 watt that measures about 45. It’s 880mm so it’s about a 45 watt tube.
I also cranked the power supply down quite a bit, so it can’t exceed 20ma.
It’s is max out at 21 ma (placard) and I usually don’t run it over 18ma (90%) max power.
Also on the machine console you set the maximum it will fire with the pulse button.
When I have time I will check the connection on the meter, I just followed the black wire from the tube, spliced it in line with it, I saw on a video he did’nt seem to check which wire was which when he hooked it up I try swapping sides on meter . But the power problem was before I connected the meter I was just trying to find out what it was reading when it was not cutting right. thanks for your input!
The negative side of the meter must go to ground.
So I swapped the wire ya it was backwards. So then after that I was looking at the control panel, never really looked at it because I just use lightburn. So anyway there is a test on there which is the same piece they sent with it . So I ran the test 1 on wood 1 on acrylic and they engraved and cutout perfect! So now I’m thinking I have a lightburn problem, so now I’m going to remove it and reinstall and see what happens…OK now I’m really confused I reinstalled Light Burn. now it seem to be working- however the amp meter pegged at 15 when the test piece was cutting @80 power on the machine screen, But ! when I run a few circles from 50 up to100% in lightburn the ampmeter only said about 5 m-amps?
You have the correct controller selected in Lightburn?
I ‘comfortably’ run mine at 18ma for high power. As far as I know it’s common practice to use at least a 30ma meter. So it probably was ‘pegged’ or close to it at 80% power.
What you are facing is what we all face and that is a configuration issue.
In theory there should be no difference. Generally what it does it reset everything back to default, which is back to a configuration issue.
Might want to try this and we’ll see where we go…
Ensure you’ve gone through the setup for your Ruida and the ‘Edit → Device Settings’.
You should read through this as it will come up.
So at this point what exactly are we solving?
We’ll get a handle on it… 
the first problem was it just stopped cutting. it just made a line you could feel with your finger nail. that is when I put the amp meter in to see what it said for the power used!
It said about 2-3 @ 80% in lightburn so then I just tried the test pattern that is on the machine! and it worked fine, so then I thought it was a lightburn Problem not the machine, so I uninstalled LB and reinstalled and now it seems to work fine! Problem solved except for the different reading on the meter, when cutting @80% on the machine’s screen I use 15ma and when when I said pegged I just mean it stayed at a steady 15ma on a 30 Meter! But when I run it @80% in lightburn It say’s 5ma but it cutting like before I had the problem, and I have it set for the Ruida but I will go back through settings again see if I notice anything different(So no real problem now cause it it working OK) Thanks for everybody’s help.
Somethings not configured correctly. You should not be able to cut as well at 5ma as 15ma. That meter is probably the most accurate thing you have to tell how the tube is using power. Even if it isn’t entirely accurate, it’s relatively accurate. Three times the current isn’t trivial here.
I assume these are the same images or cuts you are referring to. Are you cutting something or are you engraving something?
I cut at 75% power on some images and show about 5ma. Only because it’s off a lot longer than it’s on. You are getting an RMS value on the meter for all practical purposes.
It’s not a good idea to use terms such as ‘pegged’ when it’s clearly not what you mean.
Target what’s happening with the meter. Show us the cut layer (screenshot) of the problem.
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