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View Full Version : Software or Driver to run "random" laser?



Harry Maureen
08-01-2012, 11:10 AM
I just bought a CamFive 100w 35" x 47" laser (chinese), and HATE the SmartCarve software (chinese) that came with it. I also have a (SignWarehouse private labeled) GCC 50w from 2004 which used to be driven by a print driver which worked inside of CorelDraw. But the laser suffered a long slow death, and the computer that was running it no longer starts, so I don't have a real record of what it was. I wasn't crazy about the CDR driver that ran the GCC, but now that I've tried to use SmartCarve, I'm retroactively in love with whatever it was. The SmartCarve is so badly thought out and translated, that I can't even tell what the messages or manuals are aluding to when an error/issue crops up.
I blame myself for thinking I could get by on my 8 years (laser, and 26 years design/computer) experience, but it's beyond me how anyone could be productive with this software/hardware combination.
Sorry for rambling. I guess my point is...
Is there a 3rd party software (or driver) that will run my laser? Really prefer something Illustrator friendly, but can live with CDR.
Thanks for your assistance.

Rodne Gold
08-01-2012, 12:46 PM
None of the Chinese lasers have near as nice a driver as the GCc , it's a VERY good driver .. you can come closer than what you are now tho..
You can buy another control board (Such as a RDLC320)and a lcd panel to match and run something like laserworks V6 which is not too shabby.. the control card is so configureable that you can run just about anything off it .
However , setting/wiring it up is not for the faint hearted - should cost around $800 , one nice thing is that you can run your GCC 50 w RF tube from it , assuming its still good.

Greg Facer
08-01-2012, 4:58 PM
Rodne,

Is there a V6 of the laserworks out? Is it worth looking at?

Rodne Gold
08-01-2012, 7:28 PM
Ver 6 is out , I loaded it up in Demo mode so havent attached it to the laser yet. Played with it all of 5 minutes... There some new features I cant figure quite out , looks more or less the same seems a bit slicker , its got a GREAT serialization routine , that seems to be the biggie..I havent see how it interacts with Corel or IA..
Get a version and try it ,skype Blanca610616 or skype me rodney_gold and I'll skype send the file.
Edit: Another feature is a window that checks for overlaps , un closed polygons, lines of a single entity that cross each other and lines in other entities that cross each other
Serialization routine is seriously helpful if you do stuff like that..

Richard Rumancik
08-01-2012, 8:27 PM
Harry, from what I gather, the CamFive series is an "Americanized" version of the Han's YueMing Laser products. Has the American distributor/rep given you much advice or support for your machine? If not perhaps you should go direct to the manufacturer and see if there is an alternative software products. They do have some Corel-compatible software but I don't know if it is compatible with your laser machine. If you ask them maybe there is an alternative software that would work better for you. I'd be surprised if there is a third-party product however.

http://www.yueminglaser.com/software/index.html

Harry Maureen
08-02-2012, 7:08 PM
Richard and Rodney,
Thank you both for your input. I have been trying to get support from CamFive, but while they still return phone calls, they haven't yet been able to "help". The problem is the difference b/t a salesman at a trade show, and the guy who has to use the machine daily in order to turn a profit, is that they get to stumble through their demos, throwing a random piece of plexi into the middle of the bed, and placing a photo somewhere on it. There is no pressure for "reproduceability" If I have to make 50 name tags, and try to conserve material, or better yet, make 50 more later on that look and act the same, that's a completely different job than running a single copy of a random image they've previously spent an hour fine tuning. Their solution so far has been to treat the lack of usability as if I'm a novice, completely ignoring my 1000's of hours on laser, and 10's of 1000's of hours on the computer; essentially employing the "did you check the 'power' button" strategy.
Thanks for the referral to YueMing. I tried to chat on their site, but it looks like their North and South America tech is on China time, because they're not "available" at 4:00 pm. I'll try back later.
Unfortunately, I can't put another $800 into a fix which also involves me working with the electronic guts. For better or worse, I'm a designer, not an EE. I'm really so sick over this. I, of course had the option to spend more for about the same hardware, or spend the same for smaller, less powerful hardware by buying a truly American product with native speaking English software, but I did as I usually advise people against and figured I'd be able to get away with my experience, but was proven both right and wrong at the same time. I appreciate the help so far, and look forward to seeing if anyone else has other ideas or info on software/driver alternatives. I guess I'm still left wondering if there's any chance at all of my old driver working with this completely different machine. If the chances were good, I could invest 10 hours in going through 25 years of software boxes, CDs, and floppies. Thanks again.

Greg Facer
08-02-2012, 8:29 PM
Harry,

Sorry to say, the chances of your old driver working are zero. Not sure about your particular set up.....but I read elsewhere that some of these Chinese systems actually send the data to the laser encrypted (this conversation ended with a comment on how they should improve the software rather than be that paranoid).

Google of smartcarver turned up jamiesonlaser dot com (listing a older version I think). They might be of some use to call. They specialize in lasers....unlike camfive it would seem.

Harry Maureen
08-02-2012, 8:29 PM
Just chatted with YueMing. Wow. the least helpful chat ever, and that's saying something. Oh well. Live and (hopefully) learn. Maybe next time I'll heed my own advise. If anyone out there has another solution, I'd be so grateful to hear it. Thanks.

Rodne Gold
08-03-2012, 2:00 AM
The software and the motherboard are "linked" in both cases , the GCC wont run what you now got and vice versa , the ONLY way is to change the motherboard (control card) so you can run different software. I'm pretty sure that smartcarve has to allow repeatability in terms of positioning , it must be a machine setting or setting in software that will allow you to set origins..

Rodne Gold
08-03-2012, 6:15 AM
I have DL'ed smartcarve 4.2 , you can set an origin of your choice for repeatability , if you go to "tools" , "user setting" , there is an option for "return point" , if you click machine origin , the machine will always return to its physical home after a job and presumably start from there. If you use the "simulation toolpath" button (the icon next to the hand one at the top) , it will actually show you the toolpath and where the laser starts from , where it fires and where it ends up. You can also move any entity in the drawing to any position you like by typing in coordinates in the boxes under the "object list" window , you should be able to get very good positional accuracy .... The smartcarve package doesn't look too bad either....

Harry Maureen
08-03-2012, 4:26 PM
I don't know how you have time to do all this research. What I meant by "repeatability" and should have been more clear, was... The GCC has a way to save setting, like in a preference file, as most all print drivers do. The SmartCarve does not, or at least I haven't found it, and CamFive is not aware of it. I know, I know I can record every setting for every material in a log book, but I guess I didn't realize how well I had it with the GCC driver which allowed you to save/name setting with every setting for each material. But I am aware of the cloning feature in the SmartCarve. The only thing about that is that when you clone an item to be engraved, rather than making a long run across the breadth of the bed to conserve time by reducing "turns" it engraves each one individually, and so doing 10 takes 10 times as long as 1, rather than about 6 times, as with the GCC. Like I said, I was never in love with the GCC while I had it, but now I feel like I'm doing a running commercial for it. Thanks for your time(s) and effort(s). I guess I just figured with 8 years for everyone to see what everyone else was doing software interface-wise, that all software would be at least as good as the version from 8 years ago. Thanks again.

Ross Moshinsky
08-03-2012, 11:35 PM
The Chinese don't get it and they don't seem to want to get it.

You're going to have to forget how the GCC works and start thinking about how SmartCarve works. I'm sure you can do most of what you want to do, it's probably just different.

matthew knott
08-04-2012, 7:35 AM
You might find yours years of experience are counting against you, it might have been easier starting with as novice as youd have no pre-conceived ideas, i personally dont like the print drive/library of material approach, but thats just me. I had a look at the smartcarve and i think it looks ok, but i dont have a laser to us try it on. Its a shame the US rep cant be of more help so i guess unless you can find someone thats using smartcarve that can help you it will have to be experimentation. You might find in the end its a better package, dont give up !