Lightobject.com Support Forum

We use our (much modified) laser a lot. Like 2-3hours a day, every day.. It rocks!

One of the things we do is mark serial numbers on plastic product... The mark comes out really nice, but each batch of 6 products has to be set up as a separate job... Pain in the A$$!

So I suppose that this is as much a DSP+Corel draw question as anything, but:
"Can the Lightobject DSP controller be set up with Corel (or any other software) to generate and run a raster job with some numeric text that incremements with each run?"
If it can, then I'll buy one otherwise it looks like I'm up for $15K for a fiber laser....

PK

I don't think any DSP would do unless it's designed to handle the task
Sorry, can't help on that part

Marco

You would probably be better off with a laser that runs Mach 3 as its control because it can be controlled with third party software for serializing. its a less costly setup as well but the "tinkering factor" is higher to get the laser to fire correctly with the PWM settings. You would be turning your laser into a CNC router with a laser head instead of a spindle.

Telrad wrote:You would probably be better off with a laser that runs Mach 3 as its control because it can be controlled with third party software for serializing. its a less costly setup as well but the "tinkering factor" is higher to get the laser to fire correctly with the PWM settings. You would be turning your laser into a CNC router with a laser head instead of a spindle.

Yeah, its tough.... We also laser mark (but don't serial number) some metal parts.. Our 120W does an OK job of this..
But this requirement has me looking at fibre laser systems at $15K.... An alternative is to keep doing the metal bots on the big laser and spend $800 on a tiny Chinese laser engraver then write some software to run it in raster or vector mode. I probably wouldn't bother with Mach3.
There'd be no need to PWM the laser, just use a potentiometer on the panel to set the power level and never change it.
The main drawback of doing it this way is, that you then have another project on your hands... But you save >$10K!


It's tough...

PK

Have a look at some of these YouTubes

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... .0.0...1ac.

I've been reading more and more about a mach3 laser solution and I think it would be very easy to do! I found a website with all of the Mach3 settings that you would have to change to make the laser work correctly.

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index. ... 372.0.html

all you would need is a breakout board and motor controllers, cheap cheap cheap!

I've been reading up on the Mach 3 option. And it just looks to be a clumsy way to go for serial numbering.. I'd have to:
Have our software generate an image
Rasterise it,
turn it into a GCode file.
Programatically invoke Mach3

What I've decided would be really nice would be to find an existing DSP controller with a documented interface, or better yet, a DLL we could use to talk to it...
Does anyone know of such a thing?

Failing that, then building some hardware that runs the whole show looks to be the best option..
PK

no no no... Mach3 handles raster engraving poorly. You should do vector engraving. Mach3 will do vectors nicely and easily. I think there might be a built in plugin to do exactly what you want right in mach.

Make a post in the mach support forum and somebody will know exactly what you need to do for your situation.

Telrad wrote:no no no... Mach3 handles raster engraving poorly. You should do vector engraving. Mach3 will do vectors nicely and easily. I think there might be a built in plugin to do exactly what you want right in mach.

Make a post in the mach support forum and somebody will know exactly what you need to do for your situation.

It has to be raster. We do things like put CE marks and C-Tick logos on...
PK

I used to use a software package called Galaad (www.galaad.net). You make designs, vector or raster and use the controller part to program to make serial #'s. I've used this on a cnc but you can make it work with a laser as well. The package cost me $400 and you will need an interface for the program. This solution costs slightly more than Mach3 but is still cheaper than the alternative of buying a new machine.

pk7639 wrote:

Telrad wrote:no no no... Mach3 handles raster engraving poorly. You should do vector engraving. Mach3 will do vectors nicely and easily. I think there might be a built in plugin to do exactly what you want right in mach.

Make a post in the mach support forum and somebody will know exactly what you need to do for your situation.

It has to be raster. We do things like put CE marks and C-Tick logos on...
PK

Corel draw imposition won't do what you want?

You already have it, why not try it?