Here is my story…
My company is very small (one man shop really)… and we decided to get a laser for our prototyping, and to increase our product line into new areas.
We did some research, and chose what looks like the best “bang-for- the-buck”, the LaserPro (GCC) Explorer II 60watt system… 36″x20″ work surface, pass through doors, etc….
We have had it now for about 8 weeks now, and have been having a number of intermittent issues with it. (occasionally it will : A) At the end of a job, the laser does not shut off as it returns to the home position, scoring the material, B) At end of job, head does not return to home position, C) System does not always go into standby mode. I have already eliminated any cabling, computer, and software issues.) Until these issues are fixed, I can not trust the machine with any expensive or “Unique” material.
I was approached by one of the other company reps that I had spoken with before I went with the laser pro… and he says that my problems are the norm with “Laser Pro”… and I should try and return the machine ASAP. My Laser Pro rep has come by several times, to change out the firmware, and try other fixes, and says that the next step is to replace the main board.
My questions: Who here uses Laser Pro (GCC) Lasers… and for how long, and have you had the problems I have had?
I wish I had found this list before I bought my laser….
I have had a LaserPro Explorer 35 W for almost a year now, and have had none of the issues you describe. In that year, I have only had two issues. 1.) The machine suddenly lost power, turned out it needed a beam alignment. My rep came out and did that and also replaced a mirror under warranty. 2.) I had some intermittent problems with the machine thinking the table was at the upper stop when in fact it wasn’t. My rep (Jorlink in NC) worked with me to locate the problem, even overnighting a main board to me, however I solved the problem myself tracing it to some faulty cabling from the autofocus probe.
Other than that, I have worked the hell out of this machine cutting wood and acrylic, and engraving wood, acrylic and painted brass and aluminum. I’d be happy to answer any other questions you might have about my experience with LaserPro. I have found that the other manufacturers reps do like to badmouth LaserPro, but they get pretty quiet when I tell them what I paid for the power, table size and all inclusive three year warranty I got.
I have a LaserPro Mercury 30 Watt laser. I have had intermintant problems but I think are pinning them down to a driver issue. I have no complaints with the quality of it’s output. Mine also would fail to shut off on the return but I traced it down to a hidden line in the drawing. After I deleted it no more problems. Try looking in the wire frame mode if you use Corel draw.
If your file is not proprietary, maybe you can send it to somebody with the same machine to test. If it works ok on the other machine then the problem is with your machine. If the problem follows the file then look at the file for the problem. Maybe the rep can have your file run on another machine.
When I first got my laserpro a year ago, I had similar problems. At the end of a job, the laser would advance to a random position an image one random horizontal line. In my case the resplacement of firmware on the laser and a new driver (DV 3.46beta 1) for the PC fixed the problem.
Jorlink recorded the versions of driver and firmware and jorlink and laserpro filed to notice the versions were out of date. Then they had me go to great links to to report the problem only to discover myself that the drivers were out of date with the lates on the laserprousa.com web site. Since the problem was fixed with a newer version of firmware, tech support MUST have been aware of the problem in order for it to have been fixed.
Today the laser is running pretty good, but there are still a few minor driver bugs I’ve come across. For example boxes in “macromedia freehand” only cuts 3 sides of the box, but if the box is ungrouped, all 4 sides cut. Coreldraw seems to be the program they test the machine with because I seen to not have problems with corel. Photoshop works pretty well.
Is it only one program which has the problems or is it any program?
If you hit start a second time, does it do the exact same random thing, or will it do different random things?
Are you using usb or parallel port? Have you tried the other port?
Thank for the responce… I use corel draw .. use the parell port, and if I send the job Once, a and then hit the start key multiple times, it will sometimes do it, and sometimes not.
It sounds like an “end of file” problem. If you can, try the USB port. Parallel & USB handle end of files differently, so changing cables “might” fix it.
Check your firmware version on the laser. v2.27c is the most resent version. I believe that’s what I’m running, but I’d need to check the laser.