[goddessofchaos]

The only thing I am able to help with is the HX3040 set up and how to make the laser test work. When I engrave I think I can get it to home in one position - not always where I anticipate. I am trying to find a correlation with the "pulse" point and the engraving field. Today when I tried to make it engrave and then cut it was a disaster. Cutting position would change completely. Am hoping someone else might be able to fill in here.

Jacqui, Goddess of Chaos,GSOLFOT

[Aksess]

I had one of the 3040A lasers and it was the biggest piece of junk I have ever wasted $2,000 on. I sold it for $700 so it would not be a total loss. I am a firm believer in American made now. First a junky laser now lead paint on childrens toys. I thought China took pride in there products. What a fool I was for buying from them.

[Pete Stenabaugh]

Aksess, I dont know what your trouble was but you have to consider that to some degree, you get what you pay for. Although on the other hand, when I priced out Us made machines of a similar capability to mine, the prices started at about $45,000 US. Now I figure that over ten times the price does not qualify the machine as 10 times or even twice as good as the Chinese made stuff.

If you want to pay the ridiculously high 'made in the USA' prices, go for it, your pockets are obviously too deep.

Jacqui, your control panel is quite a bit different than mine, but I will try a few button combinations, although I think I had done them all once before. One thing I noticed is that I have a safety switch on my lid, so the laser will not fire if the lid is open, although in all the videos they show the lid open when they are setting it up and adjusting it. If you do that, the switch must be taped down or clamped somehow to allow the laser to fire.

Your laser should fire regardless of the table height, that is the whole idea of being able to move the table, unless of course, you have a safety switch......

Arturo......what make and model of machine do you have? If it is the same as Jacqui's then she would be the best to help you out, if not perhaps I can, although I am still in the learning curve myself.

Note also with the HXlasers, their software will only accept Corel Draw 11 or 12 (12 is much better), it wont work with X3 yet. I have ordered Corel 12 from the internet for $39 but it is not here yet. I will be doing some testing though to see how well the laser will engrave and/or cut directly from Autocad. I have Autocad 2004 loaded, but I think the laser will accept most any version from what I understand.

If you dont have Autocad, you can use any cad program with will output a .dxf file for you, which is just about anything on the market. There is some free cad programs available on the net plus some cheap ones as well such as Turbocad or Autosketch.

Pete

[goddessofchaos]

Pete - I have the control panel on the machine figured out now. I found out that the one button that was not labeled had to be held to do the test fire. I believe it is also a bypass for the safety switch on the lid, which is why it shows the lid open when adjusting the mirrors.

I am slowly learning how to correlate the software with the laser action but it seems the software manual is incomplete. I am trying to rectify that. Maybe because I have no other frame of referrence but I have NOT found my HX3040 to be a piece of junk. (yet?) In fact, I have been amazed and have found it to be far beyond my expectations. I engraved a photograph of my granddaughter on a piece of basswood and it was dimensional and turned out beautiful considering that it is kind of junk wood! I shall be trying engraving photos on denser wood to see how that works out. I also tried on a piece of acrylic and used bmp and dfx files exported from Adobe Illustrator. If this 'piece of junk' can do that nice an engraving job which was totally unexpected, I am delighted with it! There is lots of trial and error going on but I keep notes when it works out and ask lots of questions here on the forum.

BTW, contrary to what I originally thought, the Chinese say that each of the 3040 machines are different. Each company's machine is different even if it appears the same (the electronics might be different?)

Jacqui, Goddess of Chaos, GSOLFOT

[ArturoV]

Pete,

I have a HX-1290SE 80 Watt beast. This thing is huge! I had no idea it was going to be this big. The bigger the better as they say.. Anyways if you have any information on how to get this laser up and running let me know. As far as now I've had to fix and adjust the home "Datum" sensor but I still cant get it to go to its upper right hand corner. I dont think it knows were its at. I believe if I mess with its parameters or something I would be able to calibrate it and for it to know what its doing. Anything will help for now. Thanks.

[Pete Stenabaugh]

Thanks Jacqui.

I am hoping to get to China in November to take some factory training on all their machines. This will help a lot when people ask questions. I am expecting to re-write the manual for this machine also, but I need to get some more time on in first. My main problem right now is finding time to work with the machine, I have several other things going on at the same time.

I am designing a new cnc router which I will start building this fall, and I also have to get my cnc mill running properly, which is just a matter of getting the time to work with it - maybe this weekend.......

I will do some more testing with the control panel tomorrow though. Frank has told me that the factory is going to send me out a replacement control panel and mother board, but I still think that there is some secret testing method they havent told me. I have asked Frank to ask the guy that does the testing, but so far no answer. The language barrier seems to be one of the main problems also.

At least I can make it work, but the testing issue still bugs me, I need that feature to work. I'll let you know if I have any success...

Pete

[Pete Stenabaugh]

Arturo, without getting too invloved here are a few points to try.

1) make sure the lid is closed or else have the safety switch on the lid clamped down to close the switch - it should click! I assume that you have the laser tube mounted and so on, as per the manual. This part is fairly straight forward.

2) plug all the equipment into the main power supply box - into the 4 outlet power bar on the back side, and plug the power supply into the wall. all the equipment is 220V, even though they have used standard 110v computer cables.

3) you must have water in the cooler, and it must be running through the laser tube. DO NOT try to operate the laser without water running through it, you will damage the tube. The water should be distilled water, not tap water, although if you are stuck, then tap water is ok for the initial testing, but change the water to distilled asap to prevent scale buildup inside the laser tube.

4) on the control panel make sure you have the file loaded that says 'laser'. You can use the arrow buttons to toggle up and down to select different files.

5) I dont know how to make the laser do the test fire - yet, but with a piece of material under the lens, set the table height so you have about 9/16" from the bottom of the lens cone, to the material, this seems to be about the right height for focusing - at least to start with. There is a knurled section on the lens holding tube, and another knurled section (wider) above it. If you loosen the top section, the bottom knurled section that holds the lens will move up and down if you twist it lightly. Moving this up and down is how you set the basic focus for the lens. I found that a distance of .250" between the knurled sections was just about perfect for focus - so far anyway. Now tighten up the top knurled piece. Now you can move the table up and down to set the 9/16" distance between the material surface and the bottom of the tapered cone. You need to maintain the 9/16" distance for ALL the engraving and cutting you will do.

You can experiment with these positions until you get the laser cutting as thin a line as possible. My laser so far will cut a line about .015" wide (2 sheets of paper in thickness).

6) with some material under the lens, press the 'start/pause' button and the laser should come to life - with the 'laser' file showing in the 'file' slot on the control panel.

7) if the laser starts up it will move from the start point about 6" to the left (with this file set) and then start to cut. To pause the cutting merely press the start/pause button again. This button will toggle the laser on and off.

8) scroll through the menu and set the laser power at about 60% for testing, this is enough to get it to work.

Let me know if this helps out, or if you can get it to fire at all.

I am going to attach a strong connector clip to my high voltage leads that attach to the laser, instead of soldering the connection. I am then going to use a regular rubber spark plug insulating cap to cover it all up. This way you can change laser tubes without having to solder then all the time.

Time for bed - later,
Pete

[ArturoV]

Arturo, without getting too invloved here are a few points to try.

1) make sure the lid is closed or else have the safety switch on the lid clamped down to close the switch - it should click! I assume that you have the laser tube mounted and so on, as per the manual. This part is fairly straight forward.

2) plug all the equipment into the main power supply box - into the 4 outlet power bar on the back side, and plug the power supply into the wall. all the equipment is 220V, even though they have used standard 110v computer cables.

3) you must have water in the cooler, and it must be running through the laser tube. DO NOT try to operate the laser without water running through it, you will damage the tube. The water should be distilled water, not tap water, although if you are stuck, then tap water is ok for the initial testing, but change the water to distilled asap to prevent scale buildup inside the laser tube.

4) on the control panel make sure you have the file loaded that says 'laser'. You can use the arrow buttons to toggle up and down to select different files.

5) I dont know how to make the laser do the test fire - yet, but with a piece of material under the lens, set the table height so you have about 9/16" from the bottom of the lens cone, to the material, this seems to be about the right height for focusing - at least to start with. There is a knurled section on the lens holding tube, and another knurled section (wider) above it. If you loosen the top section, the bottom knurled section that holds the lens will move up and down if you twist it lightly. Moving this up and down is how you set the basic focus for the lens. I found that a distance of .250" between the knurled sections was just about perfect for focus - so far anyway. Now tighten up the top knurled piece. Now you can move the table up and down to set the 9/16" distance between the material surface and the bottom of the tapered cone. You need to maintain the 9/16" distance for ALL the engraving and cutting you will do.

You can experiment with these positions until you get the laser cutting as thin a line as possible. My laser so far will cut a line about .015" wide (2 sheets of paper in thickness).

6) with some material under the lens, press the 'start/pause' button and the laser should come to life - with the 'laser' file showing in the 'file' slot on the control panel.

7) if the laser starts up it will move from the start point about 6" to the left (with this file set) and then start to cut. To pause the cutting merely press the start/pause button again. This button will toggle the laser on and off.

8) scroll through the menu and set the laser power at about 60% for testing, this is enough to get it to work.

Let me know if this helps out, or if you can get it to fire at all.

I am going to attach a strong connector clip to my high voltage leads that attach to the laser, instead of soldering the connection. I am then going to use a regular rubber spark plug insulating cap to cover it all up. This way you can change laser tubes without having to solder then all the time.

Time for bed - later,
Pete

Pete,

Thanks for all the pointers.Thats good to know being that their is no information at all in their manual. The problem I am having is not so much that I cant get it to fired, but whenever I press the "Datum" button it just moves all the way to the top. Is this where it should be? From my understanding I taught it had to carry itself to the top right hand corner. I think their might be something wrong with the control module or something like that. I am no expert on these machines, but my gut feeling says their is something wrong with its parameters of the table. If you know any way to mess with its brain and get it to recognize its home position "Datum" let me know. It is completely lost in space..

Thanks,

Arturo.

[lamicron]

In the screen of the software . must be there a button, there you can fix it in any position you. \ If dont find it there get into configue machine.
Luis

[pedroman]

Arturo,

Wiggle (wedge) all the wires that are attached to the small black boxes (stepper drivers) and make sure you do not have a bad wire. The datum button should move your head to the upper right position. You will see two position sensors, one on the X axis (L/R direction)and one on the Y axis (Back / Front direction) The machine uses these sensors to create the "HOME" position for the machine.

My 6090 had three crimps which were bad (terminals attached to wires) when I got the machine. After chasing these down it has worked like a champ. Good Luck.

Pete

[fractaledge3]

Hi Arturo,

There is a video file for the complate installation process in the www.hxlaser.com but it is very big file I already downloaded the files and re-compressed it to %10 and put it in here

to view with less quality use that links
http://www.4shared.com/file/22048622...512/Movie.html
http://www.4shared.com/file/22370284...0e0/HX40A.html

or for better quality use direct download links
http://dc34.4shared.com/download/220...95815-c1d8198d
http://dc38.4shared.com/download/223...94646-bc1e7f98

[ArturoV]

Arturo,

Wiggle (wedge) all the wires that are attached to the small black boxes (stepper drivers) and make sure you do not have a bad wire. The datum button should move your head to the upper right position. You will see two position sensors, one on the X axis (L/R direction)and one on the Y axis (Back / Front direction) The machine uses these sensors to create the "HOME" position for the machine.

My 6090 had three crimps which were bad (terminals attached to wires) when I got the machine. After chasing these down it has worked like a champ. Good Luck.

Pete

Ey Pete,

Will a voltage meter do the job? The wiring looks pretty good. I got the Y sensor to work finally.It doesnt hit the back of the table anymore. As far as the X sensor(left/right direction) it wont go "home". I was told to touch the Y sensor with a piece of metal to stop it. Will your machine stop? X axis? Any maintenance issues I should be concerned of later on?

Thanks,

Arturo.

[ArturoV]

Thanks for the videos. I ve seen installation video but doesnt show any troubleshooting.

[ArturoV]

In the screen of the software . must be there a button, there you can fix it in any position you. \ If dont find it there get into configue machine.
Luis

Luis,

How do you configure the machine?

[Pete Stenabaugh]

Arturo,

I was able to finall get my laser to fire a single shot, thanks to the heads up from Jacqui. I did some more playing and I found that you have to hold the 'TEST' button down, and then while holding it down, you can press the "LASER' button to fire a single shot. I found you need to press the button fairly hard.

I keep learning new things about this machine each time I use it. Quite often I was getting errors about having no connection, it seems as though the link to the USB was being dropped off, so I merely had to unplug and re-insert the usb cable from the laser, into the laptop. It might be a problem with the laptop, I am not sure.

My friend here with the same machine also, has found a bad connection in the small connector on the end of the lead coming from the chiller, that plugs into the lead at the back of the laser. This connection tells the laser that the water is circulating, so if you have trouble check that connection also, or the laser may not fire.

I am not sure about the homing issue yet. I havent really used that feature yet. I have found that the laser 0,0 position can be set from the laser 5.0 software (this does not affect the home position). If you have it set to the centre, then the laser will start the file from what ever position it is sitting in when you turn it on. You dont need to send it home to datum each time.

Although my machine will travel to the upper right corner if I press the datum button, but I dont like that, it takes too long to get it back where I want to use it. I would prefer the datum position to be at the front left corner, so that all positions would be '+' values rather than all '-' values the way they have it set up now. Eventually I will find out how to change the home position to something more practical, but I dont know if I could get a proper answer by asking Frank, he doesnt seem to be too techically informed about these machines, he keeps having to go to the factory, and I think we loose too much information in the process. I am going to try to get an email address for one of their technicians, if they have any that speak proper english so we can get the information sort out.

Pete

[laserengraver]

Hi,

Can someone share the experiences of your importing and what documents has to be prepared for passing the US customs services. Is it complicated and difficult?

Thanks

Laser123

USA customs is strictly on the FDA number when importing the laser engraving cutting machine.
Each time I have to supply our FDA Number to them coming with the invoice and other needed documents

[lamicron]

Arturo, get in the file/machine configue (first button at left top in software screen) there you can set the speed of the datum travel, do not set it up of 30, or it will start to hit hard . Also in the top( i'm not at the machine pc now)there is a button that shows all the positions you can set to start the job.
If you want to have the better position for datum or cuting it will be up-left, there you get the full power of the laser, the rigth-down position is the less laser power.
Luis

[ArturoV]

hey,
The laser doesnt want to go were I tell it to. I put everything in the middle of the table and it still doesnt go to the middle. There is something wrong with its location or something. Also, when I send my dwg to the laser it always says power 100, speed 93 eventought I put different numbers. Has anybody had problems similar to this? One more thing is that my Corel 11 doesnt work with the laser? Should I get 12?

Thanks,

[ArturoV]

Arturo,

I was able to finall get my laser to fire a single shot, thanks to the heads up from Jacqui. I did some more playing and I found that you have to hold the 'TEST' button down, and then while holding it down, you can press the "LASER' button to fire a single shot. I found you need to press the button fairly hard.

I keep learning new things about this machine each time I use it. Quite often I was getting errors about having no connection, it seems as though the link to the USB was being dropped off, so I merely had to unplug and re-insert the usb cable from the laser, into the laptop. It might be a problem with the laptop, I am not sure.

My friend here with the same machine also, has found a bad connection in the small connector on the end of the lead coming from the chiller, that plugs into the lead at the back of the laser. This connection tells the laser that the water is circulating, so if you have trouble check that connection also, or the laser may not fire.

I am not sure about the homing issue yet. I havent really used that feature yet. I have found that the laser 0,0 position can be set from the laser 5.0 software (this does not affect the home position). If you have it set to the centre, then the laser will start the file from what ever position it is sitting in when you turn it on. You dont need to send it home to datum each time.

Although my machine will travel to the upper right corner if I press the datum button, but I dont like that, it takes too long to get it back where I want to use it. I would prefer the datum position to be at the front left corner, so that all positions would be '+' values rather than all '-' values the way they have it set up now. Eventually I will find out how to change the home position to something more practical, but I dont know if I could get a proper answer by asking Frank, he doesnt seem to be too techically informed about these machines, he keeps having to go to the factory, and I think we loose too much information in the process. I am going to try to get an email address for one of their technicians, if they have any that speak proper english so we can get the information sort out.

Pete

Pete,

It would be nice to have the actual techs info. Has anybody tried to touch the green sensor located on the X axis with a piece of metal. I was told that once it touches metal it will stop. Mine doesnt stop. I think my sensor is defected. Has anybody tweaked the Laser Cut software? I dont think its the greatest. I cant laser from AutoCad or Corel Draw. Will it work on Photoshop?

Thanks,

[lamicron]

Arturo, To change the datum position, are you using laser cut 5.0? If yes you can try : from the software catalogue:


Datum Dir (Datum Direction)
. It is determined by the position (right or left, up 0r down) of original switch

Luis