Wierd Issue on cutting

[Craig Matheny]

We have 2 mini helix lasers. The same file was used on both machines for the last 4 years. We color map in this order for etching red for cutting yellow, blue, and black.
The issue.
First, all the etching runs first and that is the red no issue. Second, the yellow runs and cuts the board in half for the trash fits in the trash cans with no issue. The next is the blue it cuts out the center of the ladder as you can see it is not centered all blue did this but the black cut was perfect. ladders.jpg Any ideas?
Thank you

[Kev Williams]

So I'm assuming it's supposed to look more like this with the cutouts centered?
ctrd.jpg
No clue on what would cause a shift like that except a stepper hanging or some other electrical or mechanical anomaly, BUT if that's the case then the black should have been out of alignment too.

-do you have any speed changes between the colors? On my Chinese Triumph I had a similar issue when Cermarking some stainless, all I did was have 4 colors engrave 4 similar graphics left-to-right with a lot of dead space between, rather than sweep 30" across the X axis to engrave 1" of total width, I engraved each 'piece' separately- but when it came back and down to engrave the next area, it lost about 1/2" on the X and engraved everything afterward 1/2" too far to the right. I could always repeat the problem, but never figured out exactly why it was happening, but, the gantry visibly stopped briefly when moving to the next area as the speed on the display changed. The amount of time it stopped pretty much equated to the distance the alignment changed. In the end my fix was to do JUST the 4 graphics as one job and then everything afterward was sent as a separate 2nd job.

My only suggestion for the moment would be to get a can of electronics spray cleaner, and start pulling electric connections apart, spray them liberally and re-connect, as many connectors as you have access to! My GCC Explorer that I bought from Gary Hair in 2015, I've HAD to do that about 3 times since I've owned it. It'll start acting funky and/or the LCD display starts whacking out, cleaning up all the plugs has brought it back to life every time

[Craig Matheny]

Already replaced the stepper motor. Figure a good cleaning next. Thanks

[Craig Matheny]

ordered a new motherboard from epilog and went to install the drivers and they have nothing for windows 11. Also, what they do have is so outdated so disappointed.

[Kev Williams]

Old equipment and software that still works perfectly fine is why I have a fleet of Win7 and older computers to run my business. Of the 19 machines I own, the software to run them and my 2005 QB for my books, only my 5 Chinese lasers and their software will work on win10 or newer computers. If I'd replaced my machines & software just to keep up with new computer technology I would've gone bankrupt years ago...