Rotary Question

[Thom Edley]

I tried searching for this, but came up naught:
I have a ULS laser & rotary attachment. We're getting a lot of orders for glasses with all-over prints & I've got the rotation adjustment pretty dialed in BUT!
If you're engraving a cylinder (doesn't matter what) & want a continuous line that spirals up the length, is there a way of making the engraver "see" a long graphic that it wraps up the length of the cylinder - rather than a rectangular file that it wraps around with the "spiral" hopefully matching up?

[Rodne Gold]

Cant you just bluff the machine by inputting the wrong diameter? IE it thinks its doing a full "wrap" of a diagonal line but its doing 2 or 3 actual rotations. If the rotary has some sort of a sensor/limit switch that wont allow it to do more than 360 degree rotation , this wont work tho.

[Mike Mackenzie]

Thom,

What system do you have I know in the older systems they have the rotary rotation in the advanced tab of the driver. This is the exact use for this.

[Joe Hillmann]

I have an x-660 (about 8 years old) and I have not found any way to trick the system into doing more than one full rotation well engraving. The rotary is an open loop stepper motor but it has a magnetic sensor that tells it where home is. I think the sensor along with the software in the laser won't allow it to do what you want it to do.

The best I have been able to do is to multiply whatever you put in for your diameter by 3.14159 (don't just use 3.14 it will leave a small gap) take the number you end up with and set that as the height of the page you are working on in corel and you can let your art work hang of the edge of the page and copy and paste it a and make it hang off the opposite edge but in line with the first one on the opposite side you can get it to wrap all the way around. There may be a simpler way to do it but this is the only way I have ever got it to work.

[Mike Mackenzie]

Joe,

You can do this using the rotary rotation on your system I have done it using the same system. If you are using Autocad to run the rotary then you will have some issues with overlapping the rotary. This is from the Manual


Rotary Rotation
If you have purchased the optional Rotary fixture, you may feel the need to calibrate your fixture if your application requires you to engrave or cut completely around the cylinder at least 360 degrees. Only use this option if you completely understand and have used the Rotary Fixture in the past. If you are familiar with the operation of the Rotary Fixture and as an application you create a vector line or raster graphic that extends from the top of the page (in your graphic software) all the way to the bottom of the page, you should expect that the Rotary Fixture would rotate a full 360 degrees. If the fixture comes up short or long by a few degrees, you can compensate for this in the driver. If your application comes up short,increase the number past 360 as much as you need to and run your sample again. If your applicationrotates past 360, then decrease the number of degrees below 360 to get the ends to line up.

Just to clarify the rotary rotation has a # 1.000 this is equal to 360 degrees so if you need to overlap the line then increase this number. you will have to test this until you come up with the correct number. You will not have to increase the number by that much so start out small (1.010) and then see where this goes and fine tune from there.

[Chuck Stone]

I have an x-660 (about 8 years old) and I have not found any way to trick the system into doing more than one full rotation well engraving. The rotary is an open loop stepper motor but it has a magnetic sensor that tells it where home is. I think the sensor along with the software in the laser won't allow it to do what you want it to do.

I had similar troubles getting set up, but fortunately the sensor on mine is optical. I decreased the
opening of the slit disc with electrical tape so now it is very narrow. But basically, what you posted
it what I do. Grid lines are your friend here.. it can be tedious to set up once, but I can engrave
360º with a 'continuous' image. That's good for when i need to run a line 3 times around the barrel
like a barber pole. You can get them to match up, but you need to play with those numbers a bit.
Also, if you use the file again and the object is of a similar size, just run the file with your old
numbers. It may compress or expand the image somewhat, but not to an observable degree.