Laser intermittent firing

YouTube · Sun Dec 13, 2020

My neighbor came over with his meter and we were able to trace the problem to the chiller. Something internally is not sending a constant water protection signal to the laser, which is causing the beam to intermittently (and randomly) fire. We jumpered the end of the cable to create a constant signal loop to the laser PSU (so it will technically fire without the pump turned on, but at least I can complete a few jobs that customers are waiting on.

So, any tips on diagnosing the CW-5200 chiller? Or should I just buy a new one? Is there any good alternatives to the CW-5200? My laser is in my non-air conditioned space, so refrigeration is probably a must.

Mon Dec 14, 2020

Me - I would buy a new one, not worth my time to troubleshoot - you can get the schematics for the chiller searching on line and may be able to trouble shoot the issue to a successful conclusion. But since you stated you had to borrow a meter from a nieghbor it may be best to buy a new one unless your neighbor is comfortable working on electronics.

YouTube · Mon Dec 14, 2020

Thanks Pete - I do have a small/cheap meter, I'm just not very skilled with it beyond testing for voltage. My neighbor is a mechanic and brought his fancy meter home from work. He offered to crack the case on my chiller to see if we could find anything obviously wrong, or a bad connection, etc., but we haven't gotten that far yet.

This is the unit I will buy since it's a direct replacement to the one I have, unless anyone has any better suggestions:
https://bescutter.com/products/industri ... er-cw-5200

Mon Dec 14, 2020

You may find a better price on Amazon -search CW-5200

Mon Dec 14, 2020

Eric Adams wrote: Sun Dec 13, 2020 My neighbor came over with his meter and we were able to trace the problem to the chiller. Something internally is not sending a constant water protection signal to the laser, which is causing the beam to intermittently (and randomly) fire. We jumpered the end of the cable to create a constant signal loop to the laser PSU (so it will technically fire without the pump turned on, but at least I can complete a few jobs that customers are waiting on.

So, any tips on diagnosing the CW-5200 chiller? Or should I just buy a new one? Is there any good alternatives to the CW-5200? My laser is in my non-air conditioned space, so refrigeration is probably a must.

I'm glad you found the source of your problem!

Did the panel on the laser not say "Water Protect" when the problem was occurring? I thought the controller always sent that message to the panel when the WP input was activated.

YouTube · Mon Dec 14, 2020

Jeffrey Aley wrote: Mon Dec 14, 2020 Did the panel on the laser not say "Water Protect" when the problem was occurring?

Are you referring to the Ruida control panel? If so, no - it did not show anything on the LCD display to indicate any fault in the system. Sure would have been nice if it did!

Mon Dec 14, 2020

Depends on where the chiller alarm ports were connected. If they wee connected to the laser PSU water protect, instead of the controller water protect, you would not see any alarms on the controller. If I had my choice, I'd hook a pressure style WP switch to the laser PSU, and the chiller alarm to the controller.