NEw tube and PS not working so good.

[LeonS]

Just when things were looking so good....

Problem: When I press the manual fire button I get just an occasional flicker from the laser tube with the power set to high on the potentiometer. The flicker is at the lens end of the tube. with the room lights turned down I can see a faint lasing from the mirror end. It never achieves a any kind of complete ignition to lase.

I have checked the wiring through the circuit board, switches, etc. All is good.

At the laser power supply I have the following readings:

5v: 5.02v
Gnd: gnd
wiper: voltage varies from 0 to 5.02 volts as I rotate the pot
WP: gnd when estop is not pressed and the cover is closed
TH: 0.01 volts
TL: 5.02v goes to zero when I press the manual fire button.

As far as I can figure. all systems are "go".

I tried jumpering TH to 5.v but that seemed to do nothing. Not even a flicker.

I also shortened and tested the positive laser feed - no change.

I have inspected the negative laser feed and found no fault.

I have moved the negative lead around a bit but no change.

Does anybody have any ideas how I can determine if it is the tube or the laser PS? I have a gut level feeling it is the PS. This is mostly due to the fact that I hear no change in the sounds it is emitting which are very minimal. This is a brand new PS from LightObject.

All advice greatly appreciated.

Regards to all,
Leon

[LeonS]

I did some more investigating.

I spent more time with the negative lead it reads 30 ohms to ground.

The high voltage lead reads infinity to ground.

The PS is generating a charge. How much? I don't know. After turning off everything I CAREFULLY touch the negative lead to the positive lead and I get a nice little spark which I suppose is the internal capacitors giving up their charge. Whether it is putting out adequate charge is beyond the ability of my test equipment.

I have my old laser so I guess I can either test the new PS with the old tube or test the new tube using the old laser circuitry. I am loathe to dismantle the old (working) laser but It may be the only way to get to the bottom of this.

Ideas?

- Leon

[LeonS]

I hooked up a my older known working laser tube to the new power supply and it exhibited similar flakiness and weak flickering.

I have contacted LightObject for further testing suggestions or a replacement.

- Leon

[LeonS]

Determined that the input voltage was set to 220V instead of 110V. Works fine when correctly set to 110V.

Whew!

[whmeade10]

When I received mine it was set to 220 also. Glad to see you found the problem and it was a easy fix.

-Bill

[naPS]

So this is exactly what is happening to me now - the symptoms and situation are identical, however, I'm using a power supply I purchased from loveshappyshopping on Ebay.

I can not find a 110/220 switch anywhere on the unit. I'm starting to wonder if it's 220 only. Arrgh. Anyone have any suggestions that's bought one of these units?

Thanks!

Quick edit : after going back and looking at the auction, it looks like it says the units are either / or. So it tells you in a picture to specify either the 110v or 220v unit. Bummer. I guess I'll have to order another PS from somewhere else, or pull this one apart and figure out what it would take to convert it from 220v to 110v. I was all fired up to burn some stuff tonight too.

[BenJackson]

The PS I got from love-happyshopping says "AC110" in sharpie on it. I seriously thought it said "HELLO" at first.

I don't know if it works because the water fitting broke off my tube. I'm waiting to hear back from him about whether he's going to ship a replacement.

[naPS]

The PS I got from love-happyshopping says "AC110" in sharpie on it. I seriously thought it said "HELLO" at first.

Too funny about the HELLO thing. Reminded me of the line in Scary Movie 3 when she sees the little Japanese dude and says Hello!

Anyhow - mine definitely does not have AC110 written on it, so I'm fairly certain I have a 220v unit. Stinks.

[naPS]

So, I'm thinking I should probably just hook this thing up to 240v 2 phase AC to test it out. Does anyone know if this is okay, or does the 220v standard have 220v on one phase, a neutral, and a ground? I have a dryer connection right next to where I have the laser that I can use.

[naPS]

Bah, bummer. It's a 220v power supply. I hooked it up to 240, and it fired like a mother.

I was a little worried, as I did see a "AC110" written faintly on the outside near the power connector - although it looks as if it has been cleaned off. It looks like it was written in fat sharpie, and then the part was washed or something, and it was scrubbed off a little. I was a little apprehensive plugging it in to the 240 outlet, but once I did, and everything fired up, I was pretty sure that was the case.

It's a little bit of a pain, I'm going to have to get another 2 pole relay or something to energize the laser power supply when the rest of the electronics are energized, but it's not the end of the world. I guess I can even put a switch or something on it so I can have another way to turn the laser power supply off or on from the front panel other than via the e-stop.

And, I think this is a first for me - three posts in a row. I probably should have just continued to edit the first.