Looks like the high voltage power supply in Mario has failed. It will be down until we can get it replaced. Will post more info as available.
Didn’t this happen a few years ago as well? Any idea what causes it, or is it just because of being used so much?
The HV power supply is one of the parts that tend to fail with use. The listed MTBF for the 80-100 watt supplies that I’ve seen tends to be 10,000 - 30,000 hours. The tubes we are using are rated for 10,000 hours. The first power supply for Mario failed in 2016 after a little over a year of use. That was very premature, but it’s the only other failure so far. Replacement cost is about $200 (or about $600 from Rabbit).
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Is that mtbf accurate for this type of machine? Or is that more of a rating for industrial machines that cost three times as much? That machines at the lower end of the quality spectrum tend to use materials that just barely meet the requirements. Is that the situation here? Is it possible to go up a size and supply? Such that it’s not being used at or near its maximum?
Edit: I just did some math in my head. If it runs for 6 hours a day on average 7 days a week, let’s call it 40 hours a week times 50 weeks is 2,000 hours. So we probably are pretty close to the bottom end of anticipated mtvf as it is. I suppose that’s not too bad.
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That’s based on the manufacturers claims for the supplies used on these machines. Example: Cloudray DY13
That is an option, as long as the max current output can be set low enough to not fry the tube. We did reduce the max output on our current supplies so that the tube can’t be run at a level that would drastically reduce its lifespan.
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Sometime in the mythical spare time we all have, it would be interesting to find out how much a laser cutter costs us to run… and how many man-hours are needed to maintain and repair one per year. (Lots of makerspaces charge quite a bit for laser time… and it seems we run a tight ship.)
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Sorry I’m a little late to the game here. @Christian can you point me to what we need? I’ll see what I can do to get it.
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Quick update: parts have been ordered and should be here by the end of the week. Depending on when they arrive I’ll probably plan on installing them this weekend.
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Further update. The power supply showed up today. Ill bring it to Makeict tomorrow (Thurs).
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Got the new power supply installed today. We also installed an analog current meter for monitoring tube current. We set the max current the same as the old supply, so it should work similarly to how it did before. Power settings may need to be adjusted a bit, though. Lenses in both the machines were also replaced. I learned today that the focal length of the lens in Luigi is 63.5mm and not 50.8mm like Mario. The longer focal length is better for cutting, but not as good for engraving.
Let us know if you find any issues.
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Thanks, Christian!
I added the above quote to the Laser Cutter Wiki page… it is important info. I DEFINITELY found this out when I was set up to engrave copper bars on Mario, then had to switch to Luigi. The files I made for Mario just didn’t work as well for Luigi.