So a while back I took off the crappy single laser pointer and installed a dual setup. Worked like a charm. Over the pass few weeks I noticed one of the two was getting dim, figured it was played out. Then the other say I noticed both were not working, so I order 2 new ones and they came in. I hooked them up and got nothing, so I am guessing it’s a problem with my laser. Where do I look in order to fix this problem? Thanks
Not actually a Lightburn problem.
What laser do you have Josh?
Have you traced it back to where it is fed from?
I know it’s not a LB problem, that why I put in this category. I have a black and red 700x500. and no I haven’t traced it yet, guess I’ll do that tomorrow.
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Difficult to pin it down to a laser as there are so many “black and Red” type lasers around Josh.
I would just trace it back and see if you have got a cable that’s shorted out or alternatively you may have a PSU problem from where its fed from.
This type of problem is so vague and machine specific on how they built it.If you find one the same you may well find that it has been wired differently than the one you have… Chinese tend to do tings like that.
Make sure the pointers take 5v, and are wired to a 5v output, and that the PSU is actually putting out 5v on that output. It’s possible that the 5v output on the PSU is what actually failed.
I have made a new general laser talk category for topics not directly related to LB:
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To be honest, I ended up buying a beam combiner to deal with all of the sodding about with sighting lasers - the horrible ‘bolted to the head’ ones are just more trouble than they’re worth. Once I’ve finished mounting the combiner, I’ll post some photos and a quick writeup.
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I found the problem… the wire was broke a few inches into the chain link. Now the problem is trying to get the wire ran back through. Pushing isn’t working, don’t have a fish tape laying around.
You should be able to “break” the chain link above where the wire is broken - then, attach a pull string to your broken wire, pull out the broken wire which pulls the pull string through… etc etc…
Wish I had known that before…I pulled the wire all the way out. I’ll get it back in there.
Needing more help…I fixed it this morning, ran a new wire back through the flex belt. Ran about 5 or 6 different projects and then boom. It happened again, it broke in the same area again. I had soldered the 2 wires together. I guess I need to solder it where it goes into the flex chain and run a single piece through the flex. Is there anyway to prevent this from happening again? It’s not a hard fix, just time consuming and a pain in the rear.
If you’re putting a soldered joint somewhere that it’s going to be bending a lot, that’ll be a problem. Did you shrink wrap it or put some kind of strain relief on it?
Well I didn’t have my shrink wrap on hand, left it at my office. I just soldered the joint and taped it. Going to look for another solution to wires, maybe a wireless option.
I removed the laser pointer from my machine about a week after I got it. Seems like just a big nuisance…it complicates removal of my lens when cleaning or swapping is needed and because the light is mounted off to the side of the laser head (not in line with the laser beam), the bracket that holds the light has to be adjusted whenever the bed height is changed. Seems like more hassle than it’s worth, or am I missing something?
Tim
If the pointer is at an angle, whenever your laser is focused on the surface of your material, the red dot will be pointing at the right spot, regardless of your bed height. It would only be wrong if you weren’t focused on the top of the material - your focus height doesn’t typically change.
I took mine that came with the laser off also, cut a dual pointer bracket out of acrylic, now I have a crosshair right where the laser comes out.
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Yea, hadn’t thought about that. The bed height changes with the thickness of your material, but the distance from the surface of the material you are cutting up to the laser head should never change (and therefore, as you noted, neither would the spot where the laser beam is aimed) if you are using a gauge to set the height of your laser head from the surface.
Still, in my opinion the bracket for the laser pointer (red dot) is in the way of removing the lens for cleaning and is just a hassle.
Tim
I have a beam combiner in mine now, but lining up the two beams was a bit tricky. Some systems use a vertical pointer, parallel to the laser head, and just measure the physical offset between the dot and the beam. There’s a setting to tell the controller to nudge the job over by that amount when you run it, so it lines up with the frame. I don’t like this way as much because you lose a bit of working space from the offset, but it means you don’t have to change the dot alignment if your focal length changes.
I have toyed with the idea of having a second (green) pointer opposite the first (red) one - so when you adjust the table height the pointers approach each other. When they meet, that’s it. Having them different colours helps to know whether you need to go up or down to get focus.
Like in the movie “The Dambusters”.
Cheers
Tone’z
I use one red dot and one a red line. When the line is centered on the dot I am in focus (unless, of course, you bump either of them). I do check at the beginning of each session that everything is lining up correctly.