AMPS in K40

[mandomagnon]

Need some technical help to understand an issue.
I am told that on my K40 I should got above 18 on the ammeter.
But I just did I job cutting some wood. 3x3 inch square done at 10mm/70%power. The ammeter was hitting 18.2 18.4. I lowered the power to 60% and it was still hitting 18.2.
So how do I get it to lower the amps without compromising the cut.

Using k40 LO X7

[seeigecannon]

You can slow down the cut. One thing to note if you have an analogue meter is that the needle has momentum, so you only want to take a reading when the needle is standing pretty still. If you have your laser set to 10mA you could probably still max out the meter just by tapping the laser button at the right time, so be aware of that.

[DonL]

From what I can tell, And someone may correct me, is the small laser tube and original Power Supply will max out at round 18.4mA which is the max current from that Power Supply. Since the tube MAX recommended current is just below that, you are actually over powering the tube at anything above 60% . The LO-X7 does not know what the max current is and does not really care, it adjusts the pulse width based on desired power so 60% in LaserCAD or the LO-X7 is 60% Pulsewidth nothing to do with mA or current draw. at a 60% pulse width, your power supply is maxed out at 18.2 mA, You can run 70% or even 100% and still only see 18.2 or 18.4mA draw because you maxed out way back at 60%... Keep in mind that running the tube at or slightly above max current for that tube will shorten it's life considerably. a 40W tube max current is 18mA, since the small Chinese laser is actually a 35w laser not the advertised 40w, You should expect that 18mA is over current limits and the tube should not be run above 16mA which equates to about 55% in LaserCAD Yes you can overpower to 18 or 18.4 but I would do it sparingly....

What I would like to see is an option to input the size of tube and have LaserCAD adjust so that 100% is 100% of that tube's capability and 1 % is 1% of the tube's output, that is where it starts to fire.

Again, I could be way off base and if so, please someone correct me...

[seeigecannon]

What I would like to see is an option to input the size of tube and have LaserCAD adjust so that 100% is 100% of that tube's capability and 1 % is 1% of the tube's output, that is where it starts to fire.

I am working on an unofficial hardware version of this. It would likely still take a DMM to set properly, but I will open source everything when I have something that works. If someone gives me the set points for their various sized lasers then others should be able to get pretty close to the proper power settings without a DMM.