Trotec Speedy 300-80 watt arrived

[Ronald Erickson]

My Speedy 300-80 watt arrived today!


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Unfortunately it wasn't without incident; FedEx Freight was a bit rough and crushed in the left side of the crate. This unfortunately resulted in a 2 inch shallow dent in the left door.

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I had the driver file a report with FedEx, made the notations on the bill of lading, then contacted Trotec. Trotec had me send some photos and they'll take it from here. It's not that big of a deal, but I wanted to make sure it was noted in case the shock caused damage to any of the electronics (though I won't be able to power it on for a few days because I need to run a 20 amp line for the laser).

I did find a little surprise on the back of the unit:

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When I called my sales rep about the delivery, I asked him about the label. He said it is an 80 watt tube even though the label may suggest otherwise. I'll just replace it with one that says 1.21 gigawatts before he arrives for training in a couple of weeks. :D

[Jiten Patel]

Congratulations on your new machine - look forward to seeing what you conjure up with it.

[Mike Null]

Do yourself a big favor and turn off auto focus until you are proficient with the machine.

You have just acquired the best equipment in the business. Congratulations.

[Ronald Erickson]

Mike,

What would be the reason for turning off the auto-focus?

[Mike Null]

Quick answer--short memory. More seriously, the sensor is on the sides of the machine toward the back. If you inadvertently put a tall item in the machine at some place other than in direct line with the auto focus the table will raise to the height determined by auto focus and can crash the lens into the item being engraved. This can be a scary event. I personally know of someone who has done this on more than one occasion. To save embarrassment I will not identify him.:o

[Jiten Patel]

Oh don't be a spoil sport Mike - Tell us! We promise we will be kind!

[Ronald Erickson]

Ahh, you make an excellent point with regards to the auto-focus Mike. I just took a look at my machine and I think I've identified the location of the auto-focus optics.


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If the auto-focus beam isn't interrupted by the highest material, the laser won't know it is there. When it auto-focuses, will the laser just keep raising the table (z-axis) until the beam is interrupted?

What is the purpose of the twist lock round port above the yellow label? Is that a lighting connector?

[Scott Shepherd]

Congratulations on your new machine. I hope it does great things for you.

The socket is a service socket.

I've never used the autofocus for a job either. I've played with a few times, but the fact it doesn't seem to know if the cutting grid is in or not causes me concern. I'd think it would stop, no matter what, but someone told me, and it could very well be wrong and I'm scared over nothing, is that if you leave the cutting grid in and don't tell it the grid is in in the settings (which compensate for the thickness of the grid), then it will drive the lens through the grid.

It's just so easy to focus, I don't use it. I think if you hold two buttons down, it'll autofocus outside of the automatic focus that's in the driver.

[Ronald Erickson]

Finally got the machine powered up. Yay! I pulled a pair of 30 amp wires (10-3) so I can upgrade the outlets/breakers in the future if I need to run something more powerful (like a 20 amp line conditioner / UPS for the laser).

The manual focus is easy to use; I'll just need to make a little box to stick to the side of the laser to hold the focus tool.

Only snafu was the air assist. While the manual says to make sure it is "on", it doesn't mention that you need to turn the air adjust screw on the compressor out to allow the air to flow. While I could feel a little air flowing with the setting from the factory, a higher air flow would probably have reduced the amount of flame I had while cutting plywood. :)

Time to start building the air scrubber. Acrylic stinks when engraving/cutting.

[Keith Outten]

Ronald,

There is a ledge on the inside of the cabinet in the front that is the perfect place to store your focus tool.
.

[Mike Null]

They should have sent a cdr file for focus tools that will let you make a couple extras out of acrylic.

There is also a worksheet on how to adjust the air assist properly. That's important because set too high it can dirty your lens quickly. Tech support will send both to you if you don't already have them.

Unless I am engraving wood I use air assist for cutting only.

[Scott Shepherd]

I was told that to set the air assist, you dial it all the way in then dial it out 3 complete turns. It appears it used to be properly adjusted from the factory, but something must have been changed because I haven't spoken to anyone with a new machine that hasn't had to adjust it. As soon as I get a moment, I'm going to mount and external air pressure gage and regulator,then reroute the air line through it, so I can have a little more control over it all without having to take the side panel off. Not like that's difficult, but it'd be nice to be able to fine tune the air for the job.

[Ronald Erickson]

They should have sent a cdr file for focus tools that will let you make a couple extras out of acrylic.

There is also a worksheet on how to adjust the air assist properly. That's important because set too high it can dirty your lens quickly. Tech support will send both to you if you don't already have them.

Unless I am engraving wood I use air assist for cutting only.

Thanks for that heads-up Mike. I explored the CD that came with the unit. I was able to find the .CDR file for the focus tools under the <cd>\_Corel\FocusTool\Focustools_SP2_300_Finemarker.cd r

I was thinking about making a spare focus tool and having the corel drawing already made helps tremendously. I would not have thought to explore the CD for the .cdr file.

I didn't see a worksheet about setting the air assist. I fired off an email to Trotec this morning letting them know the laser is working fine and made the recommendation they add something in the manual with regards to adjusting the air regulator.



I was told that to set the air assist, you dial it all the way in then dial it out 3 complete turns. It appears it used to be properly adjusted from the factory, but something must have been changed because I haven't spoken to anyone with a new machine that hasn't had to adjust it. As soon as I get a moment, I'm going to mount and external air pressure gage and regulator,then reroute the air line through it, so I can have a little more control over it all without having to take the side panel off. Not like that's difficult, but it'd be nice to be able to fine tune the air for the job.

The fact that they have a lock nut on the thumbscrew suggests it would be factory set, but the air assist was definitely set to low. There was virtually no air flow. I just set it up using your method (turn in all the way, turn out three full revolutions). Compared to how it was set at the factory, the air flow at three turns out is reasonable without being windy. I probably had it 5-6 turns out (just before the point it started "hissing"). I had the very same thought about mounting an external regulator so I didn't have to open up the cabinet to adjust the air flow.

I'd assume that cutting paper requires very little air flow and plywood & acrylic requires a much higher amount. I do know my test cut of acrylic turned out poor with the air flow set at the factory settings; it had a smokey haze on the finished product that didn't want to clean off easily. I haven't tried cutting acrylic with a higher air flow because I haven't finished my homer bucket air scrubber yet. In a day or two I'll give acrylic another go with the revised air flow setting.

[Scott Shepherd]

Just for a point of reference, if you run with the nose cone on and the air off, you can damage the lens. It's true on Universal's and Trotec's. I've had people tell me that's not true, but if I turn the air off and leave the nose cone on, and raster 1 item, it'll cover my lens with debris. To me, that's enough proof that it does that. Remember, Air On- Nose Cone On, Air Off- Nose Cone Off. If you leave it on and the air off, it creates a little vortex and sucks up debris into the lens.

Pay close attention to your lens until you get a good feel for what's acceptable and what's not.

[Mike Null]

Pay close attention to your lens until you get a good feel for what's acceptable and what's not.

Excellent advice. I check mine daily and more if I'm running dirty jobs. Never had to replace a lens in 15 years.