I recently upgraded by Chinese Blue 50w laser with a bundle from Cloudray. Figured if they are bundled together then they’d best work together. I’m working with Lightburn and I don’t see much difference between the power settings when I use the laser. The ammeter is showing an overall difference (ranging up to 25a). Even at the lowest setting where I can get it to fire (about 9% power), it seems like it’s more powerful than it should be. Here’s a few test that I’ve done…
I was wondering if there were any adjustments I needed to make since it was a 60w power supply that came with the 50w tube.
The M60 power supply has upgraded the efficiency of the cutting direction, and now it is more powerful. Adjust your speed and other habits to reduce some effects.
A 60W Laser Power supply (lps) is not going to give you more power out of a 50W tube at the same mA reading… The tube is always the limiting factor.
CO2 machines actually have a pretty good efficiency, but the lps has little to nothing to do with the tubes efficiency, if it’s working properly.
Unfortunately this is the kind of advice you receive… I would have expected better from Cloud Ray.
The advantage of a larger lps is it’s response time. A larger lps has to raise it’s voltage quicker for a larger tube to have a response of 90% voltage <=0.1mS.
The lps has an internal pot to adjust the maximum current. You should set your machine at 50% pwm and adjust the pot to read 50% current. That will sync you up with the software so 50% power is just that.
I was advised by Russ Sadler to use this method to setup the lps. Cloud Ray builds a Russ Spec machine, so I trust him… they apparently do also.
As a tube gets larger it’s not uncommon for it to start lasing at a higher mA reading. Most manufacturers say a 60W tube has a minimum output power of 12W, indicating a minimum of 20% power. Most of my tubes have lased around 9mA at best.
