Speedy 300 Help!

I am brand new to using a Speedy 300 which we recently purchased to upgrade from our Glowforge. I am running into some issues with the Speedy and I thought maybe somebody on here would know what to do. I was on the phone with Trotec support yesterday for 1.5hrs and they had me adjust some screws on a belt to try to prevent the Speedy from jumping lines. That's one of the problems I am facing. The second is smooth engraving. I have attached some images of test engravings I have done on leatherette which comes out typically full of "lines". However during one test half of the engraving came out very smooth. Does anybody have any suggestions as to how I can replicate the smooth engraving? I have spent two weekends testing different speeds, power and velocities. I also tried some different z offsets and i cannot figure out why these engravings are full of lines, and then sometimes half full of lines and half smooth. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

Thank you.
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Nicholas
Welcome to SMC. Where are you located?

Are you using the leather settings that came loaded in Job Control? What dpi are you using? What is the wattage of your machine?

Hello! Thanks for the reply.

I am using JobControl 9.4.4, this is an older machine. And there is no setting for leather in the material setting database. I have used DPI of 500 and 1000 and each setting results in lines like this. I also live in Boise,

I'm thinking this is a form of 'banding' that nearly all lasers suffer from...

Ray Scott posted up awhile back about mis-matching resolution settings, such as, if you're engraving a 300dpi bitmap, you should set the machine's resolution settings, particularly the Y axis, to match the bitmap. I'm assuming multiples work, such as 400dpi Y is ok with a 200dpi bitmap... Every C02 laser I've owned has done the half-good then half-crappy engraving. Since I read Ray's post and kept that in mind, I've haven't seen the problem.

The problem with this advice as applied to RF/metal/ceramic lasers, is that many of these, like Trotec, have fully automatic settings for creating halftone engraving, and who knows what settings are used? They should match the user's output settings.

I don't know what settings you're using, but try this: paint that skull graphic GREEN. Doesn't matter if RGB or CYMK. Just paint it green. Then, not using any special settings, engrave it in 'photo mode' as if it was a photo- this means your engraving settings must be done with the BLACK color. Use whatever power and speed you were using, set the resolutions to 300 dpi both directions. Or 400, shouldn't really matter... leather is forgiving and doesn't usually need higher res unless doing tiny work...

What should happen is the program will create a dithered halftone output that will 'bust up' the laser beam's output continuously, and with luck, will prevent those lines--

It looks to me like you have mechanical issues and that's why they had you adjust the belt. Check the X axis bearings, they could be worn and wobbling a bit. An easy way to tell would be to slow it way down, maybe 10% of whatever you were using, and see if it still happens or if it gets better.

One thing to take note of - leatherette is a nice way of saying "vinyl imitation leather" - you absolutely do not want to laser vinyl, it will destroy your laser and could also cause major health issues for you and anyone proximate to the exhaust fumes.

I was cutting a lot of 1/8" 4" x 4" Leatherette Coasters from JDS Industries this week. The settings below were what I found on their site:

Laser Raster settings:
- 35 watt DPI 600, Speed 90%, Power 35%
- 60 watt DPI 600, Speed 100%, Power 30%

I was using a ULS VLS3.5 50 watt, and I was running DPI 600, Speed 97%, and power 32%. They came out pretty decent. Did you have the same problems with all of the files you were running? I was running strictly vector files that I created in CAD, then filled them with black in Adobe Illustrator.

Thank you for the advice, I sat down today to try to follow this and my JobControl 9.4.4 does not have Photo Mode. All I have are Standard, relief, Stamp and Layer. Also when I paint it green and print it to JC using Standard via Illustrator, when I turn on WYSIWYG, there is no graphic, its blank.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kev Williams

I'm thinking this is a form of 'banding' that nearly all lasers suffer from...

Ray Scott posted up awhile back about mis-matching resolution settings, such as, if you're engraving a 300dpi bitmap, you should set the machine's resolution settings, particularly the Y axis, to match the bitmap. I'm assuming multiples work, such as 400dpi Y is ok with a 200dpi bitmap... Every C02 laser I've owned has done the half-good then half-crappy engraving. Since I read Ray's post and kept that in mind, I've haven't seen the problem.

The problem with this advice as applied to RF/metal/ceramic lasers, is that many of these, like Trotec, have fully automatic settings for creating halftone engraving, and who knows what settings are used? They should match the user's output settings.

I don't know what settings you're using, but try this: paint that skull graphic GREEN. Doesn't matter if RGB or CYMK. Just paint it green. Then, not using any special settings, engrave it in 'photo mode' as if it was a photo- this means your engraving settings must be done with the BLACK color. Use whatever power and speed you were using, set the resolutions to 300 dpi both directions. Or 400, shouldn't really matter... leather is forgiving and doesn't usually need higher res unless doing tiny work...

What should happen is the program will create a dithered halftone output that will 'bust up' the laser beam's output continuously, and with luck, will prevent those lines--

---

This is an example of why I'm suggesting 'photo mode'; several years ago this place approached me about engraving their wine glasses. Until then I hadn't done much glass, some text on a few mirrors was about all. When I began testing their logo on the glasses, I was just trying to find the right settings using straight-up 'paint' mode. On the left is one of the BETTER results I'd gotten at the time, yuk! Note the ratty glass fracturing, and the banding I'm talking about is very noticeable, but mostly on the top half (left half side as engraved). Once I started messing with percentages of black and my machine's photo mode, I started getting the results on the right. HUGE difference, night and day... And these pics are very close-up, logo is 2" tall on the glasses. And the ratty box, it's supposed to be ratty ;) I also learned that using colors- like green- get translated into shades of gray too.

-- Anyway, I KNOW your Speedy can do better. Some of the problem may be mechanical, but I'm still thinking some settings tweaks will help. Only wish I had a Speedy, I could maybe be of more help ;)

http://www.engraver1.com/BTG-BA.jpg

Is this the result when you're using the leather settings in JobControl? This does seem to be something mechanically wrong. I just engraved 12 of these exact leatherette JDS coasters on a Speedy360 with the preset settings without any issue.