Ezcad question

[Glenn Kriegh]

Hello, Can someone explain what happens when you change these.
Its in the red box
Thanks in advance
EZCAD ver 2.14.9

Regards Glenn Kriegh Sweden391703

[John Lifer]

Frequency is all my laser has of those. Just depends on the setup. You vary it along with power and speed depending on the substrate you are engraving.

[Bill George]

Glenn you will find the learning curve for Ezcad very tough, or perhaps not your results may vary. Before I even considered ordering mine and even afterward I searched this forum and when I found something useful I copy and pasted into a Word doc file so I could refer back when needed. Those of us with fiber lasers are learning something new every day. Welcome to the group.

[Kev Williams]

Best way to explain, the the manual do it-- ;)

This is from the 2.7.6 manual, a bit dated but does explain okay, just use your best Chinglish Translation skills ;)

--note on the Q-switch definition, they mention YAG laser, I believe it also applies to MOPA's--


Frequency: the laser machine’s frequency in the marking parameter

Q pulse Width: the high-level’s time of the Q pulse if the laser equipment is Q-switch YAG
laser machine

Start TC:When the scanhead has to execute a mark command, the scanner mirrors first have
to be accelerated up to the defined marking speed. In the beginning of the movement, the laser
focus moves very slowly which may result to burn-in effect at the start point. To avoid this, We
insert a delay (Start TC) at the beginning of each mark command. When the laser eventually turns
on, the mirrors have already reached a certain velocity. However, if this value is too large, the first
part of the vector will be cut off. Also negative value is supported.

Laser Off TC: The delay time of the laser shutting down after marking finished. Proper time
can wipe off the burn-in effect at the end. This value cannot be negative.

End TC: The End TC parameter is used to control how long the software will wait at the
end of a series of vectors. The wait is required because the software is always "ahead" of the
hardware and must wait for the hardware to catch up. This delay applies to the end of all vectors
in which the laser is to be turned off after execution.

Polygon TC: the Polygon TC parameter is used to control how long the software will wait
at vector connection points. The wait is required due to the lag time between the software/DAC
position and the actual hardware/mirror position. This timer applies to all vectors whose endpoint
is also the start point of the next vector (polygon connection points). In other words, this timer
applies to end of all vectors in a series of connected vectors, except for the last one (the end of last
one is controlled by the End TC parameter). The three connected points in a square or the
intermediate connection points in a polyline circle are examples of points the Polygon TC
parameter can effect. The starting point of the square is controlled by Start TC parameter. The
last corner of the square is controlled with the End TC timer.

[Glenn Kriegh]

Thx for answering my question.
It seems that I shouldn't change anything. Ok I change the frequency.
And smart tip about make a document.

[Bill George]

Thx for answering my question.
It seems that I shouldn't change anything. Ok I change the frequency.
And smart tip about make a document.

Speed, power, frequency, number of loops all need to be changed for each job type. No one can give you all the information, you need to Search and do some trial and error with Your Machine. Keep a log book and the settings for each material you experiment with.

[Sandra Collins]

Hello, Can someone explain what happens when you change these.

Unfortunately, the EZCAD manual is not very helpful about explaining these settings. I've never had to change EndTS and PolygonTS but I had to tweak the Laser ON/OFF settings on my machine.

To do that you'll need a microscope. Mark a small circle and check the beginning and the end of the curve:

- LaserON too low - if the value is too low you'll see several dots in a line leading towards the start of the curve. The beginning of the curve may also look distorted.
- LaserON too high - you'll see that a portion of the curve (at the beginning) would be missing and the circle would be incomplete.
- LaserOFF too low - the effect would be similar to "LaserON too high" except it would affect the end of the curve and it would also introduce a gap.
- LaserOFF too high - higher values would result in a deeply engraved spot at the end of the curve.

If properly set the circle would be complete and widout darker (deeper) spot at the joint.

Hope this helps.

[Kev Williams]

To expound, same thing applies to the Polygon setting, only instead of a circle, you draw multi-sided shapes connected by straight lines- triangle, square, pentagon, octagon, etc- the settings adjust the start-stop firing points at each change of direction-

[Trey Tull]

I am just starting my fiber journey. Good info.

[John Lifer]

Wanted to relay some of my 'experience' on changing these settings. I altered a bit using the instructions in the manual and here, working towards filling a box correctly with hatching.
Worked fine so I thought. Images well. Several DXF files imported over the past week or so are perfect. Ran some previous jobs, not paying attention that the 'old' settings were there and they all worked fine.
Ran some anodized plates the other day. Text. Direct from EzCad, not imported. Most letters came out great as normal, but things like an E would be ghosting in the middle, WTH?
Worked with things and I'd import an old file and it would work perfect, even down to .01mm hatching and .5mm text size. Again, WTH?
Started simple tag this morning, same thing. ARGHHH. Old file perfect. DUHHHHH. My new settings on the TC commands are different from the new!

Well, I went back and changed everything to my old Default and things are fine.
Moral of my post is to leave S**T alone unless you KNOW you have bad settings and are getting poor results. Trying to tweek in is not always the best thing to spend your time on.
And I guess also, Ray Fine set mine up pretty well.
Yes, I can be REAL stupid

[Kev Williams]

it's not stupid to attempt to tweak your settings. And remember those settings are speed sensitive, what works great at 2000mm/s might not work so well at 200mm/s. In general finding the balance that works at any speed works for most of us. Like the default settings ;)

Myself, I do a substantial amount of machining in the 100mm/s range, and adjusting the laser on/off times to account for the slower speed gives me cleaner engraving. I like the 'fast hatch' for machining because it's usually about 4x faster than any of the other hatches, but because the laser never turns off as it changes direction, the corners of the hatch run hotter than the straight-line cuts, and since the corners are always at the far edges, the edges suffer with slag...adjusting the numbers so the corners aren't so hot helps, but can affect other types of engraving, such as creating the shadows you got... When I find settings that work for a general purpose, I just take a screenshot and add it to my 'machine settings' folder. Most times I job save EVERYTHING, which will save all the settings used, AND I'll type notes to myself right in the job I'm working on... :)

[John Lifer]

I'm doing more of that Kev. notes and more notes if I think I'll repeat. I 'thought' I had pretty much figured this thing out, but it sends me a curve every now and then.