Hi everybody.
I have a BIG question concerning my laser cutter. I got my 50wt laser tube and matching power supply from Steve Luo:
http://www.made-in-china.com/showroom/steveluo66
Now I have a big problem with the system. It seems that laser output power varies on time.
It is best noticeable during engraving. When you just turn the machine on and set output power for engraving, the first sheet comes out nice. When you start the second one you notice that previous power settings it not enough to fire the laser. You increase the power a little bit, and the engraving lines are different intensity. Some are really strong and dark (almost cut balsa through) others are much lighter (some are even absent).
I thought that low cost potentiometer which regulates laser power output is the problem. When I open the power supply, I found long unshielded wires going from the resistor to the board all around the board and along with wires from on/off switch (110V AC). I changed the potentiometer on multi-turn precise potentiometer and shortened and shield wires. All those efforts did not help.
Unfortunately I do not have second laser tube/power supply to test what’s wrong.
Any suggestions/thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
George.