need a lens or two for the fiber

[Kev Williams]

And, here's simple trick I figured out -by accident- so all your old settings will be available

Navigate to the main folder on your C-drive that contains your EZcad program--

--for demonstration, mine is:

"C:\Laser marking machine CD\software\Triumphlasermini150\EzCad2.5\EzCad2.exe"

First, from the C-drive directory, right-click the "Laser marking machine CD" folder, then right click "COPY"...

Next, rename the folder just copied, in my case I'll name it "EZcad 150 lens"...

Next, put the mouse somewhere in the C-drive directory, and right click "PASTE"-

Once pasted, you have a full copy of the entire original "Laser marking machine CD" folder and contents...

Next, again rename the "Laser marking machine CD " folder, in my case "EZcad 220 lens"

For good measure, change the "EzCad2.exe" program name to "EzCad150.exe" within the "150" folder, and to "EzCad220.exe" in the 220 folder...

Then right-click each program and pin them to your start menu or task bar or whatever...

At this point, both programs contain settings for the 150 lens. When my 220 lens shows up, I then start the 220 program, and do the lens adjustment as per Floyd's instructions above... These settings will now be saved in the 220 program, and the 150 settings will of course remain in the 150 program.

-and from now on, all I (you) have to do is run the program that matches the lens you're using...

[Floyd Siegal]

Oooo...I must try your little trick Kev. Thanks for that!

[Kev Williams]

MY NEW LENS IS HERE!!! MY NEW LENS IS HERE!!! (<channeling Steve Martin)

Pretty happy it's here already, and none too soon, I just got bombed with orders for over 600 aluminum plates with graphics spanning over 7-1/2", which my 150 won't do in one shot...

At first blush, it doesn't look any cheesier than the 150...
220a.jpg220b.jpg220c.jpg

Because I do a lot of tall stuff my laser is already up on a homemade riser, now I have to make a taller one to accommodate the longer focus distance.

Right now I'm trying to beat the clock--

[Kev Williams]

Just got the new lens in and adjusted. What a pain that was. Trapezoids, leaners, pincushions love-handles, had them all... And I love how sometimes when you increase a dimension, the result is a decrease... Biggest problem was getting the small to large ratio to work, as in, I got a perfect 65mm square, but a 173mm square was 3mm too big Y and 2.5mm too big X. Part of the 'fix' was to keep going back and tweak settings that were right- at one time. Also, even though this is supposed to be a 220mm lens, I had to tell EzCad is was a 245, that -and a few trapezoid tweaks- was the only way I could get a good transition from big to small. In the end with a 175mm square measuring pretty much dead on, the 65mm square measured about 64.9mm, which is probably closer than my 150 lens is

finding the focus point was a bit tricky, but what worked best was some black anodized, a 1" circle and 8% power, which when focused showed a faint white trail behind the beam, and very little out of focus cause the white to disappear. Distance from work to the lens housing is almost exactly 14", quite a stretch--

I did a quick max-area test, and can run a 242mm circle AND square with no 'chopping'. At 244mm, the sides of the circles start to square off.

So I did some testing, first on this piece of black anodized, the top line was engraved directly below the lens,
the bottom line was engraved in the extreme lower right corner...
the end of the 2nd line was a full 6" from the lens center...
blacktest.jpg
-the text is 2mm tall, and it's a single .07mm hatch, so it's a bit rough,
but they look pretty much the same to me--

this is a job I'm in the middle of at the moment, the top was done with the 150 lens,
the bottom with the 220 lens, no change in settings. The difference is almost imperceptible (to me anyway)...
bluetest.jpg

I was expecting noticeably wider engraving due to the longer lens-- this is the same pic above,
I just boxed the TM from the top and moved it over the bottom. The lower TM IS wider,
but what, maybe half a thou?
tm.jpg

The one difference that was noticeable is the noise produced, the buzz of the ablating
is definitely not as loud as before.

So I'm pretty happy, my $100 bargain basement lens really surprised me!
I probably won't do any machining with it, but being able to reach 9-1/2" across the X and Y and 12" diagonally is going to help me out big time with the orders I have coming in!