Fiber Laser Initial Impressions: It's slower than people suggest

[Steve Utick]

Sorry Steve but that did not work for me. I had a Yell of a time getting EZCAD back and running, I finally installed on another computer to get the info I needed. Kev has a lot resting on his fibers and work, would hate to have him lose it. FYI the EZCAD and Lightburn driver both have the same names. Ezcad2 Driver. No I will never go back either, paid my $150 and very happy to give the work to a US programmer and company.

I have swapped back to try it a couple of times, and can tell you that the developers swap many times a day. The drivers are called completely different things and show up completely different in Device Manager. That's one of the ways that you can see which driver is installed. This video shows exactly step by step how to swap back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7nsXEUQ1_8

[Kev Williams]

There's a much easier way to 'swap drivers', all but maybe a bit cumbersome

-- use a different computer

[Bill George]

I have swapped back to try it a couple of times, and can tell you that the developers swap many times a day. The drivers are called completely different things and show up completely different in Device Manager. That's one of the ways that you can see which driver is installed. This video shows exactly step by step how to swap back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7nsXEUQ1_8

Steve did all that and even the developer / programmer could not help me fix! I had to re-install on my other computer to get it done. I have been working with computers since 1979, this is not my first rodeo.

[Scott Watson84]

We added our first fiber laser to the shop about 8 months ago, we got a 50 watt JPT machine. My first impressions were similar to yours, it wasn't as fast as I thought it would be and the work area is small. After we ditched ezcad and got lightburn, I fell in love with this machine, it absolutely flies through anodized aluminum tags, and the engraving quality is better than my speedy 300. We just finished a job where the client wanted a black logo about 1.5" square on the blade of 200 chef knives with the fiber we got a jet black mark in 1 minute 20 seconds per knife, no Cermak, no cleanup.

Honestly lightburn makes the Chinese galvo machine so much better, ezcad was always hit or miss, and I could never get it to do the same thing twice. Now with lightburn I don't see a reason to buy a western fiber galvo machine. I got a quote on a trotec galvo machine, it was almost 7 times the cost of my Chinese machine.

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Ross, what acid are you using to darken the brass?

[Steve Utick]

Steve did all that and even the developer / programmer could not help me fix! I had to re-install on my other computer to get it done. I have been working with computers since 1979, this is not my first rodeo.

Wow, that's very strange. I've worked in IT for around 30 years myself, so understand those strange issues that nobody can seem to explain or fix either. Glad you're enjoying LightBurn though, it is a great piece of software.

[Bill George]

Steve are you using Windows 10 Pro and what update? No I am not alone with this issue. Has to do with both drivers are named the same so the EZCad2 board can see it as valid, the output of the driver feeds Lightburn IF its the right one. Since both drivers look the same to the board and it outputs to the correct software all is fine. Seems Win 10 gets confused and installs the wrong one. The developer sent me a Link to a program to correct that but zero documentation. I finally just gave up and installed EZCad on my other computer and all was fine again.

That video was made June 2022 there has been many updates to LB Galvo and Windows 10 since then. I hate Win 10 constant updates and I now have them turned off, again.
Added: Uninstalled does not mean removed from your computer its just not associated with that device anymore.... when you go to install a driver for the one you want... it re-installs the one you just removed, and says "the best driver is already installed" and that's as far as you get.

[Kev Williams]

Ross, what acid are you using to darken the brass?

Knowing that Ross uses Gravograph machines, my bet is he's using Gravoxide--
oxides.jpg
--Aloxide is designed for aluminum- But depending on the brass, I've found Aloxide works even better.

And Aloxide can save your life if you make a mistake on *certain* black anodized pieces, especially spelling errors, just CAREFULLY apply Aloxide to the goof, making sure to NOT drown the plate (toothpick works great), takes a couple of coats but when it's done, re-engrave over the goof and you'll need a 10x loupe to see the repair

[Steve Utick]

Steve are you using Windows 10 Pro and what update? No I am not alone with this issue. Has to do with both drivers are named the same so the EZCad2 board can see it as valid, the output of the driver feeds Lightburn IF its the right one. Since both drivers look the same to the board and it outputs to the correct software all is fine. Seems Win 10 gets confused and installs the wrong one. The developer sent me a Link to a program to correct that but zero documentation. I finally just gave up and installed EZCad on my other computer and all was fine again.

That video was made June 2022 there has been many updates to LB Galvo and Windows 10 since then. I hate Win 10 constant updates and I now have them turned off, again.
Added: Uninstalled does not mean removed from your computer its just not associated with that device anymore.... when you go to install a driver for the one you want... it re-installs the one you just removed, and says "the best driver is already installed" and that's as far as you get.

Running Windows 10 Pro 21H2 with all the latest updates here. I'd also add that I'm one of the Beta testers for LightBurn, so often times running Beta code that hasn't been released to the general public as of yet too.

[Kev Williams]

Since 'computers' has entered this thread, I just made 2 computer changes to running my fiber lasers:

1- replaced my old HP Vista Home 32b laptop that's been running my 50w fiber,
with an old HP Win8 64b desktop that sat idle for years with a crashed drive, that I recently did a full restore to-

2- replaced a really old HP Compaq 'small form factor' desktop with XP pro 32 running my -ebay2- fiber,
with my infamous HP Laptop running Win10 64b...

What I'm hoping to gain is less 'after-the-job-is-done-engraving' lag time, which can be several seconds depending on the job. The XP just this morning was taking nearly 3 seconds for the 'stop' screen to go away after spending less than 2 seconds to engrave "OFF" and "ON" on an anodized part. For a complicated engraving taking around a minute, the off-lag time was like 4 to 5 seconds. More complicated items can take up to 10 seconds or more! The Vista pretty much mimics the XP as to lag times...

The win8, a 64bit machine, is so far the best machine right now. EzCad does things slow simply because of the sheer volume of info in some jobs, but the 8 does run faster than the XP, but honestly, not all that much. But the lag-off time is dead zero - the 4-5 second wait on the XP is nil on this machine...

Now comes the win10. Same test runs showed nearly the same lag-off time as the XP! That is, until I finally figured out how to access the option to "set for best performance", which took the lag time down to near zilch, so that was good. However, and anyone who knows me here knows I cannot STAND my win10 laptop, the 'BEFORE-any-engraving-is-started' lag time is stupendously horrendously ludicrously SLOW....... this POS takes several seconds just to zoom out or in ONE roll of the mouse wheel! This is a 64bit machine, with all updates current as of this morning, all bloatware removed, minimal background programs running and nothing ELSE but EzCad running, and this thing can't redraw a work screen in less than 5 seconds?!? In just a basic working-with-graphics environment my XP runs absolute circles around this slug! This laptop CAME with win8, and I'm going to wipe it put 8 back on the thing, and see if it works anywhere as good as my desktop 8 is running. Had this win10 for 3 years now and I've not found a single redeeming quality about it. It's gone...

Meanwhile, know what I'm going to do? Buy a cheap copy of XP pro 64 bit and some memory and a couple of half-TB SSD drives, and fix the 2 XP's I have. Probably be the fastest computers I own when I'm done...

Pretty sure my win7 64's would work great, I need to cable one up and see what happens...

[Bill George]

I run my Galvo and my Mach 4 CNC off a Intel Nuc, 8 Gb memory and 250 Gb SSD, recycled flat screen LED monitor, wired mouse and keyboard. Win 10 Pro that is kept off the internet. It runs Lightburn and Corel Draw plus Fusion 360. All sets in my shop with heat set at 45 F when not in use and no AC unless I turn on the window unit. If Win 10 is slow, maybe its because you have a slow machine?

This is the NUC I have, not a high performance model > https://www.newegg.com/intel-boxnuc7...tent-_-text-_-

[Ross Moshinsky]

I posted in the other post Kev just made, but just a quick post to touch base. I always intended on getting Lightburn. I installed it last week and got some of the job done over the weekend. It appears to have improved things, but honestly, I haven't done a good comparison test to say 100% it's resolved the problem. In a few weeks I'll try to do a comparison of time and quality if anyone is interested.

Regarding the oxidizing acid, I can't remember where I bought it last. Probably JDS to be honest. It works fine. I haven't thrown any brass work to the fiber over the last week. Doing text on it I'm sure will save a certain amount of time, but logos and such is where I think it will shine. Also not having to dump a ton of power into the material and cause it to warp by using the oxidizing acid seems to be a nice benefit.

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Thanks - I did not know it existed. I've only ever used 'gun blue' - a nitric acid based oxidising agent.

[Bill George]

Thanks - I did not know it existed. I've only ever used 'gun blue' - a nitric acid based oxidising agent.

I have some gun blue, do you just paint it on and let dry then laser?

[Ross Moshinsky]

This would be an example of the darkening acid used: https://www.jpplus.com/3oz-brass-oxidizing-solution