I noticed today that Tarkin’s power output seems a bit reduced. Still very much usable, just not getting quite as reliable through-cuts at my usual speeds. My guess is a partially fouled lens or maybe misalignment (but FWIW focus on the surface of my material seemed fairly good).
FYI @dannym
First please check that both breakers to the machine are on
OK, thanks. I’ll be back tonight for a session and will see how it works. Not sure if anyone else has had similar experiences or adjusted anything.
I did a basic check this morning and saw no significant prob. I did start by playing with the breakers and Laser6 might have been tripped, but I wasn’t being really meticulous and reset it before being sure
I’ll do a more detailed inspection in a bit
Hmm, hit another issue last night that might be related: I think maybe it lost half its power in the middle of a ~25 minute job — i.e. maybe a breaker popped again mid-run?
End result shown here (it was doing a fill operation from the bottom up):
I noticed that the sound of the machine got quieter about 30% into the job, but since it did keep running the fill operation and I wanted to see the overall composition, I let it finish. By the time it actually did finish, my plans for the rest of the evening had changed so I had to run. I didn’t find time to do much troubleshooting, unfortunately. I glanced very briefly at the breaker panel in the MPR, but LASER 5 and LASER 6 didn’t look visibly popped to me. Are those the correct ones to check?
FYI @JimmiD tagging you since I see you have the machine booked today on Skedda. TL;DR is that it seems generally functional but possibly having power stability issues.
Still reduced power today. I had to go down to 20mm/s @ 100% to cut 1/8" baltic birch. It should be able to at least double that speed.
I haven’t been in since May 14th, so not sure if it has been variable for not in the meantime.
This time, I did cycle both of the breakers marked LASER 5 and LASER 6. No change in behavior.
Now did you see it reduce during use, or just not as strong all the way through?
Yesterday it was stable, but definitely reduced. It was back on the 14th that I saw it lose power in the middle of the job. I hadn’t personally used it in between, so I have no idea if this issue has been variable in between.
FWIW, also checked last night for cone warming in case that got bumped/deflected, but it was still basically room-temp after a couple minutes of doing a fill raster. (And to be clear: definitely did not bump the cone on the 14th, either. The job was very simple, with constant clearance across the piece as shown.)
Any update on Tarkin power? I need to do some high-volume cuts in the next two days so having full power would be very helpful.
Has anyone else who used Tarkin today had any issue? @TravisGood? @Bwarez?
I don’t know anything conclusive yet, but I’m looking further into it
I wasn’t pushing any limits as I was doing simple surface engraving so I have no insights to contribute.
Document the chiller temps when your working if you can to eliminate that as a possibility
While I didn’t note exact temps, I did glance at the chiller display and I distinctly remember thinking “that looks low” (i.e. not at all in overheating territory, AFAIK).
It was hovering around 18°C earlier today on someone’s raster.
FWIW, tonight it seems to be doing sliiiightly better, but still well-below my usual expectations: to cut 1/8" baltic reliably, I still ended up slowing down to 25mm/s (it could mostly cut at 40mm/s, but not reliably all the way). All other layer settings are default, with max power set to 100%.
Chiller consistently reading sub-18°C, which is the chiller’s setpoint. (Right at the moment, it is reading 17.7°C).
Focus is clean, and I just checked the cone for heat after ~15 minutes of rastering – it feels normal.
In case it’s helpful, here’s a link to a Lightburn file that includes my exact layer settings.
Ok I see the problem, an RF amp went out. It didn’t show a problem on my first check, but it’s definitely out now.
Will swap out soon.
Thanks. I should have just enough time to finish my project this afternoon at current power levels, but very much looking forward to full power output again.
We should probably consolidate further status updates over on the official [Red Tag] thread here:
Tarkin at ½ power
