I’ve run into an issue with my Sculpfun S9 that started just today. It was working perfectly yesterday, cutting cleanly through material at my usual settings. But now, although the laser still fires and gives off a visible beam, it doesn’t seem to have any power —even on low-density materials like paper or thin plywood.
Here’s what I’ve checked so far:
The laser head powers on and emits a beam.
I made sure $30 is on 1000, $31 is on 0 and $32 is on 1
All wiring looks intact and securely connected.
Settings in LightBurn haven’t changed (100% power, slow speeds).
I tried cleaning the lens lightly with a cotton swab.
Tried different files and test patterns.
Tried other software (LaserGRBL) with yet the same results.
I haven’t tested the power supply output with a multimeter yet, but I suspect the laser diode might be failing, or maybe the power supply isn’t delivering full voltage.
Has anyone experienced a similar issue with the S9? Could a dead diode still produce a beam but barely any power? Any ideas on what else I should test or reset?
I think so. If the diode burns out, it might still emit some energy but slowly degrade and die sometime.
Despite cleaning the lens, you can exchange the lens completely to be sure. I think you did all other common tests already. You might do the 5V test to exclude a software issue, but that’s all I can think of. If you can get hold of any other comparable module, you could mount it to your laser and check if the other module works fine on the same system.
Recently I had an Atomstack 10W module produce similar symptoms - it suddenly got much weaker, it could mark but not cut anything. In this case it appears one of the two diodes failed, and the remaining diode was not producing its full power either. So yes, diodes can fail. I did use the module at 100% power output for maybe half the work I did with it but to be fair that didn’t amount to many hours at all in total, perhaps 200 or so. My S9 module (which this Atomstack 10W replaced) is still working great and I reinstalled it. The S9 5W module has been used for more hours than that. I now have an SF-A9 40W Sculpfun machine but will avoid using >80% power output in future.