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[baccus61]

Thanks a lot for all your help Marco.
I still have a few things up my sleeve I haven't tried yet.
I am going to place the drivers next to the motors on the top of the table, about 5 inches away, and use some shielded twisted pair data cable for the signal wires and replace the motor wires with a better quality but I don't think the motor wiring will make any difference but any thing is better than nothing at this stage..
If that doesn't work then I will replace all the steppers with some 100watt Yaskawa servo drives and motors I have just bought. I will get into this in a few days time after I have cleaned the yard to get ready for my 50th birthday party in 3 weeks. (that's more important right now )

One other thing, Marco. I got a mail from PayPay saying you didn't collect the money from the shipping cost the last time you sent the board back to me from China.
I will send it to you again in a few weeks time after all the Xmas and new year parties are over. I will notify you by PM once I do this.

I don't mind helping on your forum as I know what frustration is all about and if I can stop other people from going through the same thing then I get a kick out of it and also some kudos. Other people have helped me over the past few years so I just give back in return.
I'm glad to be of help to someone.
regards
Rich.

[baccus61]

Rich,

I love the look and simplicity of your machine. You really should share your machine photos and build history over at BuildLog.net. I, for one, would like to see any drawings/info you have about your design.

tim

Tim,
I have a sort of build log over at http://www.cnczone.com under my nickname of "MonoNeuron"
Just do a search for "backyard laser" or 'home built laser table' or something like it.
I go to the buildlog site sometimes and one-day I might even post some stuff there.

I will be making another more portable laser table in the next few months that will hopefully look like the professional ones and one that I can wheel through doorways and around the house or shop.
It will have 1/2" linear guides, 5 phase or servo drive, lifting table upside down "L" shape with full ball bearing drawer slides for the guides and 1x 1/2" antibacklash acme lifting screw placed in the center underneath the table, Air assist, Suction fan with activated carbon filter for the smoke. (you wouldn't believe how much people complain about smoke!!!!), and to top it off the ULS RF 30 watt laser I had on the previous table. Also an acrylic cover.

We have a pretty good sheet metal guy here so I will draw up some plans then get him to cut and bend most of the sheet parts. I have a small bender myself so I can make some of the parts but a few will need a pan brake for the bending.

Thickness will be from 0.6mm to 1.5mm for the table top for added support.

I should be able to get some real speed out of that little bugger as long as I don't have all the problems associated with the one I have now....
Rich.

P.S. here is a list of all my threads on the zone if you care to look..
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/search.ph ... id=5973895

[Tech_Marco]

Rich:

I talked to a guy in Florida, I think he may help you as he is using Giko Driver like you do, He mention something about the drag and that may cause a problem to the machine. Since I'm not an expert I think you better talk to him. I'll email you his email so you folks can chat to each other. Once your problem solved, please share it with us

Marco

[baccus61]

Thanks Marco.
I'll send a message off to him in the next few days.
Tomorrow I'm having my 50th birthday party so we are in the middle of some cleaning up and setting up for the festivities.
I will probably have a lot of time to look at the laser soon as I might not have a job as of next Monday.
Time will tell.
I'll post the findings here once completed.
Thank you.
Rich.

[lasersafe1]

I have been away from this forum for a Long time and I just saw this post. It is clear to me that if you get clean lines in X-unilateralism mode but double lines in X-swing mode then your problem is belt stretch or belt slop.

If it is belt slop, then the distance between the double lines will remain the same regardless of sweep speed. If it is belt stretching, then the distance between the double lines will get wider as speed increases.

It is also possible on a very large system that is not "stiff" to start to wobble the entire assembly with a resonance mode that a function of the metal structure.


Somewhere in the depths of the setup of the DSP there is or was a setting that could be adjusted to account for belt stretching, but I have never spent the time to find it. I always use X-unilateral mode. I'm never in a big hurry since I don't use my engraver for a business yet.

[baccus61]

I have put a bigger and wider HTD pulley and belt on it and I am still getting the same double line engraving. I have checked and rechecked about 20 times and still get the same result. I don't think it's the mechanics but the problem seems to stay even though I have used 3 different hardware and software packages. It all points to the hardware but I just can't find the damn problem.
I even rebuilt it completely from scratch and used only the motors and table top and I still get the same result.
I swapped out the square tubing rails and bought some THK linear slides and tried them and still have the same problem.
It's a quandry!!!!.
rich

[twehr]

I have put a bigger and wider HTD pulley and belt on it and I am still getting the same double line engraving. I have checked and rechecked about 20 times and still get the same result. I don't think it's the mechanics but the problem seems to stay even though I have used 3 different hardware and software packages. It all points to the hardware but I just can't find the damn problem.
I even rebuilt it completely from scratch and used only the motors and table top and I still get the same result.
I swapped out the square tubing rails and bought some THK linear slides and tried them and still have the same problem.
It's a quandry!!!!.
rich

Rich,

I had a similar issue one time right after installing an air assist nozzle. Turned out the beam was hitting the side of the air/beam outlet causing a reflected second beam hit non the material. Adjusting the nozzle centered the beam, elliminating both the reflection and the double strike on the material. Just a thought!

Tim

[Tech_Marco]

Rich:

Tim is right as I had the same issue when I was tuning the lens for my 1060 machine. If Tim didn't mention it, I would forget to tell you also.

Two days ago, I was setting up my laser machine and I found that there was double 'dot' hitting on paper when the laser head was set far from the origin point (0,0). I found that the laser beam wasn't align right on the center (actually don't need to be at perfect center) when entering the laser head. Instead it hit the side metal and cause the double dot. Just align the laser mean you should be able to fix it. If you move the laser head to the shortest distance from the laser tube, you shouldn't see double line. If that is the case, then our theory is Right

Try it!

Marco

[baccus61]

Sounds like a good theory to me.
I have had two different laser heads/lens holders on it so far. One made by me and a bought one. I have the same problem with both.
It's not to say it isn't happening and I will definitely go out and check it now and see if it is in alignment. there is only 3mm to play with and it could be a problem.
I might just unscrew the nozzle and fix the lens in place with something sticky and try it without. It might show up.
I hope you're on the right path but I have aligned the thing a 100 times before and sometimes do so for each session just to make sure I can cut from 1 side to the other on the table. I hate it when you get 30 minutes into a cutting job of 100 pieces and the laser stops cutting all the way through. Been there done that and that's why I check it frequently.

I will drive the lens assembly into some plasticine just to make a mark on it and align from there. It should be easy to get it spot on with a datum point to work from.

I'll cross my fingers............

Thanks for the heads up. I haven't thought of it before.

I also have another problem of the software cutting fast then slow along a vector path. It seems to cut slow along a line path, about 1/2 speed, then goes full speed along a bezier or curved path. The other software didn't do this.
Ahhhhh! such is life....
I will make a video of it and send to you so you can see what is happening.
Rich.

[twehr]

I also have another problem of the software cutting fast then slow along a vector path. It seems to cut slow along a line path, about 1/2 speed, then goes full speed along a bezier or curved path. The other software didn't do this.
Ahhhhh! such is life....
I will make a video of it and send to you so you can see what is happening.
Rich.

Look at your system settings (I think that's where it is). You can set different speeds for curves and corners, etc. (Not in front of it now, so don't remember it all.) I have never set mine and have not yet noticed an issue, but that is the first place I would look, to see if something was set accidentally, or to make adjustments.

tim

[baccus61]

Yes. You can set a percentage of the speed on the Human Interface for cornering. That's probably where this little problem can be corrected. Funny, I was just playing around with it but never thought of changing it for cutting. I was just trying to sort out the engraving again. I think it is set to 8%. I will set it to 100% and see how it fairs.

I took off the lens venturi and just had the lens open to the world I still get the same problem. I aligned the beam as good as I could with a steel rule all the way around and pretty much got it spot on center of all the mirrors. Only took about 5 minutes as they were pretty close as they were.
I checked the lens focus and reset it. It was off about 0.5mm which isn't much for a 63.5mm focal length lens and shouldn't make much difference.

If I engrave at 40 mm/s it is pretty close to a single line.
If I engrave at 60mm/s then the line starts to become double
No changing of the return setting makes any difference. It doesn't seem to work.

If I engrave at 80mm/s and over, I get a line about 5-6mm away from where it should be. i.e. I get a double picture with an offset of about 5mm for each.
Anything over 120mm/s produces stepper faults and missed steps.
I used to be able to engrave at 15inches/s once but now it's only 3inches/s at best. I have rewired it 3 times with the same results.
I can do this blindfolded now and I am probably getting complacent due to amount I've done it and I'm probably making wiring faults without knowing it.
Thanks for all your input.
This problem is a doozey!

Rich.

[Tech_Marco]

Rich:

I really don't know what to say, it's so strange. Even our small machien can run at 350mm/s and the bigger machine can go as fast as 800mm/s (32in/s). If you want to, you can send it back for exchange and I think it's the only solution for now.

Marco

[twehr]

If I engrave at 40 mm/s it is pretty close to a single line.
If I engrave at 60mm/s then the line starts to become double
No changing of the return setting makes any difference. It doesn't seem to work.
Rich.

Rich,

I may have missed this someplace, but what happens when you do unilateral engraving instead of bi-directional? (I know you don't want to work that way forever, but if that also fails, then you will never be able to compensate for it with software.)

I have not had to compensate for bi-directional scanning so I can't say for sure that it works in v2.x boards. Logically though, I should be able to induce the problem by adding unneeded compensation. Then we can know if the board/software are designed to work correctly together or if it is simply a software issue the designers can fix. I probably can't get to it till tomorrow night at the earliest, but maybe Marco would find a few minutes to try. If not, I will try and let you know as soon as I can.

[baccus61]

Thanks Tim.
For the weird fast slow cutting I tried to adjust the cornering power so that it is the same as the cutting speed and it still cut the same. You can set this on the Human interface or the Layer Setting panel in software. I tried a few different files all with the same result and also set the settings to different values in the settings tab.

If I cut out, say, the letter A then the triangle in the center is cut as three separate lines. It cuts 1 then goes past the end of the cut, lines itself up with the next line then cuts that etc. I have tried to Group the lines, Weld the lines and Combine the lines with no better result. It doesn't process the parts as a whole. The outside of the file I used, the word "Aunty", still cuts intermittently depending where it is on the job. All the inside cuts are individual line cuts and the outside cuts at different speeds depending where it is on the word.

Time for a video of it I think.
I''l be right back.......... Tick toc.....tick toc....

I deleted all the extra nodes around the path in Corel Draw, which there were many, then tried again with the exact same result. This is a software issue I think.

Unilateral engraving is fine and comes out perfect. At least I can still use it but it is 3 times slower than Bi-directional.
I upgraded to a 100 watt laser so I could engrave mirrors in under an hour but I am still at the 3 hour mark with no better result than what I was with the software only solution.

I am going to earth or ground everything better and see how that goes. It may make a difference.

Rich.

[Tech_Marco]

Rich:

Just let you know that I'll back you up. No panic. If you need to repalce the card for testing, just send it back to my office in China and my staff there will ship you another. Just in case that you need to go for that route.

May be you should consider it instead of pulling so many hair (I'm losing a lot hair recently, really )


Marco