This is probably a daft question, but we’ve not had our Omtech 100W CO2 laser very long. Out of the crate it appeared to work just fine and we have been able to do several oak & slate coaster projects with it. However, I am a little confused regarding the little milliamp meter and the rotary control next to it. On arrival the rotary control was set half-way between min and max and we have left it like that - being novices to laser engraving. However, I have noticed that the milliamp reading on the meter is usually showing around 6mA when the laser is firing (even at 60% power) - at lower power it is less than that. I have been unable to find any guidance in the manual or by using Google as to how the rotary control should be set and what it’s position affects - except for one site that said it should always be set to max or the laser won’t fire. My laser seems to fire ok. Any guidance as to what this control is used for and how it should be set would be most helpful. In the mean time I’m leaving it where it is!!
To clarify, when you say “rotary control” are you referring to a rotary knob on the machine, or are you using a rotary axis?
As far as I can tell, there are two OmTech 100W machines with an Ammeter.
One of the manuals from this page: OMTECH LASER USER MANUALS – OMTech
explains:
It’s surprisingly straightforward: the knob adjusts the laser power downward from whatever setting you have in LightBurn, all the way to zero.
Which means the laser was producing about half the power called for by the LightBurn layer setting.
Because the knob is not calibrated and does not have a pointer, it’s easy to bump: you can change the laser power without noticing.
If it were my machine, I’d:
- Turn the knob to its
Maxsetting to give LightBurn complete control over the laser power - Put a laser-cut (or 3D printed) cover over the knob
- Never touch it again
It’s a rotary knob, not a rotary axis. Thanks for posting that page snippet. The paper manual that came with the machine did not include this information! It is as I thought, we have not been using anything like the laser’s power capacity up until now!
Just followed the link that was posted to the documentation on the Omtech site. My machine Cabinet Laser Engraver USB1006c is not listed - but I am in the UK so maybe the machine part numbers are different??? I have also rechecked the paper manual that came with the machine and there is no information in it regarding the ammeter at all aside from labelling it on the picture of the machine!
Thanks for that idea - I’ll be doing that now!!