Air Assist connection

[Tech_Marco]

I finally got a chance to test air-assisted feature from the DSP today. It seems the connection and logic is pretty straight forward.
The output is OUT1 at "2. OUT" .

Note, the stage of OUT1 is HIGH (24V in respect to GND) when the machine is idle. Once the X & Y start moving, it changes it's stage to "low or 0V". If you want to use postive logic by turning air ON when X,Y is moving, then I'll suggest to use 24V (pin#1) & OUT1 (pin#2) as OUT1 will turn into 0V, so you will get 24V in between pin#1 and pin#2.

However, the output current from OUT1 is very low and you can't drive a solenoid directly from OUT1. Instead, I would hook up a small DC relay that take less than 30mA to energize for controlling a solenoid. Then, by connecting the normally opened contacts to my new found "Air-Tac" air-valve in series to board 24V. The mechanism seems working good even though I didn't have air tube/pump hook up.

The Air-tac is a DC24V dvice support up to 10 bar pressure. I'm thinking it's a prefect for the application unless you want to drive an air pump On and Off and On and Off... until you kill it. My suggestion: try not to drive an air-pump On/Off too often as the surge current can shorter the life of motor quick. It's better to use a compressor tank instead and having the air-valve to control air flow.

I'll post a YouTube later

Marco

[TeacDance]

an older version works the same way?

I finally got a chance to test air-assisted feature from the DSP today. It seems the connection and logic is pretty straight forward.
The output is OUT1 at "2. OUT" .

Note, the stage of OUT1 is HIGH (24V in respect to GND) when the machine is idle. Once the X & Y start moving, it changes it's stage to "low or 0V". If you want to use postive logic by turning air ON when X,Y is moving, then I'll suggest to use 24V (pin#1) & OUT1 (pin#2) as OUT1 will turn into 0V, so you will get 24V in between pin#1 and pin#2.

However, the output current from OUT1 is very low and you can't drive a solenoid directly from OUT1. Instead, I would hook up a small DC relay that take less than 30mA to energize for controlling a solenoid. Then, by connecting the normally opened contacts to my new found "Air-Tac" air-valve in series to board 24V. The mechanism seems working good even though I didn't have air tube/pump hook up.

The Air-tac is a DC24V dvice support up to 10 bar pressure. I'm thinking it's a prefect for the application unless you want to drive an air pump On and Off and On and Off... until you kill it. My suggestion: try not to drive an air-pump On/Off too often as the surge current can shorter the life of motor quick. It's better to use a compressor tank instead and having the air-valve to control air flow.

I'll post a YouTube later

Marco

[Gadroc]

Are you going to sell that solenoid? I'm trying to look for a supplier for it and can't find anyplace that sells it individually.

[Tech_Marco]

Yes, it's $18.5 each. I only got 10x here.
Working on the picture now. Will post it in a day or two. Stay tuned.

Marco

[Gadroc]

Sounds good. Is there a way to set per layer whether we want to air assist on? A lot of times I don't want the air assist on during engraving, but want to turn it on automatically for the cut layer.

[Tech_Marco]

No, it can't controlled by layers. It's too specified to make that up
Here is the air-valve. http://www.lightobject.com/DC24V-Air-valve-P689.aspx

Havn't had a chance to measure the thread size. Hopefully tomorrow as it's very busy here.

Marco

[Gadroc]

Does that mean it's not possible as a new feature, or just not now? I thought I saw that checkbox on layer settings from earlier PHCad versions.

[Tech_Marco]

I can't answer your question as I'm not the programmer/enginner. Remember, I'm just a middle man to 'bridge' the network between customers and the manufacturer. I can make suggestion to the company but I'm not the decision maker.

What I see the most important other than adding fancy features so far is to make sure that the card is 'bug' free, agreed. There are still some issue unsolved like 1/4" that you're having. Until then, I won't suggest to do any major change on the card. Bottom line: we want a card that is solid to run and trouble free.

Marco

[baccus61]

So what you are saying here is that the air assist turns on when the laser fires and then turns off when it stops firing?

So if you were to cut a lot of small holes like in a paper doily the air would turn on and off for each hole.
That's not how I thought it would work.

Does it turn on at the start of the job and then continue until the job is finished? That is how my old set up worked and it was very good and wouldn't stress the compressor too much by continuous on and off's.
Rich.

[Tech_Marco]

So what you are saying here is that the air assist turns on when the laser fires and then turns off when it stops firing?

So if you were to cut a lot of small holes like in a paper doily the air would turn on and off for each hole.
That's not how I thought it would work.

Does it turn on at the start of the job and then continue until the job is finished? That is how my old set up worked and it was very good and wouldn't stress the compressor too much by continuous on and off's.
Rich.

Rich:

The Air control won't turn On and Off in between lines or dot while the machine is doing engraving/cutting. If so, I would say it's a very dump design and I'll kick the ass of the programmer!

The Air signal "On" all the time once the laser head out there doing work until it's "Home sweat home"

Got it

Marco

[baccus61]

That's how it should work.
I'll get around to setting mine up in the next few weeks when I get a bit of time.

Marco, do you have any red laser diode pointers with a glass lens and not acrylic lens?
When I set my laser to cut over 70 watts there is enough reflected power through the beam combiner lens to melt the red diode pointer lens.
I have gone through 6 of them so far. I have bought 2 on eBay but I'm not certain they will be glass when they arrive. I know some people call acrylic "organic glass".
I sent away for a ZnSe window to use but I got a negative lens instead. Apparently a window has enough reflection to act as a beam combiner lens.

It's good to see you finally getting every thing sorted out. You will have the best DSP on the market soon for the price.
Keep up the good work.
Rich.

[bluewave65]

It would be nice turn-off air-vent after 5-10 sec later to blow-away all dirt after job ...............

[Tech_Marco]

When the Air is ON, it is already blowing dirt & smoke away. Plus, when the laser head is heading home, there is about 5~10 second traveling time and the air still blowing. So, there is no need to manuniplate this timer again.

The purpose of having air assisted are blowing dirt/smoke away. It help to protect the focus zense from getting dirty and so make it last longer. The secoond good thing to have it is to boost power by about 20~30%. For the same job, you set power 20~30% less so you're saving the life-span of your laser tube. It doesn't matter doing engraving or cutting. Air-assisted is always recommened to be ON

Marco

[Tech_Marco]

That's how it should work.
I'll get around to setting mine up in the next few weeks when I get a bit of time.

Marco, do you have any red laser diode pointers with a glass lens and not acrylic lens?
When I set my laser to cut over 70 watts there is enough reflected power through the beam combiner lens to melt the red diode pointer lens.
I have gone through 6 of them so far. I have bought 2 on eBay but I'm not certain they will be glass when they arrive. I know some people call acrylic "organic glass".
I sent away for a ZnSe window to use but I got a negative lens instead. Apparently a window has enough reflection to act as a beam combiner lens.

It's good to see you finally getting every thing sorted out. You will have the best DSP on the market soon for the price.
Keep up the good work.
Rich.

Sorry Rich, I forgot about your post. I've a couple hundred 5mW red dot laser pointer but I haven't checked the type of the cover whether is it glass or acrylic. FYI, I do have combination lens/mirror. I'll post it if you're interested. Plus, I do have 2X beam expander. Just in case you need it


Marco

[powerfade]

Hey Marco.. I noticed you said you had 2x beam expanders. How much are you selling those for??

Thanks..