I have an older 80 watt chinese CO2 laser that is not responding since I changed some mschine settings. engraving was basically ok, but cutting was acting wierd, it would fire up at low power after moving to the start cut position, then would not move at all. I had incorrectly transferred setting from my back up file which really screwed up the performance, just wondering if the controller has failed or was it as a result of bad machine settings. My controller is a Ruida 644XS. I no longer have a homing sequence. Where can I go for help on this laser ? Where can I find proper vendor setings for this machine
It’s likely just settings… Does it have a Ruida controller?
yes it has a Ruida controller, I did get the homing issue solved by making chanh=ges in the vendor settings
I was able to get the homing issue resolved by changing some parameters, however when I set up a file to engrave the machine will not move and I look into the Ruida controller, it states water error work paused.
After checking the chiller which is full of distilled water, undoint the inlet hose while system on reveals lots of water pressure and the laser tube is full of water. tried to engrave file and end up with same error work paused
reading vendor settings in machine shows water protection enable laser 1 is true
water protection enable laser 2 is false
chiller reads 20, normal light is on, no alarm
what can I check next
Generally these are wired to the controller. There is a WP (water protection) input on the Ruida that senses a flow sensor. On mine, it was a pressure sensor.
Red line is the CN5 connector with WP1, input from flow sensor.
You can look at led 9, in green to see if the input shows it active.
You can also just measure CN5-4 for active low with a voltmeter.
Make sense?
that white device you show, I am assuming it is the water pressure switch ? which I do not have on my machine. You also show the exact main board that is on my machine RDC6442S-B (EC)
At the present time with my laser powered on the LED situation is listed below:
On my controller LED’s 1-13 are all off
LED 14 is flashing on/off constantly
LED 15 is on steady
looking at the five pin terminal block marked CN5 I have only three wires connected
as follows:
pin 1 GND black wire labeled XG
pin 2 L-0n1 red wire labeled DL
pin 3 LPWM1 no wire attached
pin 4 WP1 no wire attached
pin 5 L-AN1 black wire labeled P1
When I look at LED9-15 data block I note that LED 14 indicates RUN
LED indicates + 5V
where should I put my meter plus and negative leads to check voltage ?
Actually when I measure voltage between pin 5-4 on the CN5 block I get 23.3 volts DC
CN2-3 has an input DrProt which is door protect. Might want to check there.
The Ruida will only display an water protection error is the WP pin remains high.
I’m wondering how they wired you up.
Both of these are outputs, so what you read between them doesn’t have much of a relationship. One is a pwm output, the other is an analog output. The lps will work with either.
All of these are relative to ground, so your minus voltmeter input goes to ground.
door protect is ok, open circuit with door open, closed circuit when door closed.
on block CN5 pin WP1 fourth terminal shows the 23 volts but there is no output wire attsched.
I have to take a break from this until Sunday afternoon
Something is telling the Ruida you have a water issue. The wp is an input and is held high internally by the Ruida. This is an open collector input, anything can pull it low. It is active low.. so when it’s running, this pin should be low.
I don’t see how it could complain as that’s the only water protect unless it thinks you have two tubes.
I went into my vendor settings and changed “water protect enable laser 1” from true to false and the error is no longer there. I am now able to engrave and cut accordingly.
It would appear that my machine is not up with any device to advise me of any water issue other than my chiller alarm when water might be low
Thanks for all your help, its much appreciated
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Not a good idea… This helps protect the machine.
You need to wire your chiller up to your laser so it tells the Ruida to halt. If you do this, then you can power up and restart the job where it was interrupted.
What kind of chiller do you have?
My chiller is a CW-3000 Industrial chiller.
I just noticed at the back of the chiller there is an electrical connection with steel 3 pin connector, the wire coming out of the chiller is connected to the laser and is marked water protection. I’ll have to pull out the machine tomorrow to trace that wire to see where exactly it connect to
