Laser not firing on a new build.

[Les Brown]

Oh dear, it was going so well! This machine I have built has tested me at every chance. Having got motors running etc I am now at the stage when I can fire the laser for the very first time. But nothing happens.

I have disabled door and water interlocks just in case but if I press the pulse button or the test button on the PSU itself, nothing - absolutely nothing. I have an EFR F2 80W tube and an ES-80 psu. I have thoughly checked the connections to the controller (RDC644G) and all seems correct. Unless of course I have interpreted that wrong. The power supply itself powers up as the fan starts running. The Vendor settings ask to define low or high signal and I'm not sure what it should be. So in desperation I have tried both settings. To no avail.

I'm getting desperate now. Any ideas?

[Jeffrey Aley]

Oh dear, it was going so well! This machine I have built has tested me at every chance. Having got motors running etc I am now at the stage when I can fire the laser for the very first time. But nothing happens.

I have disabled door and water interlocks just in case but if I press the pulse button or the test button on the PSU itself, nothing - absolutely nothing. I have an EFR F2 80W tube and an ES-80 psu. I have thoughly checked the connections to the controller (RDC644G) and all seems correct. Unless of course I have interpreted that wrong. The power supply itself powers up as the fan starts running. The Vendor settings ask to define low or high signal and I'm not sure what it should be. So in desperation I have tried both settings. To no avail.

I'm getting desperate now. Any ideas?

Disconnect the Ruida. You should be able to fire the laser directly from the HV Power Supply using the test button.
Does the ES-80 have any safety interlock inputs? If so, are they properly connected / bypassed?
Do you have an ammeter in series with the ground lead back to the ES-80? Is there any current at all?
Is the ES-80 properly connected to the tube?

[Jeffrey Aley]

Is the ES-80 set to the proper input voltage for where you live (120VAC or 220VAC)?

[Les Brown]

Hi Jeff.

I'd just like to say how I appreciate the input. Working alone can be a lonely place and when things don't go as expected it is great to get input from the likes of yourself or other members of this and other forums. I had felt the onrush of despair!

So, I managed to get a shot out of the laser! Yay! I had performed the obvious checks, so I thought, including even shorting out the terminals of the in line ammeter in case it was itself defective. One thing I hadn't done was disconnect the Ruida controller from the PSU when I tried the PSU test button. I simply didn't appreciate that it would make a difference. But it obviously did.

I now have to investigate further to see why the panel 'pulse' button doen't work. I'll double check the door interlock and various other settings of the controller. I'm hopeful it will be a simple thing.

Thanks again for your assistance at my time of need.

Oh, another question comes to mind; do you know if the signal in the laser vendor settings should be set high or low? I can't find any guidance anywhere on that.

[Jeffrey Aley]

Hi Jeff.

I'd just like to say how I appreciate the input. Working alone can be a lonely place and when things don't go as expected it is great to get input from the likes of yourself or other members of this and other forums. I had felt the onrush of despair!

So, I managed to get a shot out of the laser! Yay! I had performed the obvious checks, so I thought, including even shorting out the terminals of the in line ammeter in case it was itself defective. One thing I hadn't done was disconnect the Ruida controller from the PSU when I tried the PSU test button. I simply didn't appreciate that it would make a difference. But it obviously did.

I now have to investigate further to see why the panel 'pulse' button doen't work. I'll double check the door interlock and various other settings of the controller. I'm hopeful it will be a simple thing.

Thanks again for your assistance at my time of need.

Oh, another question comes to mind; do you know if the signal in the laser vendor settings should be set high or low? I can't find any guidance anywhere on that.

You're welcome.

It would be best to have someone check their vendor settings for you (my laptop is not connected to my laser at the moment).
A glance at a Chinglish manual for an EF-80 power supply appears to show that the laser will fire when TL is tied to GND (i.e. Active Low).

Annotation 2019-11-08 145803.png

You want to be very careful with this setting, because if you have it wrong, the laser will be ON when you expect it to be OFF (such as when you first turn on the machine) !! Be sure to put something under the nozzle that will absorb the laser energy without catching fire or reflecting the energy someplace harmful. A piece of stone tile would be suitable.

[Les Brown]

Hi Jeff.

You managed to find a manual for the PSU? Again, I looked everywhere and while I have some info I wouldn't call it a manual.

Anyway, taking heed of your caution about the laser running when not intended, I have tried various things. I changed the vendor setting to low signal. I double double checked the connections I have made between the controller and PSU and also tried the water and door interlocks at alternate polarities and even disabled them. I still can't get it to work. This is now extremely frustrating to say the least.

I've added the detail of the connections here in case you or anyone can shed light on this. I'm off to bed shortly but it looks like another poor night's sleep

[Les Brown]

Ok, so I'm really struggling now. I've tried telling the controller I had two lasers and disabled the first. Swapped the PSU cable to the connector on the controller for a second laser. Still nothing works.

The dislpay now has an indication of power for both lasers at the bottom and it shows a red cross there too. What on earth does any of that mean?? I have rebooted the machine a few times with it back to single laser configuration but I can't clear the stuff on the display.

[Jeffrey Aley]

So there are a couple of questions I have about the way your controller is connected and about your system in general.

1) Where does your water protect (WP) signal go? You can connect it from the flow sensor to the HV PS, or you can connect it to the RuiDa. Mine is connected to the RuiDa. One advantage of doing this is that you can enable/ignore it in software, and if there's a WP error, it'll show on the controller screen. But it doesn't protect you from a damnedfool who pushes the "test" button on the HV PS when there's no water running.

2) The diagram you showed does not match the pinout table below it. The diagram shows pin 5 as +24V; the table shows pin 5 as L-AN1. Which is it? The table states that L-AN1 is the recommended connection for our CO2 tubes. Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure my RuiDa doesn't have an L-AN1, and is connected to L-PWM1.

TL on the HV PS goes to L-ON1 on the RuiDa.
IN on the HV PS goes to L-PWM1 on the RuiDa.
G on the HV PS goes to GND on the RuiDa.

Here are my Vendor Settings:

Annotation 2019-11-09 203947.png

As HV PS spec points out, the IN has to be >= 20KHz, so the Vendor settings are set to 20KHz.

Good luck!

I can send my motor settings if desired, but I think you already have the steppers working.

[Les Brown]

Hi Jeff.
First off, I have the water protection connected into the Ruida controller. Or I did have as I have temporarily disconnected it as a part of this analysis. I have disabled it in the settings. Except for that, your vendor settings are identical to mine.

Pin 5 is for manual control of the laser and doesn't apply to our engravers where we require high frequency control of laser power. That's where the 20Kz PWM signal comes in.

Thanks for the offer of motor details but yes, I have the motors all working fine now. If only I could say that for the laser itself.

I contacted the Chinese manufacturer of the power supply. They suggested the contoller is faulty. I'm sure that if I contact Ruida they will say the PSU is faulty.

I am really stumped here. My next thought is to borrow an oscsiliscope and see if the controller really is providing a PWM output. Likewise if there was simple way of generating an appropriate PWM output I could hook that to the PSU and see if it works. That way I guess I could identify which bit of kit is faulty. I'll have to let you know how I get on with that.

Meanwhile, if you or anyone has further thoughts I am ready to hear them.

Thanks for being a shoulder to lean on

[Chris Medcalf]

I think the manual page above (with L-AN1) is from the 6445 manual, which I believe has that output instead of 24v.

The HV PSU should work with an analog 0-5v signal on IN, with a PWM signal it would just integrate it to get a voltage level. You can test it with a simple voltage, no need for a PWM source.

The red cross on the display shows that there's no network connected. The power supply information is there because Show Laser Power Supply Info is ticked in the Vendor settings, a special connection from PSU to controller is needed for this to work, if the PSU has the ability.

I haven't seen you mention the WP input on the PSU, I don't think. It needs to be pulled low, I think, if you're using the controller's water circuitry.