Intermitent Laser Cut Depending on Power

[MikeF]

I tend to think this is most likely a power supply issue or my DSP configuration. When running laser cuts (Line), depending on the power setting, I will get segments or partial segments that are not lazing. Based on a lot of experimenting this is not a mirror alignment thing because the milliamp meter will go to zero when the missing line segment is being traversed. And I can run the same design at a different power and that location will be written. The display panel of the Ruida shows the speed and power levels as set in my design in Lightburn; it is the laser power ammeter that is going to zero.

I thought I was imagining it, or that this was a seldom-occuring glitch. But as I've gotten more into using Min-Max power settings and tried some of the O2-Creative power test diagrams (which use fractional power of the Min-Max range) things have gotten really bizarre. The first attached photo shows a power test document exactly as downloaded from O2-Creative. The second one I shortened and set each square to a different color layer with Min = Max. It runs more consistently, but still drops out at certain power levels. I've done other tests with lines and squares at various power levels and it seems like there are a number of "magic" power levels that cause all or part of the line to be un-lazed.

I tried changing from the PWM output of the Ruida DSP to the Analog output. It was no more consistent. And as for Min-Max ranges, all the lettering in these two photos was done with Max 50%, Min 30% - and these drew. However, if I changed the minimum to 20% half the letters will not draw. I've experimented with a number of other machine configuration settings, but none of those changes helped.

Advice???

LightBurn 0.9.24
Ruida DSP R6445G Controller (LO LSR-DSPR6)
SPT C50 50W CO2 Sealed Laser Tube (LO LSR-SPT45WCO2)
Smartbean 60W PWM CO2 Laser Power Supply (LO LSR-LO60WS)
Q800s Water Chiller with built-in heater (LO WC-LOQ800W-H)
Etc…

Result of unchanged O2-Creative Power Test File

IMG_4575.jpeg (38.96 KiB) Viewed 3815 times

Manually created fixed-power levels test file

IMG_4577.jpeg (33.34 KiB) Viewed 3815 times

[MikeF]

Sorry, in looking I see this went into the DSP T9 board, but I am using a Ruida R6. I intended this to be posted as a general DSP topic.

[MikeF]

Solved. Replaced the laser power supply and it works great. I’ll send back the LO Lightbean for repair and hopefully have that as a standby replacement.