raster/vector not lining up??

[Chad Fitzgerald]

Noticed this problem the other day, had already deleted the image so i couldnt check to see if I did it or the laser. Just did it again, it wasnt the image.
Dont have camera right now so cant show a picture but....

Black fill, red hairline outline. raster, then have it vector. The vector cut is shifted to the left and down of the raster.
the first on was letters with a contoured hairline(thats why i thought i shifted it while messing around) upper left of table
today, irregular rectangle, no contour. just black fill and red hairline outline. middle and right side of table. vector was again off to the left and down but not as much as the other day. In addition, there was five of the similar shape running diagonal from top left to bottom right, only the bottom right shape did it. the rest were perfect.
Also, i noticed that one edge of the rectangle did not raster straight. it was a smooth line, but crooked like if you tried drawing a straight line freehand, but the vector was perfect straight, just offset.

Any thoughts? I dont even know where to begin.
Thanks
Chad

[Lee DeRaud]

Are you rastering at high speed right at the left or right edge of the X-axis travel? I've had problems when there isn't enough room for the carriage to get accelerate/decelerate before it gets to the image...almost looks like the image gets reflected from the edge.

[Chad Fitzgerald]

im only at 10% speed, and 100 power, 380 dpi. Im making insets for inlays. i let it vector the outline thinking it would give a nicer crisper edge.
the other day i was running at 1.4 speed and 100 power with the vector

[Martin Boekers]

On my Epilog, it usually is some "grime" in the X-Axis motor gear. A pin works well to scrap it out.

[Shawn Handley]

I have had this problem. Try the opposite corner and see if and how it fails.

Next, try 2 x 1" squares, on in the back left and one in the back right corner, filled, and run a combo raster vector on it. DPI wont matter, neither will speed. Run it and see how they turn out.

Next, clean any encoder strips you have and run an alignment, if your machine lets you.


Mine turned out to be a bad Motherboard in the machine but I went through the steps over and over and over to get to that point. The problem that I had was the off-set like yours but the distance from the vector to the raster was different nearly every single time.

Let me know how your tests run and I will try to dig up the tests as sent to me.

[Chad Fitzgerald]

i will run the tests and let you know what happens. (gonna get batteries for my camera as well so i can post pics).

Encoder strip??? i have seen this mentioned here in the past. What is it, where is it, what do i clean it with. This was never mentioned by my rep. when he came and set up the machine and trained me on it. Any help on this would be great.
Thanks
Chad

[Shawn Handley]

Not to make any assumptions that all machines are the same (because they are not), but my epilog has an encoder strip which sits on the x-axis. When the head moves along the x-axis, there is a reader attached to the head and will sit over the encoder strip to report it's exact position back to the machine in order to keep it in line. When mine became very dirty, my raster was way off. Images would wave and wonder.

Check your manual and see about cleaning that part. If you do not have that part, I may suggest removing the x-axis motor, cleaning the gears and make sure your stepper encoder on the motor is clean (some disassembly required). Also, clean the belt teeth (easy enough if your motor is removed.

I'm sure your rep stressed the importance of keeping the laser clean and having very good ventilation. All lasers have a maintenance schedule and this should be in the manual.

Anyways, let's nail this out. Let us know how the tests go. Best of luck.

[Chad Fitzgerald]

finally got to run some tests.
circle with black fill and red hairline. rastered and vectored perfect. then raster only, then sent it again with vector only, perfect. then opposite, perfect.
different shapes, perfect.
letters, perfect.
OK, it wont do it now. I suppose it will wait til im running a job before it does it again.
I also ran the job it again that it started on and it did perfect.
I will(when i get time) check for the encoder strip and gears, clean them, and then wait to see if it happens again.
thanks for the help all.
chad