Since you're in lightburn, you don't need to toggle the power outputs. You can just enable the "Cut selected graphics" and click each line as you want to run that test. Easy peezy. Good info on doing the test though.
For some reason - all of a sudden, I can not go above 20% power or my entire machine powers off instantly. Even just sending a pulse will shut it down. As long as I stay under 20%, everything is fine. This started yesterday. The day before, I put in a new lens (old one cracked for some reason) and I cleaned the mirror - that was also suddenly totally gunked up maybe due to cracked lens - anyway, all that fixed - laser was working great with a huge power increase. I was making test cuts yesterday to update my library with lower numbers since I had more power - and this started. Not seeing anyone else with this particular issue, so not sure what's happened. I've had my machine a couple of years, but really have only just casually used it a few times a month. Gonna test on a new file today just in case that was somehow messed up. I did watch the MA meter and it's running at 7 at 20% power. That's about as high as it's going. I'm hoping this will be an easy fix because I don't know much about electrical stuff - (I have an 80 watt red and black - looks like yours, but doesn't say OMTECH) Also, tube looks fine - water cool - not noticing anything else going on - everything looks normal. Any ideas?
Excellent my friend congrats. I have a question, do you have variations of milliamps in your ammeter when you work? I mean sometimes I put the machine at 14 milliamps and over time that amount varies and it can give me 12 milliamps I have the same brand of power source
8 mA at 80% power doesn’t seem right at all. Are you using lightburn and do both your min and max power settings match? I’d recommend joining our OMTech users group on fb linked in the caption and post a couple screenshots of what you’re seeing and ask us there.
Great video. I've been trying to figure this out for a while now. Is there a way to set the maximum allowable power in Lightburn so you know you'll never go over?
Not that I'm aware of. That's why it's important to know where your power limitation is at. I know im never supposed to go over 85% power in lightburn based on my power line test. As my own personal rule of thumb I don't really go over 55%. Never needed to.
You can set the max power you want to apple on your controller and I’d you try Asha set it higher in lightburn the controller will limit it and’s only show your max settings
Yes you can access vendor settings in lightburn and set a hard limit so the power supply won't put out any more power than the hard limit percentage, even if you enter 100 percent power in lightburn by mistake. Go to edit/machine settings/ scroll down and click vendor settings/yes to enter vendor settings/ tube setting area towards the bottom change Max power on laser 1 to the percentage you want as your maximum . Then write button to write this new Max power setting to the controller. Now you will never overdrive your tube.
Nope. Your tube has a max mA output. So if your tube maxes out at 26 mA at 85%, then 95% will still be 26 mA. So now you’re just overdriving your tube by 10%. What happens to a lightbulb when it gets a surge of power? It pops.
Do you happen to know what laser tube is used for the Omtech polar? I don't see this in the user manual or online. I just see 50W but not the manufacturer.
It’s a YongLi T10. You can only get it through OMTech by calling them and ordering on the phone. You can try to look on the internet but you won’t find it.
Yep. Each tube has a max mA rating specified from the manufacturer. If you’re getting a lower mA reading at a higher power percentage then that could be an indicator that you’re losing power somewhere (tube or power supply likely)
Great video! Quick question, I have the same exact laser and I top out at 28mA around 60% power. Is that a defective tube or is there a way to tune the PSU?
No it shouldnt be defective. If you have the same tube as mine then 28 mA is the max. The only difference is that your power supply is tuned differently. This is why its important to do the powerline test. Now you know that you should never run your laser over 60%. If you want to tune your power supply, you should have a small hole on the side. In that hole there's a potentiometer that you can adjust with a small screwdriver. As you make adjustments you'll have to run line tests to see where your new limitations are at.
Bigger issues like this can’t be helped in the comments. Go to our Facebook group in the description, make a post with pictures, identify what laser you have, and what troubleshooting procedures you have done.
Do you prefer to go low and slow or higher and faster? For example (12mm and 35 percent) vs (20mm and 55percent?) is the higher power of 55 percent going to reduce the life of the tube much quicker or is it only slightly different?
So, some recommend an analog meter, due to response time of the digital. Does the 10 inch line give ample time so that you don"t "need" the analog meter?
Its a combination of a longer line in lightburn plus the proper speed setting. I run the speed at slower pace so i have enough time to look at the mA meter.
I wouldn’t say it’s abnormal. Your laser tube power supply is probably calibrated slightly different than mine. There is an internal knob called a potentiometer that you can adjust to make it so it can go to a higher percentage before maxing out but it involves removing the power supply from where it’s mounted to gain access to the little hole at the bottom where the potentiometer is.
Quick question does the material type and or thickness effect the line test at all. For Example if you test on 1/2" material will you get higher (ma) reading or plywood vs. mdf ?
Hi, I have the OMTech 100w red/black. When I run this test the ma is showing the same number (12ma) no matter the power being used. Any idea why that would be happening? Thanks!
Without being able to tinker with it, I'd say you have a bad power supply. At first I was thinking maybe it's just tuned incorrectly, but if you're getting 12 mA at 10% power and 80% power then there's an issue. I'd record a video of you changing your power percentage and showing the output of the mA meter and send it to OMTech.
hey buddy thanks for this info :-) i did mine today on Omtech 80w F2 laser but mine maxed out @28ma at 60% power is that correct or you think this is a tad low 😕
All this means is that your laser tube power supply is calibrated differently. There’s a potentiometer at the bottom of the black box. You can only access it by dismounting the power supply itself. There’s a small hole that you can access with a small screwdriver. Be careful not to use a metal handle screwdriver or it could shock you. If you adjust it then run a single line at 60% until you see the mA dropping or raising. Depending on the whether it goes up or down will determine whether you need to adjust left or right. Or you can just leave it as is and never run your laser over 60%
@@EdmondsWoodshop much appreciate your fast reply buddy :-) also great vids very helpful, and thanks for the info i shall have a look into it see if i can maybe tinker lol
@@RussellRay I don't think you understand what I'm saying. OmTech doesn't only use EFR tubes. EFR is the manufacturer and only they use F series tubes. Omtech also uses other manufacturers and brands of tubes. Short answer to your question....no.
Excellent information!!! Thank you for doing these, they really help.
Since you're in lightburn, you don't need to toggle the power outputs. You can just enable the "Cut selected graphics" and click each line as you want to run that test. Easy peezy. Good info on doing the test though.
Absolutely right.
Thank you
Perfect Info. Thanks and greetings from Germany
Thanks for watching
this is very informative. I haven't seen this info anywhere else, so thanks very much!
Very helpful, thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
I just came across this video, great work! I have subscribed and will be checking your other videos, if they are half as good, I’m in.
Awesome video!!
Thanks!
Great info
Glad it was helpful!
That was great!
Awesome video. Thanks so much!!
Thank you for this!!
fantastic. thanks.
Many of the OMTech lasers have an LCD on the power supply showing the output...
I’m not sure what you’re pointing out that I didn’t already say in my video. Look at the 3:28 mark.
For some reason - all of a sudden, I can not go above 20% power or my entire machine powers off instantly. Even just sending a pulse will shut it down. As long as I stay under 20%, everything is fine. This started yesterday. The day before, I put in a new lens (old one cracked for some reason) and I cleaned the mirror - that was also suddenly totally gunked up maybe due to cracked lens - anyway, all that fixed - laser was working great with a huge power increase. I was making test cuts yesterday to update my library with lower numbers since I had more power - and this started. Not seeing anyone else with this particular issue, so not sure what's happened. I've had my machine a couple of years, but really have only just casually used it a few times a month. Gonna test on a new file today just in case that was somehow messed up. I did watch the MA meter and it's running at 7 at 20% power. That's about as high as it's going. I'm hoping this will be an easy fix because I don't know much about electrical stuff - (I have an 80 watt red and black - looks like yours, but doesn't say OMTECH) Also, tube looks fine - water cool - not noticing anything else going on - everything looks normal. Any ideas?
Excellent my friend congrats. I have a question, do you have variations of milliamps in your ammeter when you work? I mean sometimes I put the machine at 14 milliamps and over time that amount varies and it can give me 12 milliamps I have the same brand of power source
When we keep power 80% even not cutting this new machine new tube I check alignment all correct
Current output is showing maximum 08 mA
8 mA at 80% power doesn’t seem right at all. Are you using lightburn and do both your min and max power settings match?
I’d recommend joining our OMTech users group on fb linked in the caption and post a couple screenshots of what you’re seeing and ask us there.
Great video. I've been trying to figure this out for a while now. Is there a way to set the maximum allowable power in Lightburn so you know you'll never go over?
Not that I'm aware of. That's why it's important to know where your power limitation is at. I know im never supposed to go over 85% power in lightburn based on my power line test. As my own personal rule of thumb I don't really go over 55%. Never needed to.
You can set the max power you want to apple on your controller and I’d you try Asha set it higher in lightburn the controller will limit it and’s only show your max settings
Yes you can access vendor settings in lightburn and set a hard limit so the power supply won't put out any more power than the hard limit percentage, even if you enter 100 percent power in lightburn by mistake.
Go to edit/machine settings/ scroll down and click vendor settings/yes to enter vendor settings/ tube setting area towards the bottom change Max power on laser 1 to the percentage you want as your maximum . Then write button to write this new Max power setting to the controller.
Now you will never overdrive your tube.
So if I overdrive the laser do I get more cutting power out of it, kinda like overclocking a cpu of a PC or is just wasted energy and no extra gain?
Nope. Your tube has a max mA output. So if your tube maxes out at 26 mA at 85%, then 95% will still be 26 mA. So now you’re just overdriving your tube by 10%. What happens to a lightbulb when it gets a surge of power? It pops.
Do you happen to know what laser tube is used for the Omtech polar? I don't see this in the user manual or online. I just see 50W but not the manufacturer.
It’s a YongLi T10. You can only get it through OMTech by calling them and ordering on the phone.
You can try to look on the internet but you won’t find it.
@@EdmondsWoodshop Thank you!
Great info. Would this be a good test to to use to see if, over time, to see if your tube/power supply has lost power?
Yep. Each tube has a max mA rating specified from the manufacturer. If you’re getting a lower mA reading at a higher power percentage then that could be an indicator that you’re losing power somewhere (tube or power supply likely)
Great video! Quick question, I have the same exact laser and I top out at 28mA around 60% power. Is that a defective tube or is there a way to tune the PSU?
No it shouldnt be defective. If you have the same tube as mine then 28 mA is the max. The only difference is that your power supply is tuned differently. This is why its important to do the powerline test. Now you know that you should never run your laser over 60%.
If you want to tune your power supply, you should have a small hole on the side. In that hole there's a potentiometer that you can adjust with a small screwdriver. As you make adjustments you'll have to run line tests to see where your new limitations are at.
@@EdmondsWoodshop Same 80W 2028AF - I max out at 65%. Seems pretty poorly calibrated!
I need help. After I did my alignment my laser dont want to engrave. I think the problem is on the head itself. Please help
Bigger issues like this can’t be helped in the comments. Go to our Facebook group in the description, make a post with pictures, identify what laser you have, and what troubleshooting procedures you have done.
Do you prefer to go low and slow or higher and faster? For example (12mm and 35 percent) vs (20mm and 55percent?) is the higher power of 55 percent going to reduce the life of the tube much quicker or is it only slightly different?
Its ridiculous try to go slow... in that case run at 0.1 power and the tube is going to last forever. Greeting from Chile
So, some recommend an analog meter, due to response time of the digital. Does the 10 inch line give ample time so that you don"t "need" the analog meter?
Its a combination of a longer line in lightburn plus the proper speed setting. I run the speed at slower pace so i have enough time to look at the mA meter.
i have an Omtech 80 watt with an F2 tube but i dont see the manufacturer..... is there somewhere on the tube that shows that?
Yours is rated for a max of 28 mA
Sir Quick question I have the same tube mine reaches 27/28 @ 70 percent and 29 @ 75 is it normal to be that low of percentage to reach peak MA?
I wouldn’t say it’s abnormal. Your laser tube power supply is probably calibrated slightly different than mine. There is an internal knob called a potentiometer that you can adjust to make it so it can go to a higher percentage before maxing out but it involves removing the power supply from where it’s mounted to gain access to the little hole at the bottom where the potentiometer is.
Quick question does the material type and or thickness effect the line test at all. For Example if you test on 1/2" material will you get higher (ma) reading or plywood vs. mdf ?
No the material does not matter.
Hi, I have the OMTech 100w red/black. When I run this test the ma is showing the same number (12ma) no matter the power being used. Any idea why that would be happening? Thanks!
Without being able to tinker with it, I'd say you have a bad power supply. At first I was thinking maybe it's just tuned incorrectly, but if you're getting 12 mA at 10% power and 80% power then there's an issue. I'd record a video of you changing your power percentage and showing the output of the mA meter and send it to OMTech.
hey buddy thanks for this info :-) i did mine today on Omtech 80w F2 laser but mine maxed out @28ma at 60% power is that correct or you think this is a tad low 😕
All this means is that your laser tube power supply is calibrated differently. There’s a potentiometer at the bottom of the black box. You can only access it by dismounting the power supply itself. There’s a small hole that you can access with a small screwdriver. Be careful not to use a metal handle screwdriver or it could shock you. If you adjust it then run a single line at 60% until you see the mA dropping or raising. Depending on the whether it goes up or down will determine whether you need to adjust left or right.
Or you can just leave it as is and never run your laser over 60%
@@EdmondsWoodshop much appreciate your fast reply buddy :-) also great vids very helpful, and thanks for the info i shall have a look into it see if i can maybe tinker lol
Are all omtech lasers F2 tubes?
No. They use tubes from EFR, Yong Li (YL), and ShenHui.
I know they are EMF from what you said but what I'm asking is are all omtech laser tubes F-series ?
@@RussellRay I don't think you understand what I'm saying. OmTech doesn't only use EFR tubes. EFR is the manufacturer and only they use F series tubes. Omtech also uses other manufacturers and brands of tubes. Short answer to your question....no.