Why don’t I get any laser power unless I press the Test Mark button first?
Run the following test to see if you have an address contention problem between the FLCC and the WinMark Pro PC:
1. Power up the Marking Head and initiate a Test Mark using the ‘Test Mark’ button on the Marking Head and verify that the laser and Marking Head are operating.
2. Verify that the WinMark Pro software is closed.
3. Open the DigScope utility that is located in the WinMark Pro program group and folder
4. Press the ‘Toggle Lase’ button and verify the window shows ‘LASER IS ON’
5. Drag the ‘Laser Duty Cycle’ slider back and forth across the range of values and verify that the laser power is being changed. You should be able to set the slider at its leftmost position and see little or no laser output.
If the laser output power doesn’t respond to the slider settings, then you are probably having an address contention problem between the computer and the FLCC. This may be resolved as follows:
- 1. Close DigScope and go into the Windows Control Panel and open the System utility.
- 2. Click on the ‘Device Manager’ tab.
- 3. Verify that ‘Computer’ is highlighted (it’s at the top of the list) and press the ‘Properties’ button.
- 4. Click on the ‘Input/Output (I/O)’ button.
- 5. Scroll down through the list of ‘Settings’ (addresses) until you get to the 0300 - 03FF range.
- 6. Find an unused range of addresses in the 03x0 - 03xF range.
- 7. Shut down the computer, remove the FLCC, and set the FLCC base address dip switches to any of the unused address values (refer to the FH Marking Head user’s manual for details on setting the dip switches).
- 8. Boot up the computer and start WinMark Pro.
- 9. Go to the Tools menu, select ‘General Settings’ and scroll down the Application Settings properties until the ‘D A Card Address’ is shown.
- 10. Enter the new FLCC address in decimal form. The following table gives the decimal equivalents for the base address values that may be used for the FLCC:
| Base Address (Hex) | Base Address (Decimal) |
| 0300 | 768 |
| 0310 | 784 |
| 0320 | 800 |
| 0330 | 816 |
| 0340 | 832 |
| 0350 | 848 |
| 0360 | 864 |
| 0370 | 880 |
| 0380 | 896 |
| 0390 | 912 |
| 03A0 | 928 |
| 03B0 | 944 |
| 03C0 | 960 |
| 03D0 | 976 |
| 03E0 | 992 |
| 03F0 | 1008 |
At this point, you should be able to reproduce the DigScope test, with the laser output responding to the Laser Duty Cycle slider adjustments. If that works properly, then try marking using WinMark Pro, adjusting your power values and seeing if the nature of the mark changes.
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