Controller recommendation for Laser engraving machine project

[Chuck Kahler]

I'm building a CO2 RASTERING laser engraving machine and I'm trying to determine the best controller.


the light objects DSP-T9 is a consideration, anybody have any experience with this controller?

CLOUDRAY offers several RUIDA controllers, anyone have any suggestions here?

I am interested in speed, I've seen videos of rastering machines and they seem to take forever to create the engraving.

Thank you,
Chuck

[Kev Williams]

DC fired Glass C02 lasers by their nature are speed limited. My Triumph 1390 uses a Puhan PH3 controller, that I'm sure no one but me has ever heard of, but one thing it will let me do is overdrive the max X speed to 1000mm/sec. I currently have the max speed set at 800, but I don't even go THAT fast. I only go faster than 500 when doing 'forgiving' work like leather and wood engraving. When running 600mm/sec and faster the engraving quality really starts to suffer. I've tried compensating for it, but a DC laser just can't switch on and off fast enough to lay down nice, high detailed engraving.

If you're truly needing speed, your best bet is to consider (re)building a bargain basement used Universal, Epilog, Trotec, Gravograph, GCC (aka Pinnacle) or whatever else is out there with an RF fired Synrad or Coherent "metal" laser. Many older machines were designed to run at around 80 inches (2000+mm) per second very reliably, with no detail loss (assuming mechanicals are in good order)...

[Bill George]

I wonder if anyone checked the Want Ads Classified section IF you want speed and quantity there is a Trotec 80 watt machine for sale. Speed does not depend on the type of controller but how the machine is constructed. I doubt if a DIY one could even come close to the non-Chinese machines on the market. I was going to build one as some might recall but when I got into the project, it was going to cost way more than just buying one.