[zax15uk]

JT, you're welcome and thanks for the kind words. I am just glad you had a back-up piece of marble. So many of my items are one of a kind, I guess that's why I had to figure out this machine and software.

You can resize the template and it will still work, providing you do both front and back to the same size.

Here's some more tips to keep in mind:

Don't forget to clean the lens (both sides) and mirrors once in a while. A q-tip and a little >80% isopropanol will do the trick, but don't rub at them just use a gentle wipe in one direction and let the IPA evaporate off. If you get a marble chip on there, or any other residue it will heat up and damage or crack the lens/mirror.

Monitor the water temp on long jobs, I use a cheap aquarium alarm. It may or may not be an issue for you, I'm in Texas and my evaporative 'chiller' can't always keep it cool enough.

If you haven't already installed a coolant flow switch I highly recommend it, and wire it to the laser enable circuit so if the flow drops the laser is turned off. This is cheap protection against the even cheaper water pump failing.

Zax.

[LaserNOT]

Holy smoke ZAX, I thought you were in the UK! Not real sure where I got that though...
Well, what part of texas are you in? I'm in Big Spring, over by Midland/Odessa (40-60 miles).
Sure be nice if we were close enough to visit! Maybe so...
Good tip about the lenses too. I've been lucky & clean the lenses pretty regular.

[zax15uk]

Well I'm from England, but relocated to Big D (Dallas) ~10 years ago.

I live about 2 miles from South Fork Ranch for all those Dallas/JR fans :-)

Zax.

[Brian Queen]

What a great resource this group is. Here’s my problem. When crank up the speed to cut a fine lace like patterns in paper I get jagged lines and I can see what’s happening. When the head moves from its last location to the new location it starts cutting before the gantry and head has had a chance to settle down. If I’m cutting straight lines and they are long enough you can see that the cut starts out jagged but then becomes straight.

I can mitigate this when I’m drawing in AutoCAD by joining the polylines lines that make up a square or diamond so that it doesn’t have to jump around as much but this is only a work around, the problem is with the machine. On my CNC machine I can control the rapid movement and even program in a slight pause before cutting begins but these laser machines don’t run on Gcode. Am I just reaching the limit of how fast I can cut? Any suggestions?

On the other hand, the rapid movement shouldn’t change regardless of the cutting speed, but the problem seems less when the cutting speed is reduced. One more thing, I’ve fooled around with the machine options and didn’t keep a record of the original settings.

I have a Rabbit HX1290SE laser, 100 watts.

Brian

[zax15uk]

Brian,

It sure would be nice if these machines could run GCode, at least for those of us with CNC machines and experience.

I believe you are correct about being near the limits, but there should be a parameter in your setup to dwell prior to enabling the laser. In Newlydraw it is in the properties / general tab, there is a delay for both rastering and vector cutting. I know this probably won't help you, but in case others come across the post I state it for reference. Typical settings are around 5ms.

You might also be able to fix this by adjusting the axis, if there is too much 'play' in them it can cause the same symptoms.

Zax.

[LaserNOT]

Awwww gosh Zax! I got another jaggie! Right thru the workpiece, ruined of course. Would/could running too fast do this too? I did notice a "small" bit of grumble as the laser fired, I may be thinking that the "bufferload, firing strain and too fast? speed may have something to do with this. I do know that I made another perfect part right after without changing anything! And that's just about the way it goes everytime. only OCCASIONALLY can I get an error to repeat the same way.

The "zip" is totally random and unexpected and which directon is a guess until it happens. Gosh this is frustrating. Gettin spensive too, not to mention the time factor too.

[zax15uk]

JT, that sucks! It should not happen from running too fast, that would just cause the steppers to lose position.

The buffer isn't that big, so if you have a memory problem on the laser it would occur almost 100% of the time (random locations but more often). It sounds more like an electrical noise or PC issue, did you look at the BIOS settings for the parallel port, avoid the ECP/EPP and see if that helps.

If you are sharing interrupts on the parallel port that could cause it too.

Do you notice any pattern to it, like shortly after when the screensaver kicks in or something like that?

Zax.

[LaserNOT]

Hi Zax.
Well, I did just now check the bios, the parallel is sitting on "normal". There are the other settings,but they are not selected. IR channel is 7. I'm not sure how I would find out if I'm sharing or not, if so I'm not aware. Nothing else is attatched. This computer is dedicated to the laser, and even the screen saver is turned off while lazer is running. Nothing else is going on with the computer while runnning laser.

I have 2 computers, one I use, the other dedicated to the lazer. However, the LCD monitor for the lazer comp is pretty close to the comp case, within 8 inches or so. The OTHER monitor from the OTHER system is also within 1 ft or so of the laser computer cabinet.

The laser computer IS connected to a network/internet connetion. However as I said, NOTHING is happening while lasering. Do you think perhaps I should disconnect the network from it while lasering?

The internet connection is active during lasering as I have 2-3 other people using the net at the same time usually, and there is NO access to the laser computer from the web/net, but I don't see a problem there.

The laser computer is NOT the internet sharing computer, we are lucky enough to have a router for that.

I will admit that there is a scrupulum of cables behind the desk but the recent cable change has moved the printer cable pretty much away from those others.???

For a moment I thought maybe a short/temp power loss? Don't know how, and if it was a power loss, I think I'd lose the memory anyway and the laser wouldn't pick back up on the picture at the right spot.

Boyeee this is something. Just so random.

[LaserNOT]

Say Zax!
Gimme som mo rubbin.
What settings do you think would best burning out small shapes of CD's.
Yeah, plain ol computer/music cd's. Some good cheap material there...!
That mirror on the back side is incredible with a picture or logo or whatever, and if you back to back two pieces, put em in a "frame" they look marvalous!
Only a coupla troubles here, and its not really trouble if your making keychains and necklace pendants....I can only get "so" large and I'm having trouble "cutting" them out.

set on 2 turns power the "box" keeps "backfilling" itself. Turning power up results in smoke & "bats" all over, can't be good for the lens's either...??

I'll keep speramentin till you set me right....
Thanks, pal
JT

[zax15uk]

JT, sorry but there are no words of wisdom I can suggest to cut Polycarbonate. It's a thermoplastic so won't vaporize like Acrylic, it will melt and re-join or at higher temperature it will begin to decompose (think, sticky brown mess).

I do like the idea of engraving the reflective coating off though and may have to give it a try.

Zax.

[zax15uk]

JT, regarding your random problem - I don't think the network would be the issue unless the network card is on IRQ7 too (unlikely). The machine I use is an older PC (think it's a P3-500) and connected to my network router and I haven't had any issues.

After it goes off to do it's own thing does it just continue like nothing happened?

Zax.

[LaserNOT]

Yes, Zax, it does usually a single line "runaway" then comes back and finishes the pic just fine. Once or twice when I wasn't looking, it HAS done it more than one time in a picture. That's pretty rare as I usually watch real close and if it does "go awry" I can usually lift the lid and sometimes 'save" the work, but not always.

It seems only to happen on larger pic's, anything over 3" or so usually does it. That's what makes me think memory or something. But it is frustrating...

[LaserNOT]

HELP ZAX...
Man, I'm stuck in "reverse" land. I wanted to reverse a picture while ago, it worked fine. Now working on something else, and won't change back! Shut down all machine/s and still in engraving in the "mirror" mode, although it says "normal" on engrave menu! Even made up the picture from scratch again and it does the same thing. Something is causing the output to reverse...ever been there?

thanks, jt

[LaserNOT]

Sorry dude, I found the "reverese" check box on the engrave menu, yep it was checked!
Thanks,
Say, why dontcha make yourself useful or something...what the "mode" thing above the scan/cut box mean?

Only kidding you know, right!?
Thanks, jt

[zax15uk]

It seems only to happen on larger pic's, anything over 3" or so usually does it. That's what makes me think memory or something. But it is frustrating...

I agree it does sound like a memory issue. When you send a job to the laser does it quickly go to 100% or do you see it pause and crawl until complete?

Zax.

[zax15uk]

what the "mode" thing above the scan/cut box mean?

If you mean the mode selector to the right of the scan/cut box, that is the combine mode.

It's a little difficult to explain, but easy to see the results if you test it.

Say you've got 3 circles (inside each other), mode 0 will fill all three so it looks like a single circle, mode 1 will fill the outer to second circle only and mode 2 will fill the outer to second and the center circles.

Oh, and don't forget... the reverse box is 'mirror' and the orient drop down allows you to 'flip' or rotate the graphic.

Zax.

[LaserNOT]

Well, it seems like on the smaller jobs, it "goes" quickly. On the larger jobs, it does "crawl' some, but always finishes before job is completed.
For example, on your file, the disks, the lazer would be engraving item number 15 and loading 16.

Where do you think the memory problem could be? Does the lazer have any chips that may go bad?

[LaserNOT]

Boy dude, your getting me in deep!

Another q or 2.
I can't remember how I made my vector file. I need to make a .bmp into a vector to be "cut out". Example a small little "cross" cut out of acrylic.

I still don't quite get it yet, but am hopeful. I take a .bmp, go to corel, start a NEW file, import the .bmp, export it as dxf and import it into newlydraw. Nothing is there.????

I want to take a line drawing I made (a heart shape) and "cut out" the heart shape in acrylic and then do stuff to it later...?
Thanks again

[zax15uk]

import the .bmp, export it as dxf and import it into newlydraw. Nothing is there.????

You need to 'trace' it... http://www.summadirect.com/tips/tip7.html

Of course this works best with a nice clean, high contrast image.

Zax.

[zax15uk]

Where do you think the memory problem could be? Does the lazer have any chips that may go bad?

Hahahaha... yeah, it has plenty of IC's that could go bad. I'd bet if it is the buffer it's the chip with nothing on it (assuming your machine is like mine and they've sanded all the printing from them).

But seriously, I think you'd be experiencing a lot more issues if the buffer was bad. They probably don't have dedicated memory, instead use the small buffer that is available on the comms or pic chips.

The only way to separate the PC and laser would be to load Newlydraw on another system and try running the machine from there for a while.

Just a thought. I have both the laser PSU and PC plugged into a spike/surge protector.

Zax.