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Thread: EzCAD Scale/Feild Size Issue

  1. #1

    EzCAD Scale/Feild Size Issue

    Hello all,

    New here, I've been working on getting a Chinese fiber laser to work for the past couple days and have had this really weird scaling issue.
    When using 110mm field size the laser seems to take short cuts when engraving text, it engraves boxes just fine. I did the scale calibration method of burning a box and measuring with calipers and changing the F3 parameters to adjust. But no matter what the laser seems to be incapable of engraving text. I made a video of the issue and increased the text size to display how increasing the size of the text and leaving the field size the same (110x110mm), allows the engraving to get better and better.

    VIDEO:
    https://youtu.be/soCJROwASsc

    I found that increasing the text size and field size to a huge number , allows the engraver to inscribe near perfect small text and features. The Field size set to 5000mm, and using 200mm height text I could get this perfectly inscribed text, the measures roughly 10mm high with calipers on the work piece. The fiber laser machine is a Raycus 50w laser, and I checked online for the exact focal length, and doubled checked it against the red line pointers on the machine. The focal length to the lens case was exactly 7.49in and it lines up perfectly. Does anyone know what this issue could be ? software settings off? or maybe hardware related? Anything helps, and thanks for your time!

  2. #2
    Ok, first of all, this is your F3 "field" parameters as shown in your video, which are all default-to-zero values...
    adjst.jpg
    These values adjust for zero-position, angle, field-size, ratio of actual-size output vs 'entered' size, parallelism, trapezoid-ism, and bulging or 'pincushion' straight lines-
    Here's one of my machine's settings for a 150mm lens--
    adjst2.jpg
    --the values are all over the place! On this particular machine, these are the values necessary to make boxes square, circles round, and everything in between accurately shaped and sized...

    As to your funky engraving issue, I'm pretty sure this is your problem:
    startstop.jpg
    --when engraving, the mirrors in the scanhead never stop moving, even to draw a straight line in the X or Y axis, due to lens refraction. And as you know, they move at blazing speed! The "TC" values adjust the on and off timing of the laser between starts and stops... You're negative-200 "start TC" value tells me the laser is starting WAY early, which would account for your angled lines; the laser is turning on while the mirrors are still moving from the last engraving to the next engraving. Why it gets better the larger you go is simply a matter of time, the larger lettering takes longer to run, so the effect is diminished...

    I have 3 of my 4 lasers defaulted to these settings below, top to bottom
    70
    135
    150
    85
    - all 3 machines give me excellent results with these settings. However, these settings don't work so well with my new 50 watt machine, BUT, it's scanhead is totally different than my other 3, so your settings may need tweaking, but, I'm betting just changing to these should help...

    Try them and let us know
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  3. #3
    Hey Kev, thank you for you insight, its incredibly helpful. We are currently testing the timing, switching to your times with the field size set at 110 seems to not make a difference with 10mm height text. We are still getting / with a trapezoid shape for the word "text" as seen in below picture. however, a small polygon comes out perfect with, the your settings, I will inclemently change each parameter of the timing to see if we can find a major difference. Is there any recommendation on size of the increment I should use when changing the timing parameters?
    timing.jpg

  4. #4
    We are also wondering about these advanced settings, and whether they are correct or not as they seem to affect timing? I enabled Enabled optimize mode and it helped create more correct horizontal lines on the word "Text"
    advancedsettings.jpg

  5. #5
    I've never tried 'optimized mode' ...

    as to my advanced settings, I don't think I've ever messed with them, but FWIW, they're:
    3000
    10
    85
    10000


    -- I wonder if you may have a bad controller card, or bad scanhead?

    The scanhead on my first machine (Triumph) had to be replaced on warranty,
    it would engrave 'outside the lines' sometimes. Not always, just random goofy crap....
    DSC05769.jpgDSC05779.jpgDSC05781.jpg
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  6. #6
    Ok so we tested,
    Start TC: -200 to 200
    Laser Off: 0 to 200
    End TC: 0 to 200
    Polygon: 0 to 200

    I incrementally changed each while holding all others constant at Kev settings of,
    70
    135
    150
    85

    It seems that there was no effect when changing the values, within the ranges tested. I'll try Kev advanced settings today and see if that makes any difference.
    Its seems a bit odd to us to think the hardware is bad because of its ability to engrave, here is a pic of a pattern engraved setting the feild size to 5000 and the size of the pattern at 4000 mm x 4000mm.
    pattern.jpg
    from this pic,
    2a134ad446e0c091ec577e64dbf58fc1.jpg
    I'll try Kev advanced settings and seeing if that makes a difference. I'm unsure of what to do next, should we test bigger ranges for the delays of the laser?

  7. #7
    Advanced Settings being changed don't seem to make a difference !

  8. #8
    Could be the font library is messed up, as far is engraving it--?

    Try this: Type some text, whatever's giving you fits will be perfect --
    Then, make sure it's selected/grouped, then go into the EDIT menu (on top, right next to File) and click on To Curve-- this will remove the text attributes and hopefully, since it's engraving everything else ok, will engrave the text ok--

    IF THIS WORKS, you might give the supplier a call/email and explain this to them, as I haven't a clue where to go from here!

    Note there's several font 'styles', are you using True Type, or ? You might try different fonts, from different styles...
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  9. #9
    PROBLEM SOLVED!!!

    In a last ditch effort, we thought that something in the software was corrupted, so reinstalling it could be a solution. We had the ezcad software 2.14.7 and reinstalled with ezcad 2.14.11, the issue of field size has completely gone away! We have had some power outages in this area of the company and we are guessing engineers used to leave the computer on and the softeware must have been left currupted in the process! So good to know for you guys as well, make sure power down computer & machine when not in use! Thanks so much for your help and expertise Kev!! its much appreciated!

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