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Jacob Hebert
04-08-2009, 11:11 AM
Recently, we installed a new laser tube in our ULS M-300 40-Watt laser machine. Unfortunately, due to the upgrade of our print driver since we got the machine, the tuning in our manual is completely different than the tuning that we now have.

In the book, it seems to be an auto-tuning program that uses a pair of overlapping lines to see which ones line up with each other the best, not much different than a normal printer's lineup. In the newer driver, it has no automatic "Tune" button, and uses instead a -15 to +15 scale.

Is there a way that I can see exactly how much I need to adjust my tuning without printing lines 31 times, once for each setting? Or am I just missing something on this driver? :confused: Tuning is very important for this job, since it's gold Alumamark, and it seems to be VERY finicky with the tuning... my letters are ending up a little wavy-looking on my test scrap...

Thanks for any help!

Dan Hintz
04-08-2009, 11:22 AM
That tuning should not need to be done for each material, just once for the machine as a whole as it ages (run it once a year, or even every 6 months if it gets a lot of use). It is, for all intents and purposes, a tweaked tickle charge adjustment. Select a nice piece of black anodized aluminum and run it on that as the aluminum is a fairly high resolution substrate.

Jacob Hebert
04-08-2009, 11:25 AM
Well, I thought since I changed the tube and the lettering was a little wavy, now might be the best time to re-tune it. I don't know if there is an "easy" way to know exactly what number to tune it to with the new driver. Also, the driver I have for the M-300 is version 1.07M ... is this the newest driver out for this model?

UPDATE: After another test, +5 seems like the clear choice. Thanks for the help, I think it'll work well now. :)

Dan Hintz
04-08-2009, 1:47 PM
I think the default setting is +4. No idea why they don't just change the software to make the default 0 and modify the output accordingly...

Jacob Hebert
04-08-2009, 2:18 PM
Yeah, you'd think the normal setting would be the "0"... :rolleyes:

Rob Bosworth
04-09-2009, 10:27 AM
Jacob, you can probably get by with nine different files. Layout a vertical line in your graphics program. Set the line thickness to .010" thk or larger. Pull down the file menu and go to your print driver. Turn your image density to 1. Set your power and speed for a hard surface material. Go to the Advanced tab, and turn image enhancement to off. Then set your tuning slider to +4. And send it over to your laser system. Move the line over a "bit" and go back to your print driver and set the tuning slider to +3. Send it over to the ULS system. Repeat this procedure from +4 to -4.

Now, with 9 files over at the machine, use a piece of hard surface material, I use black anodized aluminum, run each file. After running all nine files, look at the dots left on the material. If you look at each "line", figure out which one looks the best, with the dots directly over the other. Then set your tuning to the corresponding number. I have not ever had a tuning setting that was more or less than the +4, -4. IF you do not see any difference between any of the "tuning" lines, something else is wrong.