Laser cutting out during use

Hi, I’ve been using my AtomStack x20 for about a year now with no real problems. Yesterday during an engraving on walnut the laser seemed to cut out during part of the engraving (no visible engraving lines during a spot it should have been). I realized it before I moved the laser at completion and just ran the job again and it was fine. I didn’t think much of it. Well this morning I tried running a different job on some 3mm basswood and the same thing happened. Both during cutting and engraving phases. You can see in the videos that the laser isn’t on (no blue light) for some and is for others. Obviously this makes the laser about unusable right now. Anyone have any ideas what’s going on?

Hi! The laser head of your X20 Pro is defective.

Perhaps there’s now enough crud built up on the heatsink to reduce the cooling airflow, whereupon the diode driver will shut down when it gets too hot. The controller has no way to know that and continues trudging along with the laser doing nothing. Eventually the driver cools enough to restart the laser and produce the result you see.

Take the laser head apart and see what horrors lurk within. If you don’t find any fuzz / crud, the fan is working, and the airflow seems just fine, then that’s not the problem.

It’s entirely possible the laser diode has failed, but that tends to be a one-time event.

I took it apart and cleaned it the other day after that happened. The wires connecting to the diode seemed to be loose. After cleaning and reconnecting things have been good so far. If things change I’ll update. Thanks!

Verily it is written: It’s always the connections! :grin:

In addition to bad connections, the wiring in the flying cable to the laser head can crumble over time. Keep an eye on that part of the hardware, too.

Happy lasering …

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.