Hello all,

just wondering if anyone here use a diamond/impact etcher and needed some trouble shooting help.

I have a Granite - SX from 2010 as in link.

We usually use our two vytek machines for laser engraving on monuments so this machine is seldom used since 2010 but would like to start using it on off black colors.
wondering if anyone has any extensive experience with it. It's been touch and go with our use of it, giving sometimes good results, other times not so good.
Most recently our results are very poor with very faint etches and I'm not sure why. My lead theory is that the "gap" setting is too high.
A software upgrade has resulted in us being unable to properly adjust our gap settings. They seem to be way off.
Been switching back and forth between more recent software versions and they both yield the same unwanted results so something is not registering.

Initially having issue trying to get the gap setting or "Stabilization of Head unit" to the 300 mark with software 3.6.0.5 most recent version.

Referring to attached results1_email.jpg, images 1 and 2 were done with software having gap setting showing 484 units, what we were using for about 1/2 last year on about 3 jobs. Some jobs etched ok, last few not ok.

Image 1 was done on the left side of the machine, image 2 on the right. they were not consistent.


I reinstalled software ver 3.6.0.5 and the gap setting was now showing at 300 units on the dot without any calibrations. Then ran the test file,resulting in image #3 which produced ok results. better than the previous 2.

I was not convinced the software was accurately measuring the gap, so I moved the gap sensor up and down using the thumb screws and they were not registering any changes.
I uninstalled econtrol 3.6.0.5 and installed the slightly older version 3.5.3.203(without perimeter walk). this software WAS registering changes in the gap sensor and I was able to adjust it to 293 units.

I ran test image #4 at this setting and it seems worse, missing lots more tones. I uninstalled econtrol 3.5.3.203 and then reinstalled 3.6.0.5 and it also reported the same gap setting 293 units.I ran test image #5 and got the same poor results as previous. I noticed with this software it performs an automatic gap test before each etch??
because the gap setting would vary each time the needle went down 293 to 295. Is this how econtrol 3.6.0.5 is supposed to work?

Right now, our gap setting is around 295-300 (in ideal zone) but our etches are all coming out dim? I know this is real technical but hoping someone here uses this machine and has advanced knowledge of it.
Thanks for any input.

Ps. software Running on a windows7 machine.

result1_email.jpg