sticking scanners?

[jsalopeck]

a friend of mine named amanda... yes a girl laserist.... has a problem. She is located down in WV. and i'm up in Cleveland so me taking a look at her rgb projector to fix it could be hard. Anyways she said her galvo's are sticking... has anyone ever had this problem? She has the 500mw rgb neolaser

http://www.lasernet.com/images/neo-l...20Lasernet.pdf

any suggestions for her would be appreciated, here is here original e-mail to me:

Date:
Apr 7, 2009 9:22 PM

Subject:
Please help...

Body:
Oh my gawd,
My scanners are sticking for some reason. Not sure why. Have you ever had this problem? Not sure what is going on, but thought you could maybe help me. I've tried restarting the laser, computer, LD2000, and turn complete power off and then back on. Please!
I have a show coming up in a week and this laser is my life. I don't know what I'm gonna do. Please help me.


Amanda

[QUAZAR]

I am afraid I cannot help. But can we see pictures of Amanda? Female laserists are soooo rare.

[p1t8ull]

Any pictures or video of what's happening when scanning?

[DZ]

The website says they are 24K scanners and doesn't list who makes them. Probably a very inexpensive set. Could probably be the bearings in the scanners breaking down. Time for a new set maybe.

[dave]

The website says they are 24K scanners and doesn't list who makes them. Probably a very inexpensive set.

Neo make their own scanners I believe

[jsalopeck]

i e-mailed her and told her to become a member on this great forum...
I e-mailed her some links of places to get some good scanners from..


quazar...she is a cutie.. but it's not my place to post pictures... you can find her on myspace here though ... she put's on nice laser shows... alot of pics of her laser show work is here. http://www.myspace.com/amandakushner

[DZ]

Neo make their own scanners I believe

Oh ok, are they any good? Maybe they would cover the repair under warranty then. Unless she's had it a while. I'd be willing to bet it's a problem in the scanners though. Little to no chance of it being the QM2K, in my opinion.

[daedal]

Female laserist... Tell her to join PL

Since the galvo's work based on electromagnetism, there could be a variety of reasons for this.

If the issue is that they are sticking to one side (extreme):
* If the driver is outputting erratic currents (pushing the coil over to one side). This can be tested by measuring the driver output current...
* Magnet(s) inside the galvo is bad/broken/loose (moving away). All of which are rather easiest fixed by buying a new galvo.
* The coil wire has either overheated and is loosing the non-conductive coating (not a coil anymore, shorting across the loops, i.e. not a magnet).

If it's sticking in random spots:
* If the bearing holding the coil in place is going bad
* If the magnet is loose and going towards the coil (holding it in place at random instances...)
* If the coil has gotten loose somehow and some of the wire is holding onto the magnet or any other edge inside the galvo
* If the driver is overheating and killing the supply randomly
* If the driver has a loose component that randomly enables output (shaking/vibration/moving can reconnect it randomly)
* If any of the wires are losing contact (galvo pins, driver pins, ILDA pins... etc)

There are very many reasons why this would happen... most are outside the software/LD2000 (easy check is plug in a second set/scanner)...

Good luck diagnosing/fixing the problem... If for any unfortunate reason the fix is to get a new set of galvos, I highly recommend DZ

Regards;
DDL

[DZ]

If for any unfortunate reason the fix is to get a new set of galvos, I highly recommend DZ

Regards;
DDL

Thanks daedal! If she wanted to sent it to me, I can probably fit a new set of scanners in there. I'd have to see the inside to say for sure.

[buffo]

At FLEM 5 in March, Amanda from One Stop Laser Shop (different Amanda than jsalopeck's friend, obviously) was talking about a problem with flaking and de-lamination on some Chinese scanner bearings. It manifested initially as "crunchy bearings", similar to the problems experienced with earlier scanners that had super glue holding the windings in place (the cyanoacrylate would out-gas and coat portions of the bearing surfaces, causing high spots). Amanda said that eventually this flaking material inside the bearings would lead to sticking problems and finally to complete scanner failure. Sure sounds like what's being described here...

Solution? Replace the scanners. That's the way I see it anyway. Trouble is, she's got just 3 days to do it...

Adam