Raster Engraving

[Knight]

Hi All,

I have a couple of questions that I am hoping someone can help me with.

Happy New Year to all.

First, I am using the AWC708C Plus Controller. I have a 100W Laser. One of the problems I am having is the regularity of not being able to download from the computer to the Controller without a connection fault appearing.
Unplugging and re-plugging is not such a big deal, but it is annoying. Anyone found the solution yet?

Secondly, I have decided to try my luck with Raster Engraving, but I don't really know where to start. My first attempt was to simply import a photo into LaserCad. It was immediately converted to B&W, so I did a low power engrave on it. It worked, but the result was not that great.

What are the steps I should take?
What software should I be using?

Any help that can be offered would be very much appreciated.

Thank you.
Albert.

[Techgraphix]

Hi Albert,
First your connection-problems:
How did you connect the AWC with the computer? USB or Ethernet?
Ethernet is a very reliable connection and not very sensitive for any interference.. USB needs a good/high quality cable of about max. 3M, preferably a shielded type.
Some software running on the background may disturb USB-traffic.
The best way is using a standalone computer (Thin Client for instance) dedicated to your machine without any internet-connection, without a virusscanner, without any software but the software you need to run your laser.

Best way for raster-engraving, IMHO, is:
import your bitmap in a program like Photoshop, edit it as you wish( like removing a background), increase the contrast, set it to greyscale, adjust the imagesize to your wanted size with the dpi you like (keep in mind that the memory of the 708 still is very small unfortunately so a picture of 30 x 30 cm with 316dpi is not possible) the DPI setting should be
Finally convert your BW-image to 1BIT- dithered (diffusion, Stucki, Floyd-Steinberg, Atkinson etc)
Save that as BMP (no compression)
This can be imported and lasered without any changes..
Contrast- and Brightness-settings are a matter of experience. Material, Laser-power-and-speed.....

Kees

[Knight]

Hi Kees,
Thanks for your response.

My computer is a stand alone PC running XP. No internet, only runs LaserCad, No anti virus, just as you described. The connection I use is using the USB cables as supplied with the AWC708.
I can easily connect the Ethernet cable instead, so I will change over and give it a try.

Regarding the engraving, I don't have Photoshop at this point, so I will find a download and try it.

Enjoy your day.

Regards,
Albert

[DonL]

This may help

viewtopic.php?f=47&t=3033

[Knight]

Hi DonL,
Yes, I am sure it will. I saw it just after I posted the engraving question.

At this point, I don't have a suitable graphics program but I will need to get one.

Thanks for you help,
Regards,
Albert

[DonL]

LaserCAD can dither a raster image but you will have to play around with the dot size to get a good result. The key I find is a good high contrast image and a larger, 10mp or better