I have just come across this forum and I’m hoping someone can help me. I (very stupidly) left my water running on my laser. It is a separate power supply to the laser so the machine was switched off but the water was still running through the tube.
When I realised it was still running, the motor had burnt out on the pump and left the pump warped and melted, the tubes running to the laser were black inside with gunk and the cooling ring has detached. To cut it short I’ve really done a number on it.
I have tested the water flow sensor with a multi meter and it’s still showing power it when the sensor is triggered. I have replaced the pump and cleaned out all the tubes, i have not yet re attached the cooling ring as I don’t know the best way to do it.
The test button on the power supply is giving me nothing and the laser won’t fire. I am getting a water error message when I try and fire the laser and sometimes a work protected message.
My question is, have I wrecked my laser or is there a way to fix it? I’m not sure if I need a new tube, a new power supply, a new water flow sensor or all of the above.
I am not familiar with a lot of terms used in this forum as I’m not in any laser community so if anyone could help and explain it in simple terms I’d be very grateful.
Well, that depends. If you had no circulation and have been firing the laser you may have damaged the tube - yes. But if it was light duty, perhaps the water inside the tube already would have provided some cooling capacity.
You’ll need a new pump either way, may as well start there. If a quick pulse doesn’t fire the tube (even just for a second, as long as you have disabled the water flow disable alarm, which you can do from inside the Ruida control) - then yeah, tube may be fried too.
Thankyou for your reply. I have already replaced the pump and I’m still getting a water error. There is a steady flow of water running through the tube and I’ve never tried to fire it with the water off. Could you advise me on how to disable the water flow disable alarm? I will try and fire it again tomorrow. Does the cracked cooling tube have anything to do with it not firing?
Thankyou! Yes it’s showing on the control panel display on the laser. I’m wondering if the water flow is not strong enough to trigger the sensor in the water flow sensor?
Yes I disconnected the water flow sensor, flushed it out and tested it. The multi meter was showing it had power when triggered but still getting water error message. I have ordered a new water flow senor to eliminate that problem. Although I must add that I was sometimes getting a water error before this incident happened
thankyou for this information. I have already flushed the tube and observed the flow from the water flow sensor and everything seems fine but still no luck with getting the laser to fire. Frustrating!
What kind of controller to you have in your machine.
This can help us help you, but you need to tell us the answers to our questions.
I really don’t know what state the machine is in, and very little knowledge about how it works. If you have a dsp type controller, such as a Ruida, the debugging of this is different than a grbl debug of the same type issue.
Sorry I don’t know the name of the controller but I’ll send pictures of the controller and laser.
The laser itself is less than a year old and well maintained, apart from this mistake with the water, hoping there is a way to possibly reset the system?
The machine console is very much like yours, so I’d say you have a Ruida controller…
If you open the electronics bay door you can identify which type of Ruida you have… There is no standardized layout of where the components are located, but you can see what mine looks like…
Left of the blue wiring tray is the Ruida controller, you can read the model off the case… On the right it the laser high voltage power supply (lps) which is the high voltage that causes your tube to lase, hence dc excited laser. Rith above the horizontal blue bar is the pair of motor drivers… one for each axes. You could have three if the machine has a controllable Z axes.
Thanks for taking the time to explain that to me, I really appreciate it. I’ll attach a photo of the model. I have tried to test it and pulse it and nothing is happening, could it be because the cooling ring has cracked off? I listened to someone’s advice on another forum and reset the controller and it’s sent my machine wild, reversing all the commands so up is down, left is right etc and every time I switch it on, the laser head is slamming off yeh right hand side of the machine. I feel I am adding to the problems trying to fix it
If you didn’t save the vendors setting before the reset, you may have shot yourself in the foot.
If you do a factory reset on a Ruida, it does just that, resets it all to the default settings, and all vendor information is lost, probably why your machine went crazy…
You need to find that information, either from someone with a very similar similar machine or from your vendor.
