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Chris Bratton
08-17-2016, 9:57 AM
Gary or others. I have a quick question. Is there a repository of Speed, Freq and Hatch settings available or are you guys doing trial and error to determine settings? My MOPA laser is really not giving the color results. Black is really good on stainless but thats it. Also how are you guys importing BMP files. Since you can't set the hatch it never marks black. Looks like EZCAD 2 is trying to shade the file.

Gary Hair
08-17-2016, 11:02 AM
I searched, and searched, and searched some more, to find settings. Most of what I found didn't really work but they gave me a direction to go in at least. Since you have a MOPA your settings are going to be very different than mine, at least that's what I've been told anyway. I did a power/speed/freq grid to test colors and had some good results. Start with a search for "fiber laser settings" and you'll find a few good nuggets of info, along with some useless info.
I don't use bmp files, I always us vector files. Even if a customer supplied me with a bmp I would convert it to vectors in Corel and then bring it into ezcad.
For your test grid try this:
.01 hatch @ 45 and 135 degrees
80 frequency
use power from 10 to 31 in increments of 3 and speed from 50 to 225 in increments of 25
laser about 3mm out of focus
center the grid directly below the lens so you have the most consistent power density.

This fave me shades from greenish-blue to yellow to red to black and even a gold and silver shade. 90% of those possible settings ended up with a shade of black, but the other 10% had some nice color.
Keep in mind a few things - 1 - this worked on my laser and may not work on yours, 2 - this is just one frequency and hatch, variations of both will likely give you different results, 3 - I lasered approximately 3/16" squares and anything smaller or larger will give different results., 4 - this was on stainless and anything else will also give different results.

Test until your eyes start to cross then have a beer or 7 and try again.

Kev Williams
08-17-2016, 11:47 AM
Also how are you guys importing BMP files. Since you can't set the hatch it never marks black. Looks like EZCAD 2 is trying to shade the file.
A bitmap file to EZcad is a photo, and the laser will 'raster' engrave them as such. So any grayscale or dithering must be done beforehand. I've only done this once or twice right after I got the thing, using sample settings supplied by Triumph.

For graphics you want to hatch fill, they must be either DXF or PLT files. I don't know about other programs but even my ancient Casmate will export to DXF. However, depending on the program doing the exporting, sometimes things get a bit skewed. For example, there's a logo I engrave on ID plates for a customer, part of the logo looks like support columns. When Gravostyle exports these columns as a DXF, certain straight lines become bowed arcs. Corel DXF's will do that every so often too. PLT's are the safest bet. BUT, since HPGL conversion is always 1016 dpi (far as I can tell), regardless of the size of the graphic, detail on small graphics sometimes end up rather 'bumpy'. So before I export any graphic as a PLT, I enlarge it by at least 400% to get better resolution, and the better detail remains when resizing 25% to get the original size.

Gary Hair
08-17-2016, 11:59 AM
Try exporting to an AI file instead Kev, I have ZERO problems with them.

Chris Bratton
08-17-2016, 1:33 PM
How are you guys getting focus. The focus length on the lens is a joke. The diode laser never stays in one spot. I was trying to determine the exact length but it is way different than a CO2.

Kev Williams
08-17-2016, 1:59 PM
I don't have AI, and the only way I can export to AI is with Corel- I just exported some text as a test, but EZcad says it can't open it... ?

Gary Hair
08-17-2016, 2:28 PM
using a thick piece of steel you should mark a rectangle using "continuous" then raise and lower the laser until you get the brightest flash - that's focused. The numbers on the lens mean nothing as far as distance for focus.

Gary Hair
08-17-2016, 2:51 PM
Export from Corel to an AI file - use 8.0 for the AI version. Text must be exported as curves, for some reason ezcad won't use text exported as text. If you need editable text then use the ezcad text tool instead.