Laser going red ring as soon as hitting start button

LightBurn Software Questions
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Hello All,

I am having an issue with the ring going red at start up.

I have a Omtech Polar 350. I am running Lightburn on a Dell mini PC with 16MB of RAM, Nvidia graphic, basically more then the minimum requirement.

I can load a program, set all my parameters, frame it no problem. As soon as I press “start” the light ring goes from green to red. It does not matter how simple the cut program is. I have tried to run the bypass switch on “rotary”, still does the same thing. I have updated the software and my licenses is current.

Last month, I would start a program and it would start to cut, then stop randomly with the red ring on. Then I would wait a bit and hit the unit button (red ring) and it would go green and finish. The axis are moving freely. Like I said, I have no problem framing. I always make sure the lid is down. It looks like the tray switch is being made.

Could it be coolant level? I can’t think it is the tube. I really don’t use it much and I cut leather. The power is never above 60.

Any Thoughts?

Roy

2

Hello Roy,

Yes, this error can occur if the coolant level is not sufficient.

But since you are using the rotary and probably removed the debris tray, it’s more likely related to this:

image
image749×862 88.7 KB

They call this the “Tray Interlock”. Here is the description from the manual

This switch stops your laser when the debris tray is removed. For
pass-through and rotary engraving, close this switch using the
nearby bracket.

Let us know, if this solves the issue.

3

The pc talks to the Ruida (you didn’t mention if it’s usb or Ethernet) the Ruida then sends steps/direction to the motors and tells the laser power supply (lps) when to lase.

Once you pass the controller, there is no feedback other than the coolant and door protection inputs. So unless a signal of the previous two items occur, the controller can’t know what’s happening once it’s send the information.

This means it can’t be an lps or tube, even if it’s bad since they are downstream of the controller.

There is a difference, at least to us between using the term start up and pressing start. Most people relate to start up as powering up the machine. It appears that’s not when it’s happening…

As I mentioned and @Aaron.F stated is that a loss of coolant flow (or it’s sensor) can result in the controller to halt operation. If you have a flaky door protection switch, the same thing can occur.

From a fix it point of view, it’s dynamic with a random occurrence which could mean an intermittent from one of the two sensor inputs.

It can occur with software, but seems to be rare. I would think, it being random would eliminate this issue.

How warm is the room you’re operating within? Some of these have temperature sensors that won’t let it operate when the coolant is about 40C, that’s over 100F. As you run the laser, that coolant warms up taking the heat away from the tube.

These claim to have chillers, but they are not refrigerated to maintain a low temperature, so the coolant can become warm. I run my chiller at 20C (68F).

Since these inputs react very fast it could just be a bounce of the cabinet to cause one to trigger your red ring.

If you had a console, it would tell you. I assume you don’t have one of the plus models with a console as the error would be displayed.

:smiley_cat:

4

Thanks for all the help guys.

It turned out to be low coolant level. I have purchased the console and will be putting it in this weekend. Just the ability to see what the fault is makes it worth the price and install.

Thanks again.

Roy

1 Like
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Not only the error messages, but you can select start from user origin, current position and absolute coordinates. You only have absolute coordinates without a console. I almost always implement user origin.

You can also change the IP address and restart jobs…

Lots of good reasons to have a console…

Good luck

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