I'll admit this question is mostly academic, but I keep reading that tubes will engrave at their best when in a mode of preionization at a level of 4 or 5 mA. What does this mean exactly? I'm taking it to mean the laser is kept at 4 mA during the entire engrave, with pulses being fired at 10 or 15 mA (whatever the normal firing current is). Is that correct?
If so, is this implemented by specific power supplies or by the controller? Does there need to be a higher initial current command to "strike" the tube first? I've noticed I can't get my 80W tube to fire very reliabnly at low power levels, leading me to assume the 4 mA is actually the laser being "off" at that level.
Anyway I did some Google research but apparently I used the wrong keywords. All I could find were the sellers descriptions of their tubes and scientific papers on lasers in dermatology
I have an older Full Spectrum controller with an upgraded tube and power supply, and I don't think they implement any preionization wizardry. If it's not terribly complex of a controls problem I'd like to try to add it to get better engraves, but I'm having a hard time finding good info on what voltage/current profile to feed into the power supply command.
Last, I assume this doesn't affect vector cutting, correct?