looking for dongle? Ray Fine 50w Fiber

[Scott Clearman]

Got the Ray Fine 50w fiber in, unboxed and 'set up'. Tried to open the software and no matter what i do it tells me it cant find the dongle and can only open in demo mode. I have a email in to Ray Fine but its only been today and so far no response. I've tried opening the software after turning on the machine with the USB plugged in and every configuration I can find. I'm sure it is operator error, but I cant figure out how to get it to work. What am I missing?

[Jeff Tice]

Did you install the driver that came on the usb thumb drive? I just got a Rayfine 30w today.

[Scott Clearman]

Im not sure how, It didn't say to.

[Scott Clearman]

Well went to you tube and saw 'how'. When i search for the driver in the file on the USB that came with the machine it cant find it.

[Scott Clearman]

I'm an idiot.

Long story short, the driver files on the USB they sent wouldnt work. On a whim I put the all Chinese DVD in the drive and let the machine search there. That worked. Now I just have to figure out how to adjust settings.

[Jeff Tice]

Yeah they were not clear at all as to installing drivers... On the thumb drive there should be a file ..driver\USBdriver\X64AMD_LmcV2u That file is for the 64bit drivers... There are also 2 other folders for 32bit drivers. I think....

Also on the thumb drive there should be a folder for whatever Lens you ordered. In that folder they will have Ezcad.exe all set up and ready for each of your lens.

Jeff

[Kev Williams]

My 2 ebay machines came with version 2.14.10, with everything on a thumb drive-- actually now that I think about it, the 2nd machine didn't come with anything!

But it didn't matter, same drive files worked on both machines. And I don't remember even loading a dongle driver--? And it was only about a month ago I put my turd HP win10 laptop into service, and all I did was copy the Ezcad folder from the XP running the other ebay machine thru my network. Fired it up and it worked... IF I remember correctly! -too many things to remember these days so I'm not absolutely certain.

The thumb drive is pretty cool because you can plug it into ANY computer and run the laser with it directly from the stick. (none of it goes into the Windows registry, simple plug n play)

My Triumph has a USB dongle, THAT needs the 'dog driver' loaded to work. But these days the dongle is onboard the machines control card, and just starting the machine then loading the program is all that's needed... I think ;)

>edit< -- just went thru every file on the thumbdrive, there is no dongle driver file anywhere. If there is one, it's likely embedded within on of the setup files and just runs every time the program is started... ?

[Scott Clearman]

My 2 ebay machines came with version 2.14.10, with everything on a thumb drive-- actually now that I think about it, the 2nd machine didn't come with anything!
.........


Mine came with 2.14.10 I did see that they have 2.14.11 on their website available for download. I have both on the computer and haven't seen a difference yet.

I am having trouble....I can either set the laser power and freq on the right side of the screen, but if I try to set up the hatch it opens another menu and they don't seem to overlap. From what I see it is either one or the other. Not sure how to make them both work.

[James Minick]

The controller in the laser is the dongle.
When not powered up it puts you in "demo" mode.

[Kev Williams]

Not sure what you mean by 'overlap'?

Power and freq settings are color specific, hatching is 'cutting method' specific; totally independent of each other in the setup...

for every color you're using in your cut routines, the machine will use the default settings of that color (which you can change) unless you manually change them. The hatch menu doesn't care what those settings are ;)

Example, for most black anodized I run a 45° BLACK cross-hatch @ .05mm spacing, using my default power settings, which are 1500 speed 100 power 35 freq, and my 2nd hatch I run a 90° BLUE single hatch @ .04 spacing, using my 'cleanup' setting, which is 2500 speed, 60 power, 60 freq, this usually makes the engraving whiter. Hatch 3 is disabled in this case...

[John Lifer]

Read the manual, and if you want better english, do a search on line for Tykma lasers. They have a manual that explains things a bit better and there may still be a group of youtube videos.
Their software is altered version of EzCad, so ignore some of the videos of using it to design stuff. Just the laser 'operation' and power/hatch use. (most complicated thing about understanding the software)

[Scott Clearman]

Not sure what you mean by 'overlap'?

Power and freq settings are color specific, hatching is 'cutting method' specific; totally independent of each other in the setup...

for every color you're using in your cut routines, the machine will use the default settings of that color (which you can change) unless you manually change them. The hatch menu doesn't care what those settings are ;)

Example, for most black anodized I run a 45° BLACK cross-hatch @ .05mm spacing, using my default power settings, which are 1500 speed 100 power 35 freq, and my 2nd hatch I run a 90° BLUE single hatch @ .04 spacing, using my 'cleanup' setting, which is 2500 speed, 60 power, 60 freq, this usually makes the engraving whiter. Hatch 3 is disabled in this case...


Read the manual, and if you want better english, do a search on line for Tykma lasers. They have a manual that explains things a bit better and there may still be a group of youtube videos.
Their software is altered version of EzCad, so ignore some of the videos of using it to design stuff. Just the laser 'operation' and power/hatch use. (most complicated thing about understanding the software)


I've learned an awful lot in the last couple days. Kev what I meant by 'overlap' was understanding how the hatch settings relate to the pen settings, specifically the loop numbers. John, the manual that came with the machine was maybe a 3 out of 10 for usefulness.

I was able to find a guy on You Tube that really helped. Not sure what the policy of linking videos here is so I wont unless someone says it's OK. Basically found a video explaining the hatch settings and using them. Now I get it. I did call Ray Fine and ask for some help with settings, and they sent me some paperwork that basically looks like the Tykma booklet.

Still learning

[John Lifer]

Yeah, but it is 10 times better than the RDworks manual :)
It helps when you have the laser, work through it to understand..... And as I've said 10 times before, get you some scrap material to work with and just spend hours working through changing things.

[Scott Clearman]

Yeah, but it is 10 times better than the RDworks manual :)
It helps when you have the laser, work through it to understand..... And as I've said 10 times before, get you some scrap material to work with and just spend hours working through changing things.

Yes sir, I have a whole pile of small pieces on the table with various marks so far.

[Scott Clearman]

Yeah, but it is 10 times better than the RDworks manual :)
It helps when you have the laser, work through it to understand..... And as I've said 10 times before, get you some scrap material to work with and just spend hours working through changing things.

Yes sir, I have a whole pile of small pieces on the table with various marks so far.

[Kev Williams]

EzCad's repeat functions, can be confusing...

to wit: In the older versions, each of the 3 hatch routines were only capable of ONE direction of hatch, which means for each entity you're hatching, you could make 3 single hatches at whatever angles, or 2 cross hatches and 1 single hatch- that was it.

In the newer versions, they added the 'cross hatch' option, so NOW you can make 3 full cross hatches, effectively doubling the hatch routines, ASSUMING you're cross hatching! And for the record, the cross-hatch option simply creates a second identical hatch at 90° opposite the original entry; if you enter a 45° hatch, a second -45° (or 135°) will be created automatically... AND, the newer version includes a 'count' option in the hatch menu, which wasn't in the older versions...

the multiple-run options: Count, Loop, and Total Number...
-the COUNT option in the hatch menu gives you the option of repeating any or all of the 3 hatch routines-
-the LOOP option in the power settings gives you the option of repeating any or all of a certain COLOR.
-the TOTAL NUMBER option (bottom of the screen) gives you the option of repeating an entire job, and the 'PART' box above the number box tells you how many runs have been completed...

so- with the COUNT option, you can now hatch different entities using the same color (same power settings) but gives you the choice of which entities to run more than once. With the loop option, you were forced to use a different color for entities that didn't need to engrave more than once.

The repeat upgrades have come in VERY handy for me. But there is ONE thing that bothers me: WHY have they limited the hatch routines to THREE? Has that been fixed in EzCad3? I have a cut routine for engraving rifle barrels that leaves the engraving virtually baby-butt smooth and with about 10° of draft angle, looks completely identical to tool engraving-- BUT, to accomplish this I have to run NINE hatch routines! Which means I have to stack THREE identical text/graphic entities with 3 different hatch routines each on top of each other on-screen. And whenever I change text (for example) I have to change all 3, etc... Why not 10 routines instead of only 3? Why not an unlimited number of hatch routines? Why don't people who write programs to run laser engravers actually consult with someone who laser engraves for a living? ;)

[Scott Clearman]

EzCad's repeat functions, can be confusing...

Speaking of confusing..... On some of the images I try to add a hatch to, the image disappears from the work screen, like it goes away or see through or something. I have no idea why.

[John Lifer]

I occasionally have this happen. Usually I don't have a hatch on the first (#1) hatch and have a hatch on the second or third. Adding a #1 hatch usually solves it.
(it did yesterday for one new dxf I imported) Yeah, strange defect in the program.

Oh, one thing I've found if you are using Corel to export dxf's to EzCad, use early version Autocad (I use 2002 version) which works for me.
(others do other exports)