I’m experiencing an issue with my Monport 40W CO2 laser (Model 3020), purchased in 2023. The machine has been working great until today.
Typically, we operate at 30% power or less. However, today I was marking a piece at 100% power. After a few passes, I noticed the laser beam gradually dimmed and then stopped firing entirely, even though the machine continued moving as if it were still engraving.
I shut down the Monport, restarted LightBurn, and attempted the job several more times. Each time, the laser stops firing at the same point in the job. When this happens, pressing the “Fire” button also fails to activate the laser.
I have replaced the cable between the computer and the laser, but the issue persists.
Any assistance or troubleshooting advice would be greatly appreciated.
This is most likely the high voltage laser power supply dying.
They are (or at least were) relatively cheap & readily available, so it’s easy to swap in a new one:
It appears to not have the usual high voltage connector, which means you may need to harvest half of the old connector for the new wire. Or, perhaps, that version of the laser doesn’t bother with HV connectors.
While the problem could be the laser tube, that seems unlikely, as its behavior would not change that rapidly.
It is possible there’s a loose wire in there somewhere, but IMO a bad connection would flicker, rather than change the intensity “gradually”.
A data communication problem cannot cause the laser beam to gradually lose intensity while the machine continues to run.
Also, there are no settings for this sort of behavior, so don’t change anything else.
