I powered up my A20 after changing out the lens cover for a new one and it started cutting and engraving again at my normal settings. But then, after two small but good projects, I tried to start a third and it suddenly seems to have lost power. In order to even see an engrave I need to punch up the power setting to 100% and slow the speed to like 250mm/m. This is MUCH more power than I am used to using. I assumed something happened to the head and contacted Atomstack. However someone on Reddit told me they had experienced the exact same issue but when they used LaserGRBL it worked fine.
I do not know how to use LaserGRBL but when I exported the gcode from Lightburn and imported it into LaserGRBL and ran it, it ran for about the same amount of time in the project and gave me the same results. So I still think it is hardware. HOWEVER…Is there any steps I can take, any settings I can check that might have gotten set wrong somehow, that I could look at to rule out the software angle before talking to them? I did run into a problem where restarting Lightburn resulted in me not being able to connect to the laser and I had to remove the device and recreate it in Lightburn. But there was nothing I did differently in doing that than I did the first time I setup the machine in LB. Any assistance at all would be welcome.
Found the problem with the help of Reddit users. SOMEHOW, between one burn and another, the Max S-value setting for my device got reset to 255. For the atomstack it needs to be 1000. As soon as I set this correctly, the machine began responding correctly again.
This is almost certainly from recreating the device. If for whatever reason the machine parameters cannot be probed properly S Value Max may not be set appropriately. Note that recreating the device is almost never the correct remedy in that case. First check that the correct port is selected in Laser window. Also right-clicking the Devices button can force a reconnect.
I had the opposite problem. Max S was set to 1000 and when I set the power to 45% it cut nearly half way through my plywood. Set to 255 the power is closer to where it should be. Not sure why my A20 pro needs 255 when everyone else says it should be 1000.
I am having a similar problem with the laser losing power. First piece of wood cuts clean. Second piece barely cuts through. Third peice barely cuts at all. Seems the longer the laser works the lower the power gets. Power it off for a while and it starts all over again. Checked my cooling fan and it is fine. I contacted Atomstack and I will post their repy