Scan gap issue - Program bug LO-X7 - Lasercad 7.6

[ian4goats]

.02 scan gap does not work.

When you enter a scan gap of .02 to engrave a bitmap, the X scan axis goes haywire and does not keep step. It will not engrave and the X head smashes into the home switch. Also, the engrave screen on the controller shows a weird scrambled image.

.03 does work, but is not fine enough resolution for what we need to do.
Controller 708c lite
Firmware tested - the latest one posted to this forum.
File formats tested .bmp & .tif
File resolutions tested 2000, 1500, 1270, and 1000dpi.
Tested Lasercad 7.60 & 7.65

Please help. We can not engrave high resolution our customers need.
An ideal scan gap for us would be .0254, but Lasercad will not accept this.

UPDATE - When BMP optimize is checked it does indeed work with .02 scan gap. The problem is that bmp optimize produces unwanted patterns in the etch sometimes.

[Techgraphix]

I think you see Moire-patterns.
If your DPI (set in your 1-Bit BMP) is slightly different from your scangap you might see some modulation as pixels are lasered or not..
IMHO its best to set the 1-Bit in the right size and right resolution in, for instance, Photoshop.
Your DPI setting = 25.4 / scangap so 0.02 wil get you 1270 DPI..

BUT, for a 10,6 um CO2 laser, even with a short lens of 25mm, a initial beamwidth of 4mm, your focused spotsize is 0.084 mm
So I guess you don't have a CO2 laser??

EDIT: I checked it with 0.02 scangap and it doesn't work as it should be.. In my case the Y doesn't move at all, although i cranked the microstepping to the max.(40000/rev > 2.5um/step)
After a few seconds the X starts to interrupt and after about 10 seconds the controller stops and hangs.. only reset makes it work again.
0.03 works fine.. also without BMP-optimize..

Kees

[ian4goats]

Yes, we are running a very fine 5W RF CO2 laser.
Beam expanded to 9.6mm, 38.1 f, and M2=1.0

This is indeed a software glitch.

Tested many dpi's as well. 1000 dpi is key to what we're doing.
It will not work at .01 gap either.

The 608 has no problem with scan gap, but produces unwanted stray etched lines on larger 1 bit images etched at .02 scan gap.
We have seen this issue on the last 15-20 controllers ordered.

[Tech_Marco]

Ian:

I talked to the programmer last night and he told me that on both X7 & AWC608 you should turn Off the "Pre-ignition" on the laser mode setting. Also, for the RF laser tube, the frequency should be set to 5000 to 6000. 20,000 is too high for the RF tube.

On X7, you hold down Stop & Esc to get into parameter menu. Over there, there is a setting for "RF mini power", set it to lowest like 1%. Save it and press RESET.
That should eliminate the extra line from happening.


Marco

[ian4goats]

Ian:

I talked to the programmer last night and he told me that on both X7 & AWC608 you should turn Off the "Pre-ignition" on the laser mode setting. Also, for the RF laser tube, the frequency should be set to 5000 to 6000. 20,000 is too high for the RF tube.

On X7, you hold down Stop & Esc to get into parameter menu. Over there, there is a setting for "RF mini power", set it to lowest like 1%. Save it and press RESET.
That should eliminate the extra line from happening.


Marco

Hi Marco,

Yes, we are now running at 5000 Khtz on laser signal. No pre-ignition as well.
The 608 had the line problem and not the X7.

The only problem we have now is the X7 does not work with a scan gap of .02. It does with bmp optimize, but bmp optimize does not produce good results.

Does the 608 have the same shortcut with Stop & Esc?

[Tech_Marco]

No access menu on AWC608. The
For the scan gap, let me talk to him to enable 0.0XXX for you

Marco

[Techgraphix]

On X7, you hold down Stop & Esc to get into parameter menu.

Stop & Shift (Stop & Esc does nothing... yet)

Kees

[Tech_Marco]

Oug~~~
I always mixed up the "Shift" and the "Esc"

Good Catch Kees
Owe you a cup of cappuccino

Marco

[prcdslnc13]

With mine I am having an issue with .01-.019 where it is causing a ghost image about 1.5mm shifted in the X. This only happens with X swing. X unilateral works fine.

If I set my scan gap to .009 or .02 or literally anything else the engrave is fine.

[ian4goats]

With mine I am having an issue with .01-.019 where it is causing a ghost image about 1.5mm shifted in the X. This only happens with X swing. X unilateral works fine.

If I set my scan gap to .009 or .02 or literally anything else the engrave is fine.

Are you running 1000 dpi 1 bit images?
We're trying to do 1000 dpi .02 (No BMP optimize)
Does that work on your system?

Thanks!

[Tech_Marco]

Ian:

Per your request, the programmer have made one up for your special requirement.
Please download the LaserCad v7.67B and run the OS update patch on the AWC608 and X7

Link: viewforum.php?f=55


Regards,
Marco

[ian4goats]

Ian:

Per your request, the programmer have made one up for your special requirement.
Please download the LaserCad v7.67B and run the OS update patch on the AWC608 and X7

Link: viewforum.php?f=55


Regards,
Marco

Thank you Marco!
We will try this first thing Tuesday morning and let you know how it works.

[ian4goats]

Hi Marco,

Thank you for the updated Lasercad and firmware.

The X7 is running great at .0254 scan gap with no more X motor step issues.
This will save us etch time and allow us to ship more machines this week as well.

I am now testing the 608 firmware with Lasercad 7.67. I will let you know the status on them later today to see if the line problem went away.

Thanks again!
Ian

[ian4goats]

Update: Okay, scan gap of .0254 works on the 608, but there is still stray laser etch lines on larger images.
We will be sticking with the X7 for now since it does not have this issue.

Thanks

[Tech_Marco]

So, does it work well on X7?

What is the micro-stepping on the motor driver? I remembered that you told me that it was 3200, right? If so, you may try 4000, 5000 see if it works better. 1000dpi is considered extremely high resolution. It is exceed the limitation a laser machine can handle. Just curious if is it necessary to use such high resolution for a file? I think the finest pixel from laser burning is 0.06mm or 0.1mm in more realistic. Did you try to use CorelDraw dither ? I think you may want to try the "Convert to Bitmap" feature and select "Grayscale 8bit"


Marco