Internal Breaker Tripping When Starting Or Running A Job

Overview

If you experience a condition where the breaker trips when starting or in the middle of a job and if you are using the stock air assist pump, then the culprit could be a failed or failing air pump.

What Happens?

We have seen internal failures on the stock air pump that cause the internal breaker to trip. 

Symptoms

This often when starting a job or while in the middle of a job (especially longer ones) and the entire machine will shut down.

Usually you can reset the breaker after this and the machine powers up normally... until you send another job. Then it trips again.

Diagnosis

If you experience the above scenario, don't keep trying to reset and try again as this could further damage the systems.

Disconnect the stock air pump

The first step is do locate the stock air assist power connection at the back of the machine and remove it.

Run a 'dummy job'

Next we want to run a job (the one you were running when you saw the failure is perfect), but we don't want to create smoke since there is no air assist at this point. 

So be sure to remove materials from the bed and lower it all the way. 

Then run the 'dummy job' and see if the machine remains powered on. If it remains on, your stock air assist pump has likely failed. 

Check the relays

It's important to check both air assist relays for thermal insult, arcing, discoloration, etc... to see if one or both of those relays have been affected.

Here is what burnt relays typically look like:

How to remove the relay for inspection:

Now what?

If you haven't already, please email support@thunderlaserusa.com and let them know you did the diagnostic and that you have a failed stock air pump and note the condition of the 2 air assist relays. the team can assist from there.

If the stock air pump is under warranty, we will get a replacement out to you right away.

The peripherals, including the air pump, have a 1 yr. warranty. According to Thunder's Global warranty certificate, the warranty period starts when the machine leaves the factory.

However, Thunder Laser USA  warranty period begins on the date of delivery. More on that here: Thunder Laser USA Warranty & Transfer

If it's out of the warranty period, we can sell you an oem pump or you can source one yourself. 

You can find specs on the OEM Thunder pumps here: Stock Nova Series Air Assist Pump

Here is one example of a similar pump: https://lightobject.com/135w-air-compressor-pump-for-co2-laser-ac110v/

If you source a NON OEM Thunder pump, it will have a standard NEMA 5-15 plug and will not fit the air assist power socket on the back of the laser without an adapter

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00066HQ50/

This adapter is NOT to be used to connect an external 'shop compressor', etc... It is only for use with a pump like shown above.

• Related Articles

• NOVA Main Breaker Tripped Troubleshooting Steps

  If this is a brand new machine that you had an electrician install a new 20amp outlet and you are now having power issues. Please verify with your electrician that they did not install a 220v feeder to the receptacle. Thunder Laser Main Power ...

• How To Adjust The Dual Stage Air Assist

  Preface: This article covers how to adjust your Dual Air Assist on your Nova and Odin series Thunder Lasers Quickstart Video: Complete Guide: Thunder's dual stage air assist does not come preset from the factory. High may be set low and low may be ...

• Stock Nova Series Air Assist Pump

  This stock air pump outputs about 5psi at 4.23 cfm. The cali air 8010 can output 90psi at 2.2cfm, for reference The manual is attached below

• Quantifying Air Assist Pressures

  Introduction The air assist is critical for keeping flare-ups at bay, mitigating smoke, helping keep the lens cleaner and cooler (it really shouldn't get that hot if it is in proper order anyway), and, when cutting, catalyzing the ablation of ...

• How to replace the Bolt Air Assist Pump

  Preface: This article covers how to replace the Air Assist Pump on your Thunder Bolt