RECI 100W in DIANMAN machine - New tube lights but no beam

[benthechef]

Hey everyone,

Here's my dilemma. I have had a lot of bad luck with my tubes lately - first one was cracked when the machine was moved, but didn't actually break until I put a real water pump in place, which then pushed all of the cracked bits out of alignment. I ordered a second tube, installed it, and it ran beautifully for a few months - then we had an unnoticed power blink which shut off my coolant but not the laser; yup - ran hot and shattered. I mention this to say that we've installed a tube before, and know that we've done it correctly before. So now, with yet another new tube, same size, wattage, etc on the exact same power settings I am not getting any sort of burn when doing the focusing steps with the mirrors. The beam is coming out the same size as the open end of the tube to the first mirror; we're literally watching it flash a 3/4 in circle on the tape. I am completely at a loss. Tape held directly in front of the tube also shows no marks. I've also never seen my tube light up bright purple before when pressing the test laser button, but then again, I don't think I've ever had the back off and open when doing it except for the first tube installation.

Thanks for any help on the matter - I've got a ton of orders to cut and this is my busiest season.

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[gfacer2]

Purple is fine for the tube. No purple is bad.

I read a recent, sort of similar post, where large ring beam was perhaps due to overpowering it over time.

So why it's a big beam I don't know, but it not burning the targets on the mirrors because it sounds like the beam is too diffuse (and likely hitting the frames and elsewhere after the first mirror).

Did any of the tube changes involve a smaller rated tube while keeping the larger rated power supply?

Also is this tube brand new or merely recent.

And finally pictures are always welcome and usually needed.

Sent from my LG-D852 using Tapatalk

[benthechef]

Thank you both for responding - here's the breakdown (no pun intended)

It's a brand new factory RECI laser tube, rated 108W (like they do) in a machine that I generally run at 80% power (effectively at 80W). The tube fires and lights up when I press the LASER button to test fire, but leaves no mark on tape even directly set in front of it. I've additionally tested it by starting a cut at 40% power to have the laser fire more continually than when I press 'LASER' which just fires that tiny short 0040 millisecond burst. I get a nice oval shaped burn then, so the laser does appear to be firing now. It may just be that the short test burst fire is too short to actually burn with the beam being wider at the firing end.

I'll be following all of the steps to realign my mirrors to the new tube (it is the exact same size as the previous tube, but we've moved it closer to the mirror per another set of instructions.) I'll let everyone know how that goes, but now I'm curious if there's a way to set the test LASER button to fire longer/hotter, rather than having to start a cut to line up this first mirror.

[gfacer2]

The test button should be more than fine to get a mark. I'd start taking pics and video and get it to your tube vendor in case it turns out to be a bad tube. My 130W was actually my second 130w - as the first tube died quickly after a week (fine to start). So they certainly can fail quickly. If it is getting worse then you may have a similar issue to my first tube. I never determined what that was, just broke it according to their instructions and got another tube under warranty.

It would not matter how close to the first mirror it is (or shouldn't).

I took video of mine over time and it was clearly deteriorating.

[benthechef]

So here's the latest. I am definitely hearing a tick on firing which has me concerned about an arc, but I can't find any evidence of said arc (and here's hoping that it isn't inside the tube as there's no way this company will replace another one). The beam has now been focused, and I'm able to get a cutline at a low power (30%) but even it has slight fluctuations in depth as if it's losing power on the cut. You're absolutely right, the test fire button should be plenty powerful enough to burn a small dot in tape, and it did before this tube. But when I run a pattern, if I run a full power cutline it doesn't even fire, it just moves until it reaches a corner and does a tiny burn on the corners (nowhere near full power). I again, am at a loss. I wish I knew a company here in Texas that I could pay for a service call - I'd be on that in a heartbeat at this point to just get the thing running. I really appreciate all of the advice, and I've gotten this far on it, thank you again gfacer2!

[gfacer2]

I've had arc's in the power supply that I never found (until I changed the power supply) but they were infrequent and sort of random (though more common over time due to carbon trail). But they did not effect the cut at all - just messed up the control screen but a reset fixed that. What is the maximum setting for the laser in the onboard control? That limits the power of the laser regardless of what the output says. Might have been set really low somehow?

Anyhow, without some video of tube firing with the door open, its sort of hard to say any more.

[gfacer2]

I'd also check what your control is telling your power supply. There is one lead that is full control voltage (5v nominal but likely a bit different) and then the control varies a second input to get the % power you input (say 4v for 80%). Worth checking the control is putting out the right signal. You might have to google which wire is what but its out there as I've done it.