Problem with Epilog (Misaligned Text)

[Liesl Dexheimer]

I'm soooo frustrated, I've ruined a sheet & a half of plastic trying to get some signs made!

For some reason when it's engraving the text seems to get misaligned. I thought that the cord was getting stuck on the long bar that says epiloglaser.com on it so I took that off & I thought the problem was solved but after it did it again I tried slowing the speed and cutting down the power. Unfortunately that solution proved to be only a temporary because after I engraved one sign successfully the second sign I tried didn't engrave properly.

I did observe something unusual, I think the home position somehow changed while engraving?...When it parked itself, it didn't park where it should. Could this be the problem? How do I go about correcting this?

Any other ideas?

I've attached some photos below.

[Michael Hunter]

Check the belt tension.
Clean the encoder strip.
Lubricate the carriage rails.
Tape the plastic down so it has no chance at all of moving.

If the problem persists, it looks like it is time for a new X motor :(

[Frank Corker]

Everything that Mike has mentioned above is spot on. In particular the encoder strip, slightest dirt on there can cause issues. Read the manual for proper cleaning or go on the Epilog website for more details. You will need a couple of cotton wool swabs, cleaning alcohol (isoproponal, denatured or similar). Remove the gantry cover, then take a saturated swab and run it along the plastic encoder strip from one side to the other, gently twisting the swab as you go. Change swabs as you go, then do the other side coming back. Then wipe the small rail that the head travels on. Very tiny bit of white grease and run the head manually back and forward, emphasis on tiny. Blow in the area of the head where the carriage passes over, sometimes small bits of yuck get caught in there and go unmissed.
Put the cover back on (make sure you don't push it all the way home to the bottom, it needs to be up about an eigth of an inch to stop the head dragging on it, but no higher or the gantry cover will get trapped when it goes to park or tries to engrave the first half inch.

Then wipe the side rails on both sides (extreme left and extreme right of the inside), add a small amount of white grease and then slide the gantry back and forward.

[Frank Corker]

Regarding the park. It shouldn't make any difference the fact that it has changed location. Same thing happened to me, but I had no further issues, it just seemed weird to occur. Check your file when it goes to the printer driver to make sure that the bed size matches page size, that was when I first found the parking problem.

[Duncan Crawford]

[QUOTE=Liesl Dexheimer;1928637]I'm soooo frustrated, I've ruined a sheet & a half of plastic trying to get some signs made!

For some reason when it's engraving the text seems to get misaligned. I thought that the cord was getting stuck on the long bar that says epiloglaser.com on it so I took that off & I thought the problem was solved but after it did it again I tried slowing the speed and cutting down the power. Unfortunately that solution proved to be only a temporary because after I engraved one sign successfully the second sign I tried didn't engrave properly.

Liesl,

Indeed it sounds like a dirty encoder strip. Note, though, that you should NOT use alcohol on the strip, per the Epilog instructions. The instructions will also have you check to ensure that there is no debris trapped between the encoder reader assembly and the strip-- compressed air will clean that out. Also, I'd suggest being quite sure that the laser is OFF when you do the cleaning. If it turns out, for example, that the encoder reader assembly is loose, and if you happen to move it away from the encoder while the machine is powered, it's quite possible that you will damage/blow the motherboard.

Regarding the home/park position, if the Y axis position seems OK (and that is set by magnets installed at the factory and should not be an issue unless the Y motor/encoder is failing) then a dirty X axis encoder would seem to be a likely cause.

As always, though, the folks at Epilog have the best advice :-)

duncan

[Liesl Dexheimer]

Ok, now I'm a little confused...I'm NOT supposed to use alcohol?.. My manual says to use it...

[Dee Gallo]

Liesl,

I had this happen to me a while ago and the problem was the side mirror.. the one you can't see easily and forget about in routine cleaning. When I looked at it with a flashlight, it was covered with "dust" and when I cleaned it, everything went back to perfect. Now I clean that one as often as the main lens, mirror and encoder strip.

cheers, dee

edit: I use the same lens cleaning liquid from Epilog as for the main lens.

[Greg Bednar]

What everyone said, and I also remove the reader part of the encoder strip from the gantry and clean it with lens cleaning paper to make sure it is not fogged over with fumes from wood or other debris from anodizing or anything that has been ablated.

[Liesl Dexheimer]

Ahhhh!! I cleaned the side mirror, the optical encoder & strip & I still am getting misaligned text (this time I tested on a piece of cardboard). I have one sign left to finish on this order and I just want to FINISH IT! Grr!! I haven't greased the rails in about 2 months now so I will try that. I will also try cleaning everything a little more (the encoder was very dirty). The odd thing is this seems to happen on long runs. When I'm engraving something that covers over 14" of material it seems to be more of a problem. I just recently finished engraving glass awards & plaques with no problem (thank god).

Could it be my x motor? Any other suggestions?

EDIT:
I just tried everything previously stated and am still getting the same results of jagged, misaligned text (file covers an area about 15" in length). I then tried engraving in a small area about 4" in length & everything came out fine. Should I call Epilog? Any other ideas?

[Frank Corker]

Liesl, the encoder strip can be removed and turned around (it works both ways), this has been known to solve a problem. Regarding the alcohol, my laser installer told me to use in 2005 when I bought the machine and I still do. Not had any problems with the encoder strip.

[Michael Hunter]

When I'm engraving something that covers over 14" of material it seems to be more of a problem.
Could it be my x motor? Any other suggestions?


Similar story when my X motor went - narrow things still worked fine for the most part, but wide jobs quickly showed problems.

Turn the machine off and then move the head by hand - does it move smoothly and evenly (ignoring the cogging feeling from the belt etc.)?
If it feels as though it is binding, then that points more to the motor, though it could still be things like the guide pulleys or dirt trapped in the teeth of the belt.

The motors are expensive, so best to try everything else first!

[Steve Clarkson]

This happens to me ALL the time!!! Can't tell you how much Rowmark I've ruined.

The encoder strip tells the laser head where it's exact position is. So if it gets dirty, it doesn't know where it is, thus you will start getting funky looking text and it may not know where "home" is. If you clean it well (including the PCB that sits on top of it)......then it very likely is the X-Axis motor starting to fail.

But this could be a long process of trial and error to identify the exact problem and fix it......because if it's not the motor, then it could be almost anything on that iBeam. My suggestion is to call Tech Support and have them send you everything it could possibly be....an x-axis motor, an encoder strip, the PCB card........because you can return anything you don't open for a full refund. I can't tell you how many times I was sent a new part only to find out that it wasn't the problem, so they would send a different part, and then a different part and another and another until I got the right one. This resulted in extra freight charges and extensive delays.....so now, whenever something goes wrong, I pretty much order every part they sell.

[Martin Boekers]

It's ashame Epilog doenst has a "self test" for the encoder strip, were the head goes back and forth
to read for an error. It seems this should be easy to do for those engineeringly inclined. I have this happen
from time to time it always seems to be an encoder issue, the strip or the reader. I wonder if the led in
the reader fluctuates from time to time.

The one issue that occurs with the x-motor for me is that the gear gets junk clogged in it. I have to take a pin
and scrap that away from time to time. It shows up when the vector and raster are missaligned.

Awhile back (a year or so) Epilog changed their recomendation for cleaning encoder strips to just using distilled
water.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

All very good suggestions above. Another thing to try is to unplug the white "flex" cable attached to the head under the I-beam (the long bar that says epiloglaser.com on it) and flip it around so you swap the two plug positions and plug it in again and give it a try. I had similar warped text and it was my flex cable that was starting to fail. Flipping it allowed me to keep engraving until a new flex cable arrived.

[Liesl Dexheimer]

Well in order to finish my job I decided to "cheat the system" by isolating each word of text (luckily only had 3 words on my last sign) so that worked.

As for solving the problem....I will have to try the new solutions everyone has suggested and hopefully something will work. Thank you to everyone who has helped. I'll keep you posted....

[Dee Gallo]

Wow, Liesl, this must be so frustrating - I feel for ya! I don't now where you are located, but maybe you can find a technician close enough to make a house call. For my money, it would be SO worth it!

~ dee

[Roger Leiva]

I admire all the recommendations have been taken to address the problem of your machine. Are very technical and experienced. With my previous machine Mini 18, I had a similar problem and cleaned the encoder strip and sufficient. I think the problem is still something about the clean liness of the bar X /Y. The encoder strip the swabs moistened with clean purified water.
RogerLeiva(C.R.) Helix 24 60watt.

[Mark Ross]

If all those suggestions do not work, it points to the motor, or like what happened on our 36EXT, the small amplifier board that resides on the carriage head. Unfortunately, there is no way to test the amplifer, we ended up buying one and replacing it with the assurance from epilog that if it did not solve the problem we could return it and not be charged.

[Mike DeRegnaucourt]

Hi Liesl...I was thinking if it happens again and seems to be during long runs in the X-axis direction, you could try turning the material 90-degrees and then rotating the layout in your program (i.e. CorelDraw) 90-degrees accordingly. This would reduce the X-axis travel and increase the Y-axis travel. I know this is not a permanent solution but it might at least work in a pinch next time when you have to get a job out in a hurry. Just a thought.

[Rangarajan Saravana kumar]

Hi,

All the points are on the spot to clear, but

1. Sometimes the swaping of the cable running between x pcb and motor pcb can give a solution
2. See if the motor is pretty is tight , if you move it when machine is off, if so, change the motor to 180 degrees and fit so the shaft of the motor due to
consistent belt force, tend to bend causing the bearing tight at one end.....

See if it helps
Regards
Saravanakumar

[Liesl Dexheimer]

Would it be a good idea to try to clean the white strip (I can't remember if that's the optical strip) with a soft cloth and some water? I had been using a q-tip but that takes FOREVER since it doesn't cover much surface area.

[Liesl Dexheimer]

Ok, I carefully cleaned the optical strip (the clear strip) & also the white strip (not sure the name for that). I ran a test piece on some cardboard. Everything was engraving just fine until I heard a fairly loud clunk. The laser stopped and now I am getting a readout saying X/Y disabled: X. Looks like the belt is loose now & the white strip came out of the small board at the top. I just plugged the white strip back in. What do I do now?

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

Unplug the white "flex" cable attached to the head under the I-beam (the long bar that says epiloglaser.com on it) and flip it around so you swap the two plug positions and plug it in again and give it a try. This is the same white cable you just cleaned.

[Liesl Dexheimer]

Unplug the white "flex" cable attached to the head under the I-beam (the long bar that says epiloglaser.com on it) and flip it around so you swap the two plug positions and plug it in again and give it a try. This is the same white cable you just cleaned.

What do I do about the black belt? It seems very loose, no tension on it (gulp). It doesn't look like it's off the spindle part. I think I may have to call Epilog on this, I have a feeling it needs replacing. :(

[Bill Cunningham]

Had all this same stuff happen to me today...Started with a 1/32 shift to the left, then another 1/32 shift down the wood about 2" then another 1/32 shift. When it homed, it was 3/32 out on the next run.. Cleaned the encoder, and the problem went away for the next job. Then it started shifting again.. opened it up, cleaned the strip, pulled the reader and cleaned that, and swapped the cable end for end. Ran another test on some scrap, and all looked ok..I guess I will find out tomorrow when I load it back up again.. Hopefully those fixes did the trick. I have a new encoder, airlines and ribbon cables on order today.. This was my first experience with this problem in 8 years, I guess I've just been lucky up till now..

[Liesl Dexheimer]

What do I do about the black belt? It seems very loose, no tension on it (gulp). It doesn't look like it's off the spindle part. I think I may have to call Epilog on this, I have a feeling it needs replacing. :(

Contacted Epilog, turns out it was a problem with the spring not putting enough tension on the belt. Didn't have to replace anything. :)

[Mike Null]

Liesl

Thanks for reporting on the fix. That may help somebody else.

[John Noell]

Contacted Epilog, turns out it was a problem with the spring not putting enough tension on the belt. Didn't have to replace anything. :) Be sure the bracket with that spring does not hit the projection in the back of the cabinet when you adjust the tension, especially if changing the belt. If the bracket hits the projection the gantry cannot go back fully into the home position and you will get an error message (x-y disabled) each time you power up. (Drove me crazy until a 'creeker here solved it for me. )

[Bill Cunningham]

Well, something worked..(cleaned strip/reader/swapped cable end for end) My problem vanished, and everything worked fine today..I ordered replacement parts anyway.. Monday I will have a new encoder strip, ribbon cable(both), and replacement air lines for the air assist. All of these items are over 8 years old..I also ordered a spare lens (current lens is 8 years old), one mirror, and a x-motor(current one is almost 4 years old).. Hopefully I'm ready for anything that 'normally' happens.. The final test was engraving and cutting a full set of dash panels for a full sized BatMobile from 1/8" lasercore. The third set I've done this year..There seems to be a need for these..ha..

[Liesl Dexheimer]

Well, something worked..(cleaned strip/reader/swapped cable end for end) My problem vanished, and everything worked fine today..I ordered replacement parts anyway.. Monday I will have a new encoder strip, ribbon cable(both), and replacement air lines for the air assist. All of these items are over 8 years old..I also ordered a spare lens (current lens is 8 years old), one mirror, and a x-motor(current one is almost 4 years old).. Hopefully I'm ready for anything that 'normally' happens.. The final test was engraving and cutting a full set of dash panels for a full sized BatMobile from 1/8" lasercore. The third set I've done this year..There seems to be a need for these..ha..

Glad to hear your system is up & running. My laser is 7 yrs old now (knock on wood) haven't had too many problems other than a dead power supply.

[Bill Cunningham]

Glad to hear your system is up & running. My laser is 7 yrs old now (knock on wood) haven't had too many problems other than a dead power supply.

Shhhhhh!!.. not too loud... I still have a working power supply and motherboard..:rolleyes:

[Bill Cunningham]

As a note on this thread; I received all my parts from epilog, and I had a long non-critical job to run so I figured I would just let the laser run until something failed.. After a couple of hours, the head started moving 'spastically', and firing random dots, so I shut it down and pulled the cover off the gantry. the quickest and easiest part to replace first would be the ribbon cable. The instructions said to remove the old one, and because the ribbon is longer than needed, use the old one as a guide to how and where to make the folds in the new one..I'm glad I did not follow the directions..The new ribbon cable is shorter than the old one, and folding it the same as the old one would have caused problems after discovering it wasn't right. you would have a hard time getting all those folds out so the ribbon would run flat. the new cable only had to 'Z' fold about 1 inch compared to the old one which 'Z' folded about 3 inches.. After the ribbon was installed, I put the cover back on the gantry and fired it up.. Perfect... It ran for 6 hours today on several jobs, and not a hic-cup.. So, I will not replace the encoder strip unless I need to.. The problem was obviously the ribbon cable.. After almost 9 years years of use, it finally fatigued out in both directions. The airlines coils are also getting pretty rough, so they will be replaced this weekend.. So, if your encoder strip and reader is clean, and your still having problems then the x motion ribbon cable is the likely problem..