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Thread: "Hearing" Galvos is a symptom of overdriving?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    Posts
    11

    Laser Warning "Hearing" Galvos is a symptom of overdriving?

    Hi Laserists,

    Just before heading to bed at 4:00am (!) this morning, I thought I'd check out updated "version 7.12 firmware" compatible versions Bill made available of the software included in the legacy folder of the the Quickshow 2 disk.

    I checked out LAstudio Abstract - and discovered another world of useful tools!

    I played with it for a few minutes without doing much configuration first, however, I became concerned due to the oscillation sounds coming from my galvos - I discovered my LAstudio defaults to 30K scanning and so changed my scan rate back to 20K and the noise disappeared. Thankfully the galvos seem to be working OK so I don't suspect any permanent damage has been done.

    So, if ever I can "hear" my galvos, does it generally mean they are being overdriven?

    If overdriven, generally how long could they be running in that state before permanent damage sets in?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Raleigh, NC
    Posts
    2,292

    Default

    Just hearing them doesn't mean anything. When they are over driven they usually begin to squeal like a pig. If overdrive way too far they will shutdown for a moment and then restart. Also, if they are tuned too hot (too much feedback and damping) they will make more noise. Without knowing how they sound I don't think any can say whether or not they are being overdriven. If you aren't operating them at a scanrate faster than what the scanners are rated for and the image looks OK I wouldn't worry about it. The image is the tell-tale sign. It will start to look bad before the scanners are physically in harm.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    Posts
    11

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by JohnYayas View Post
    Just hearing them doesn't mean anything. When they are over driven they usually begin to squeal like a pig. If overdrive way too far they will shutdown for a moment and then restart. Also, if they are tuned too hot (too much feedback and damping) they will make more noise. Without knowing how they sound I don't think any can say whether or not they are being overdriven. If you aren't operating them at a scanrate faster than what the scanners are rated for and the image looks OK I wouldn't worry about it. The image is the tell-tale sign. It will start to look bad before the scanners are physically in harm.
    Thanks for your reply John. Thankfully i didn't get any pig squealing sounds from the galvos so hopefully no harm done. More like some kind of PWM square wave tones however I realised I had not configured the scan rate properly fairly quickly and changed it from the default of 30K to 20K and any noises vanished.

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