PDA

View Full Version : Anyone having issues with a mysterious line in your rotary engraving ? Epilog 40w



chris szlachetka
08-11-2016, 4:13 AM
It's happened twice to us, but very random. I'm lost how this keeps happening... I'm running a 2015 40w Mini & a rotary epilog attachment. My artwork has no lines in it or even near it, but somehow a single line shows up in my cup from time to time... Anyone ?



342193

Kev Williams
08-11-2016, 11:03 AM
Are you using Corel?

I recently downloaded a new software release of LaserSoft, the program that runs my Triumph. Much to my dismay, it has many new features I like, but for now I can't use it-- The reason, is because it has the ability to find anomalies in my drawings that I never knew existed. One in particular is a highly detailed ace of spades (just the spade) that I engrave on leather. While this spade works great in Corel, Gravostyle, and works fine in my current version of LaserSoft, the new version finds over 80 disconnects and intersections otherwise ignored by all other software. The downside is the spade won't paint correctly, it will only paint fill within sections the program DOESN'T find 'holes' in. The new software has a 'find and fix' function, but alas, it kinda works, but kinda doesn't. It will fix many problems, but not all.

But the funny thing I found out is, the problems it finds actually do exist! Below are screenshots of a one area of the of the spade, Corel x4. What I'm focusing on is the very center of the red oval, the topside of the "v"...

This shows it painted--

http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/linehole1.jpg


This shows it in outline form--

http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/linehole.jpg


This is now highly zoomed in on the crotch of the 'v' in outline form, nothing looks amiss...

http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/linehole3.jpg


--but turn on the shape tool, and this is what you get-- you can clearly see the darker section that almost looks like a second line overlapping....

http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/linehole2.jpg
-- Trying to do something with this "line" in Corel is fruitless, and zooming to different zoom levels changes it slightly. But this is one of the holes or overlaps the new software finds!

So I've said all this because it's apparent these anomolies DO exist, and without any other explanation, they may be the source of our machines occasional brain farts!

So the problem is, if it can't be edited out, what to do about it? My best answer is to re-export it in a different format, such as a simple HPGL .plt file. As of yet I haven't tried that with this spade, I haven't had the time to experiment, but I HAVE had good luck with exporting and re-importing graphics as plt files when I have goofy issues with dxf files...

chris szlachetka
08-11-2016, 12:58 PM
Hi Kev,
Thanks for the reply ! Man I feel your pain. I've had this issue with a few designs but the laser head never left the tool path like my current issue. I normally go in a wipe all of those little extra lines out. This issue I'm having is crazy because I don't have any vertices stretched that far in my main work window, it's some sort of glitch. I've spoke with Epilog and he's thinking the laser assembly might be the issue. Well, that's the 2nd one I've replaced and not looking forward to replacing that damn thing again. The company techs are awesome and for most part the machines too, I'm just the guy that always gets the blacksheep. lol Thank you for the suggestions, very much appreciated !

Kev Williams
08-11-2016, 1:59 PM
"Laser assembly", as in 'mechanical issue'? If the engraving moved due to a mechanical issue, it's logical that the outcome would look more like this (forgive the bad photochop!)

342194

-- which is to say, once it moved because of a mechanical problem it would finish engraving in the wrong place- it would have no reason to move back, especially to the exact correct coordinates and finsh the job as if nothing happened.

I'm pretty sure this is a 'data' issue. Whether caused by goofy drawing anomolies, a power spike or drop (a home AC unit kicking on draws over 80 amps of power for a split second), a power supply or controller problem... to be honest, I'm amazed that all the one's and zero's in all the binary code that moves at light speed is as reliable as it is...

My old ULS would occasionally do things like this, only it would stop engraving. The fix was always the same, pull the parallel cable and clean it, problem gone for another year. What I always found funny was it would do this on repeat jobs that were already in the machine's memory... ?

chris szlachetka
08-12-2016, 12:35 AM
Yes, you're correct. I've looked and redrew the design just to make sure, no problems now. This problem only happens sometimes and not sure what it could be at this point. The machine is at a commercial location and setup with a dedicated line to prevent this. I ran one cup no issues, the second cup boom the line was there. So I guess that could be due to memory ? IDK The part that sucks is now I've gotta strip this cup on a lathe and boy does it take some time to get thru the Cermark. Well, next up 30 oz set and onto the bottle. :)

Dave Gates
08-12-2016, 10:23 AM
We had a similar issue in December. For us, it was a driver issue. Our laser would randomly slice/offset whatever I was engraving.

After talking with ULS, I installed an older driver(like 3 or 4 versions back) and used that until the latest driver came out recently. So far it's worked great, recently did a few hundred Yeti mugs without any issues.

342219342220