There are a whole bunch of different settings that could be switched to port 5 or 15....which setting are you talking about?
There are a whole bunch of different settings that could be switched to port 5 or 15....which setting are you talking about?
How do I know if the beam is hitting the mirrors correctly? The red dot contour is slightly out of alignment with the actual laser beam...maybe by 1mm for so. Its enough to see that the Main laser is firing. I didn't bother trying to align the red beam with the actual beam yet because then I wouldn't be able to see if the actual laser were firing or not. However if there is some physical alignment method to align the laser emitter with the mirrors, then I am not aware of it. Is there a procedure to align the emitter and galvo head?
Not that I know of without special equipment. When the beam hits the mirrors, it's about 5mm in diameter if I remember correctly. It gains it's power density when it goes through the lens and focuses it, if I understand it correctly. The beam is invisible and doesn't mark on anything like tape, so if there's an easy way to align it, I've never seen it, and I've asked around a number of times.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gary LaGuardia
The one that is currently set to "Null"Quote:
Originally Posted by Gary LaGuardia
Just been dealing with exactly this kind of problem for somebody this week with the same non firing issues
WOOHOOO!....PROBLEM SOLVED
Someone posted about the alignment of the red dot image being OK so the laser must be OK....then I remembered that the red dot emitter is not in line with the Laser emitter itself. I loosened the emitter and started moving its alignment slightly while firing on a circle pattern. I hit a sweet spot and it immediately lit up like a welder.
The emitter is now in alignment with the galvo head itself and everything is working, it had NOTHING to do with the software settings.
I now have to align the red dot pattern with the laser produced pattern, but I think I understand that process. THANKS EVERYONE for your contributions...they helped lead my thought process in the right direction!
Also make sure you have selected the correct color pen that you think you're adjusting! I've had customers inform me that their laser wasn't working properly because none of the power/speed/frequency changes seemed to make a difference only to discover the changes were made to a different color pen. Double check!
Ok, so you were OUT OF FOCUS! The outer red dot just help you GET into focus. How else can we explain to someone the next time this happens? I think that this is the third time this has happened and it took you a long time to figure it out.
(no NOT an insult, these dang things are SO complicated and if you don't have proper settings, a LOT of issues can happen (or not happen)
Glad to see it working
John-
His problem wasn't that the lens was out of focus! The problem is/was, the laser beam itself wasn't exiting the machine and hitting the mirrors squarely, the 'emitter' he was moving was the actual laser's output 'snout'. He got 'lit up like a welder' once the beam actually hit the mirrors. Poor factory setup, or the snout moved whenever the damage to the scanhead happened- or both.
My machine has low-power spots in some areas that I attribute to my beam not hitting the mirrors correctly...
Awhile back I aligned my red emitter perfectly to the mirrors. See the pics below, after I was satisfied I was close enough, I took pics while the mirrors were moving to their extremes while drawing a rectangle larger than the work area. The left mirror, note the incoming beam dot is right in the center of the mirror (both directions, although not all that visible at that angle), and the second mirror shows the full-sweep of the beam, and that it uses nearly all of the mirror's length. The fiber's incident beam is much larger in diameter than the red beam, so I'm assuming alignment is fairly critical! Getting the red light aligned wasn't too tough to do, but since a fiber beam isn't as user-friendly with mirror alignment as a C02, can't do the blue-tape trick, the only feasible way to decently align the laser's beam to the mirrors, that I can figure out anyway, is to first align up the red laser to the mirrors (done) and then attempt to align the fiber beam's output to match the red output during test engraving... I haven't done that yet, simply an issue of available time, I figure it'll take 2-3 hours of moving and shiming and testing... So right now my red light is adjusted to match the fiber beam output for alignment purposes. But when the machine is engraving, the red light tracks 'as is', without those adjustments, and the fiber's output is a full 1/8" away from the red light output on the work, almost perfectly diagonal down and left. Doesn't sound like a lot, but it explains my low-power spots, the beam is simply running out of mirror!
Attachment 389919Attachment 389920
In Gary's case, seems his beam was barely hitting the mirrors at all...
For what it's worth, I've seen those things shimmed with Chinese newspaper to try and make them all square. The Chinese seem to have a real shortage of squares in their country. Instead of making things square and bolting things together, they square nothing and shim everything, which just stacks up errors.
My Bad, Again, How can we more easily diagnose? Or just not?
In my experience, the best way is to manually align all the hardware yourself. The tube that is mounted at the top, I think it's a collimator or something, needs to be flat, and straight. Once that tube is straight, if you make that tube line up with the hole in the scan head, then you're going to be pretty close. The problem comes with the tower isn't flat on the base, so they shim the tower, so the tower is crooked, then that throws off the collimator assembly, which has to be shimmed to allow for the tower being shimmed wrong, then that makes it hit the mirrors in the wrong place. It's just a mess. If you start from scratch and make sure everything is square, then it makes manually aligning them pretty easy.Quote:
Originally Posted by John Lifer
Speaking of square, another issue I have with mine, is the laser's output path is rotated over 1/2° CCW to the machine's case! Not a huge deal, but some parts are big enough and easier to just place against the front of the machine, and especially long parts that need to be done in 2 or 3 sections. But to use the front face of the machine as a guide I have shim the left edge by 3/32"--
still not that big a deal, but one of these days I'll get it straight! :)
I have noticed on mine now the red lasered outline box is not aligned perfectly with the output. Are the adjustments in the F3 Menu for those settings?.
YES!!
In the first window (field tab) you adjust all the critical stuff of the actual laser output; you draw say, a 4" box, engrave it , then measure it, you then choose which axis to resize, hit the arrow button to the right of 'scale', then enter 'desired marking size' (4" or 101.6mm), then enter the 'actual marking size'-- the software then makes the adjustment.. there's also the trapezoid and pincushion adjustments-- you've probably already taken care of all this stuff :)
In the same window are offset adjustments for X and Y, and "angle"- I've never messed with these, could be the 'angle' adjustment will take care of MY angle problem? I need to experiment!
If all is ok with the actual laser output, then hit the "other" tab, then hit the 'red light pointer' button... here you can offset AND scale the X and Y red light output. So what to do is, engrave a simple outline of something, just a simple box is good, the bigger the better, and I use black trophy aluminum, the gloss black absorbs the red light and the silver highly reflects it, easy to line up to. Fire up the red light, and move and/or resize it with the offsets until it fits the engraving perfectly.
NOTE on the numbers you enter: your EZcad is many versions newer than mine, and maybe they've fixed this issue, but with mine, the mm adjustment numbers that APPEAR only SHOW to 2 decimals, as in 1.02mm, but not 1.022mm. However, you CAN enter 3rd decimal numbers, AND the software factors it in, and it's necessary for precise alignment- But it will only display to the 2nd decimal, which is just plain dumb...
If your display goes out 3 points, then no problem, if not, then write down your numbers entered, because if you don't have a photographic memory (I sure don't!), it can get frustrating not knowing your actual inputs when fine tuning!
Once your red light IS lined up perfectly to the engraving, pre-alignment is MUCH easier, and, when using the 'show contour' lighting, if you're patient you can line up previously engraved work and re-engrave it :)
Kev, Thank You, I was reading the manual or PDF and it was kind of making sense but you made it easier!!