Calibrating the laser?

Support & Troubleshooting Form 1/1+
21

I had the same issues with my laser degrading.

Today after painfully removing all the resin formlabs put in the laser to prohibit opening, I (carefully) disassembled my form1+ Laser.
I found out it’s not containing the TO18 Laser everybody is talking about. But a much smaller TO38 Laser.

On aliexpress I bought a pair of spare lasers from Sony and Nichia.
They will arrive within a couple of weeks.

Hopefully they work right of the shelf, otherwise I will investigate how to calibrate the lasers.
Did anybody ever attempt this? or care to help if needed?

1 Like
22

Unless I am mistaken, no one has been able to calibrate the laser or galvo’s besides Formlabs. One would need special tools and the software to go along with them.

If you figure out how to do this I gather many will want to know what you did.

23

Interesting. Is your printer a Form 1, 1+ or a 2? Also, do you know roughly when it was made?

My laser comes with a black housing, and it doesn’t have any epoxy or resin or hot glue, I can simply unscrew it. And it does have a TO18 diode.

The TO38 housing is just smaller than the TO18, but the laser specs are what matter.

24

I have a form1+ I believe its from 2013.
I ordered some to38 lasers with same specs as the to18
The pcb seems to be the same.

25

Hmmm. I’ve had 2 Form 1+ printer, which I bought used. The first one I bought in 2016, and it appeared to have been a Form 1, that had been updated to Form 1+. It had the black housing laser. I never opened the laser so I don’t know what type of diode it had.

The current one, I bought used last year around April or May, and according to the previous owner, it was just about a year old at the time, so it was made in 2016. This is the one I opened the laser housing on, and it has a TO18 in it.

I wonder if FormLabs has more than one vendor for the laser, and they use them interchangeably?

26

Did anyone have any luck?
Mine looks like it’s the sealed version of the laser

27

Hello good afternoon.

I have a Form 1+ for garbage.

To know my horrible case you can see it here:

My laser is sealed. For business reasons I had to buy !!! urgently!!! a Form2.

So now I have my old Form1 unused because of my laser.

Please regardless of having purchased a Form2. If there is a compatible laser or a possible solution, please comment on this post.

It hurts me to have such an expensive equipment unusable because of just € 300, but of course these lasers are no longer manufactured.

Regardless of having purchased Form2, I am not happy with Formlabs, they have forced me through my uncomfortable situation.

It was problems after problems or paying a Form2 so that my company would not be more damaged.

I trust that someone or some company will look for solutions to these machines and be able to repair my laser or replace it.

Thank you

28

I will have to open my form 1+ and change my laser so could you help in case of you have make some pictures and or movie
And where did you buy your laser ?
after changing did you have some problems for calibration did you need to do ?
thanks

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