Dutch conversion of the K40

[Ruud Hogenberg]

Dear members,

WOuld like to post some pictures of the K40 conversion,
With being nervous how to connect everything, reading for days this forum, occupying Marco a lot.. it took me 4 days to get this done.
So ofcourse being proud i succeed, but also still have some issues,

I have removed everything out the K40 controller space and build all new parts into the same space.
The limit swith had 3 legs and i have soldered one cable to the other leg, to get the proper signal.
My worry was that the Red laser feeding cable (wich i left on same length for future machine) was also in this space, and had the feeling that this causes inductional behaviour
to dsp and controller card. e.g. Loosing connections between laptop and controller, I have transported the long cable into the lasertube space and it disappared.
Another thing i came across is the relation between speed and engraving power.
Cutting with 100% (and 68% manufacturer power) delivers 18mAmpere. PWM is set to 20000
but for engraving;
At 400 speed and 100%power the mAmpere drop to below 2 mA.
At 100 speed and 100%power the mAmpere is to 10 mA
At 50 speed and 100% power the mAmpere is 16 mA

So to get quality engraving i need to lower the speed dramatically, however when i read lot of posts in the forum you dont have these problem?

I think that i could be a parameter and hopefully you quys can help how to improve this by putting me into the right direction.

Another thing is that engraving is not stable, some engraving i did have weak spots, while at other spots its good.
Maybe preignicition or so. ? Maybe you can help on that one too.?

Ok hereunder some pictures.

Kind Regards,
Ruud Hogenberg
Gippetto 3D

The cover where you can see the shunt for the mAmpere

[waltfl]

Hi ruud,
first the question is the long HV wire connected in the Laser power supply??? a HV cabel shoul never be open and not at all in gthe compartment it could create sparks.
now if you have differend engraving outcome ( pictures would be good to see) and the file are prepaired right then you probably need to re-aligne the beam if you need more help for this write me a PM mail at a542002@hotmail.comand I send you pictures how todo it
the speed on this small machines should not be set higher then 300mm/s the power depends on the facture of speed but if you have set the power on 100% you must have set the power in the manufacturer setting to something like 68% or what did you set it to?
if you wana have a detailed engraving from like a picture you need to set a few parameter and lower speed here again PM mail is best.
ok greetings
walt

Dear members,

WOuld like to post some pictures of the K40 conversion,
With being nervous how to connect everything, reading for days this forum, occupying Marco a lot.. it took me 4 days to get this done.
So ofcourse being proud i succeed, but also still have some issues,

I have removed everything out the K40 controller space and build all new parts into the same space.
The limit swith had 3 legs and i have soldered one cable to the other leg, to get the proper signal.
My worry was that the Red laser feeding cable (wich i left on same length for future machine) was also in this space, and had the feeling that this causes inductional behaviour
to dsp and controller card. e.g. Loosing connections between laptop and controller, I have transported the long cable into the lasertube space and it disappared.
Another thing i came across is the relation between speed and engraving power.
Cutting with 100% (and 68% manufacturer power) delivers 18mAmpere. PWM is set to 20000
but for engraving;
At 400 speed and 100%power the mAmpere drop to below 2 mA.
At 100 speed and 100%power the mAmpere is to 10 mA
At 50 speed and 100% power the mAmpere is 16 mA

So to get quality engraving i need to lower the speed dramatically, however when i read lot of posts in the forum you dont have these problem?

I think that i could be a parameter and hopefully you quys can help how to improve this by putting me into the right direction.

Another thing is that engraving is not stable, some engraving i did have weak spots, while at other spots its good.
Maybe preignicition or so. ? Maybe you can help on that one too.?

Ok hereunder some pictures.

Kind Regards,
Ruud Hogenberg
Gippetto 3D

K40_converted.jpg

Cover_operationroom.jpg

topview.jpg

[Ruud Hogenberg]

Hello Waltfl,

Thanks for the comments, no the cable isnt open and not connected in that compartment.

Indeed the power at user lever is 100% and on manufacturer indeed 68%
Laser has been aligned. Beam is righ in the middle of the mirror and head, tested on all bad and good spots.
Just wondering if pwm 20000 change to 30000 could help as you did in your setup i saw.
And also wondering if you have same measurement as i did on the engraving..

Ruud

Hi ruud,
first the question is the long HV wire connected in the Laser power supply??? a HV cabel shoul never be open and not at all in gthe compartment it could create sparks.
now if you have differend engraving outcome ( pictures would be good to see) and the file are prepaired right then you probably need to re-aligne the beam if you need more help for this write me a PM mail at a542002@hotmail.comand I send you pictures how todo it
the speed on this small machines should not be set higher then 300mm/s the power depends on the facture of speed but if you have set the power on 100% you must have set the power in the manufacturer setting to something like 68% or what did you set it to?
if you wana have a detailed engraving from like a picture you need to set a few parameter and lower speed here again PM mail is best.
ok greetings
walt

[waltfl]

hi ruud
ok now I meant the HV cabel connected inside the laser power supply.
no the change of the power frequency setting would not solve your probleme but to realy help you I need to see a picture of engraving.
what did you set the scan gap to? did you dither if it is a picture?
what distance you have from the head to the material surface?
how did you prepaire the engraving? what software did you use?
you see there is so many factor who influence the outcome
greeting
walt

Hello Waltfl,

Thanks for the comments, no the cable isnt open and not connected in that compartment.

Indeed the power at user lever is 100% and on manufacturer indeed 68%
Laser has been aligned. Beam is righ in the middle of the mirror and head, tested on all bad and good spots.
Just wondering if pwm 20000 change to 30000 could help as you did in your setup i saw.
And also wondering if you have same measurement as i did on the engraving..

Ruud

Hi ruud,
first the question is the long HV wire connected in the Laser power supply??? a HV cabel shoul never be open and not at all in gthe compartment it could create sparks.
now if you have differend engraving outcome ( pictures would be good to see) and the file are prepaired right then you probably need to re-aligne the beam if you need more help for this write me a PM mail at a542002@hotmail.comand I send you pictures how todo it
the speed on this small machines should not be set higher then 300mm/s the power depends on the facture of speed but if you have set the power on 100% you must have set the power in the manufacturer setting to something like 68% or what did you set it to?
if you wana have a detailed engraving from like a picture you need to set a few parameter and lower speed here again PM mail is best.
ok greetings
walt

[Ruud Hogenberg]

Waltfl,

Pls have a look to this picture below; the illustration is copyright..
The file is a dxf converted with Vectric's Aspire software

On the rightside you see the illustration at rubber wood the leftside is at trespa (HPL)
What really bothers me is the stripes in the face,
Starting from nose to mouth and mouth to chin.
See the simularity on both materials.
The position at the laser was not the same.
It looks to me that the laser is not consistent at area wich not will be lasered.
It looks the laser doenst come back to the adjusted power.
Gap 0.06 i believe..

Ruud

[waltfl]

hi ruud
first I would import the dxf directly in to lasercut,
second this looks like a inconsistensy of the material I am not familiar with trespa but it looks to me like a kind of wood graine
wood graine allways would show up in any kind of engraving and there is nothing you can do except change the wood or material this has nothing to do with the laser.
I would set the scan gap not higher as 0.2 for such graphig only with detailed picture I use scan gap 0.004.
the location of the laserstart is allways problematic and needs a bit of tinkering mostly just if you adjust a setting directly on the LCD panel botton.
my solution is that I take the best settings after changing on the LCD panel botton and then change them in the lasercut settings and reload the whole file.
greetings
walt

Waltfl,

Pls have a look to this picture below; the illustration is copyright..
The file is a dxf converted with Vectric's Aspire software

On the rightside you see the illustration at rubber wood the leftside is at trespa (HPL)
What really bothers me is the stripes in the face,
Starting from nose to mouth and mouth to chin.
See the simularity on both materials.
The position at the laser was not the same.
It looks to me that the laser is not consistent at area wich not will be lasered.
It looks the laser doenst come back to the adjusted power.
Gap 0.06 i believe..

Ruud

[Tech_Marco]

Ruud:

Can you email me your test file and configuration file? I just receved DSP yesterday so I can run some test for you
Did you set the voltage on your power supply correctly? The 40W is supporting 110V and 220V by a switch. Make sure you have that set up properly


Marco

[Ruud Hogenberg]

Hello Marco,

Thanks for your reply, did sent yesterday a mail to you with three different tests.
But will tomorrow morning sent you the laser_file of the gangsterbaby and the configuration file.
About the powersupply if you zoom in into the picture called inside_operationroom of my posts, you can see that the red mark under the yellow sticker show 230 volt, however that is shown at the 110volt side, so confuses me..

see zoomed picture

Thanks for helping me out.

Ruud

[Tech_Marco]

I'm not talking about the DC power supply but the Laser Power Supply

I need to look at your System and User setting in order to make any comment


Marco

[Ruud Hogenberg]

Hello Marco,

You sent me a 230 volt laser supply, see large sticker on the picture, so i assumed it was ok.
Couldnt find a swith either on this.

Ruud

[Tech_Marco]

OK, got it. My over sighted.

Marco

[Tech_Marco]

I got your three files for tesing and I could see that look like the mA was dropping at higher speed. However, it's really not the case. It's merely that the current meter wasn't fast enough to show the change! If you draw a box long enough, you can see the difference. The current meter is supporting 8 times sampling per second (my request) ,while most panel meter support 4 samples /s (without customization). When I hooked it up a DVM in series with the panel meter, I could see full power 26mA at 100% (I used 98% on my machine) while the 3 digit current was showing 10.5mA

FYI, I have precise Origin for each reset or for each starting. If it's not the case, you better check the belt of your machine or other components. I been testing at least 30 cards so far and I'm not seeing any Origin issue.

By the way, try not to do file convertion with so many converters. Doing so the image format may not compatiblve to the DSP cards. In addtion, your file format must be limited to 8.3 format.


Marco

[Ruud Hogenberg]

Hello Marco

Thanks for testing, did sent the files you requested today,
About conversion, the file is eps from origin, but need to add tekst, then set proper
Layer and convert to dxf, if you say to eps is better will do that from now.
About mA, its not only that it drops, wich I understand after your explanation,
Also that nothing appears on the material . But you have the config and example, let wait for your conclusion.

Thank-you Ruud

[Tech_Marco]

I got your files and I'm testing one. Strange that you're trying to 'engrave' the the outline of the image. It suppose to be 'cutting'. It took my machine long to "engrave" the outline. Will try other files and will post the images later

Marco

[Ruud Hogenberg]

Marco,

Not strange I didn't saved the file so just grabbed it again, but outerline should be cut figure engraved

Thank you
Ruud