I was doing a cut job on my laser with no issues but when I loaded in my new file, the ma dropped from the 20 I usually cut at to 2/3ma no matter what power level I select. I went into settings and noticed the power level was set at 16%. I changed it to 60% and still would only burn at 2/3ma. I tested my PS and it is working as it should. The tube has maybe 15 hours on it. My last test was a burn in rd works and still no issues. Could this be a software glitch? how can I work around this?
Are you also setting Min Power? Or just Max Power? It’s a common issue when cutting at or below the “Start Speed” setting in the Ruida, which defaults to 10mm/sec.
You’ve said “no matter what power I use” but you didn’t share settings, so I can’t see what other settings might be in play here. Perforation mode enabled accidentally is another that can cause apparent power loss.
I had the same thought the first time it happened because I often run max and min power the same. I have not had to run slower than 15mm since I hooked up my air compressor. When it happened again tonight I did a little more trouble shooting and noticed my door and air protection were both off and when I selected air back on, it worked. But this was after using RDworks to reset my original settings. Something odd that happened last time was the day after it failed, the Z axis operated during the initial reset and drove my honeycomb into the laser head.
If you enabled Z moves, but didn’t enable “Relative Z moves only” that could’ve done it. With absolute Z moves, you set the height of the Z for the job with the material height setting, and it moves to that height first. It’s the equivalent of “Pen Mode” in RDWorks.