Track/path lines between letters - galvo fiber laser

[Jeanpaul Beyaert]

So I'm seeing small "track or path" lines between letters I'm engraving on my Chinese galvo fiber laser 30 watt.
I'm only really seeing them when I engrave very small letters so I'm thinking there isn't enough time between the letters for the laser to stop firing?

What I'm worried about is getting a customer for a trust engraving and then seeing track lines on the anodized aluminum lower in between the numbers.
Any ideas on how to fix this?



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[Kev Williams]

Your black w/White letter piece is showing that tracking on almost every letter.

You're somewhat correct, your laser is either firing too early upon start or too late upon finish-

If you're using EZcad, there's a couple of settings that control this. Since all machines are different, my settings may produce different results than another machine using the same settings, but should be close. I just took a couple of screenshots of the 2 places to check.
On the left are the my laser's start/stop speed settings, compare mine to yours...
startnum.jpg
Then, hit the "advance" button, which will take you to the next screen, check your settings within the yellow box against mine.

Jot down your original settings, change yours to match mine and see what happens.

If it still tracks out the same, you may have a controller or connection issue...

Also, if you're using the "fast hatch", change to different hatch, sometimes the fast hatch will put lines where they're not supposed to be. However, those lines will show up on the screen too, so be sure to check!


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[Jeanpaul Beyaert]

Yes! Thank you so much!
I tried the different hatch marks first but got the same result but with your settings it's perfect!

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[Gary Hair]

What size are those letters? They don't seem to be fully formed and I'm thinking you have other issues. It could be your hatching is spaced to far apart for the font size, or you could be under powering the material. Can you provide more details? Font, size, hatch type, spacing, power, speed, freq.

Yes! Thank you so much!
I tried the different hatch marks first but got the same result but with your settings it's perfect!

20180712_200701.jpg

[John Lifer]

Agree with Gary, are you importing the text? or using a font in EZcad? If importing don't for this. If in EZcad, try a different Font. I've had some issues with some open type fonts not working properly (not tracks but just not formed correctly) Use the std fonts that came with EzCad.

[Kev Williams]

Depending on power and speed he's using, could be the start-stop settings just need some more tweaking.

As for font selection, I've never noticed any difference between imported DFX text and EZcad's fonts as to how they engrave. Since I can't stand how the spacing/kerning works with EZcad fonts, I only use them with absolutely necessary (serial numbering, rotary engraving, etc)... Not sure why the far easterners can't figure out that M's and W's are wider than I's and 1's...

[Jeanpaul Beyaert]

Sorry for the late reply, I've been fighting a cold and the cold is wining.
Anyway to answer Gary's question the letters are very small 1.2-1.4 mm tall. I think they are so small ezcad ignores the thin part of the letters when hatching. I don't remember the font but it's from ezcad.
The hatch is the "fast hatch" power is 80, speed is 500, and the freq is 20. But one thing I don't understand is that I see some people taking about 80khz in freq but in my peramerters it only goes from 1-20khz

[Gary Hair]

What is the hatch spacing? With text that small it is important to have the hatch spacing very close, probably .02mm, otherwise you'll miss parts of the characters as yours are missing. I don't claim to know everything about fiber lasers, but I have never heard of 1-20 kHz for frequency. Most that I have seen start with a frequency equaling the wattage of the laser, 30 for both of mine, and go up to something between 80 and 200. You may be seeing a number range that represents the range of frequencies but is not the actual frequency itself - 1 may be 30 kHz and 20 may be 80 or 200, or whatever is the high end of your range.

Sorry for the late reply, I've been fighting a cold and the cold is wining.
Anyway to answer Gary's question the letters are very small 1.2-1.4 mm tall. I think they are so small ezcad ignores the thin part of the letters when hatching. I don't remember the font but it's from ezcad.
The hatch is the "fast hatch" power is 80, speed is 500, and the freq is 20. But one thing I don't understand is that I see some people taking about 80khz in freq but in my peramerters it only goes from 1-20khz

[Jeanpaul Beyaert]

The hatch spacing is at .05, I'm going to run some tests with .02.
I also ran a test grid with the power at 50% the frequency from 1-20 at increments of 5 and the speed at 500 and again with the speed at 200 but there is no real difference from what I can see between the frequency.
I wanted to run some tests with someone else's frequency parameters.
I don't think the parameters I received are correct. I'll post some pictures shortly.

[Kev Williams]

As far off as your laser's TC times must have been it wouldn't surprise me if your freq parameters are better set for loudspeakers

So do this: hit F3 to enter the parameter's menu, then click the 'laser control' tab, should look like the pic below-

--again, mimic my settings, and note that I've clicked on the "power map" to show my settings, yours should match, or be close-
and also note, the laser never "not" fires, even at zero power, so beware of that, because even at zero power it WILL mark painted or anodized aluminum, I've found that out the hard way more than once!
fcf.jpg
another note on this menu, with "fiber" checked, the PWM-freq setting and the power map are the ONLY options accessible, I didn't gray anything out, it's that way normally

And finally, the 200max and 20min aren't necessarily the actual freqs your machine is capable of making use of; doing some testing on my machine, I've found that 30khz is about the lowest, anything entered below 30 doesn't seem to be different, and 100khz is the upper limit. But, whatever you enter into the parameters, those numbers are allowed to be entered into the program, regardless of actual frequency limits...

hope all that made sense!

[Gary Hair]

Most of the machines available have a lower frequency limit that is the same as their wattage, and the upper is likely 80 to 200. My 30 watt machines are 30-80. You can have your software setup for 1 to 1,000 freq, and it will allow that range to be entered, but you won't see any difference because the source can't do what you are asking.

As far off as your laser's TC times must have been it wouldn't surprise me if your freq parameters are better set for loudspeakers

So do this: hit F3 to enter the parameter's menu, then click the 'laser control' tab, should look like the pic below-

--again, mimic my settings, and note that I've clicked on the "power map" to show my settings, yours should match, or be close-
and also note, the laser never "not" fires, even at zero power, so beware of that, because even at zero power it WILL mark painted or anodized aluminum, I've found that out the hard way more than once!
fcf.jpg
another note on this menu, with "fiber" checked, the PWM-freq setting and the power map are the ONLY options accessible, I didn't gray anything out, it's that way normally

And finally, the 200max and 20min aren't necessarily the actual freqs your machine is capable of making use of; doing some testing on my machine, I've found that 30khz is about the lowest, anything entered below 30 doesn't seem to be different, and 100khz is the upper limit. But, whatever you enter into the parameters, those numbers are allowed to be entered into the program, regardless of actual frequency limits...

hope all that made sense!

[Floyd Siegal]

Track lines are usually caused by too fast a Jump speed. Note Kev's advanced photo showing 3000 Jump speed...try lowering it to 500-750. The engraving time will be a little slower but your track lines should disappear.