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Author Topic: The Laser Project.  (Read 1191470 times)

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Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: The Laser Project.
« Reply #630 on: February 22, 2012, 06:08:47 AM »
Hi Dan,

OK, I submitt. You know best  ;D

Tweakie.
PEACE

Offline Dan13

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Re: The Laser Project.
« Reply #631 on: February 22, 2012, 08:00:05 AM »
Sorry, Tweakie. Didn't mean to sound that way. Let's just consider the issue closed... till we know better anyway ;)

Dan

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: The Laser Project.
« Reply #632 on: February 27, 2012, 07:25:31 AM »
Another image of Brittany Snow produced in a slightly different way.

The initial image was resized to 100mm x 135mm, adjusted in brightness and contrast then processed with PicEngraver’s excellent program PicDither using the Sierra algorithm. It was then reduced to 2 bit with IrfanView, saved as a .bmp file and the GCode created with the new Hungarian program DotG, in dot mode, at 0.25mm step over.
The result comprises 77,800 laser produced dots and took approx 50 minutes to complete, using the recently fixed M10 / M11 command set. The material is a faux-aluminium faced plastic engraving laminate (a non-pvc, laser friendly material).

Tweakie.


PEACE
Re: The Laser Project.
« Reply #633 on: February 27, 2012, 12:23:52 PM »
Tweakie,
With each of your posts, I become more and more envious  ;)

Great work.  Thanks.

John Champlain
www.picengrave.com

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Laser Lenses.
« Reply #634 on: March 04, 2012, 04:05:26 AM »
Many of the focus lenses used with CO2 and other lasers are of the single element Plano-convex type. As there have been some discussions recently, in various forums, regarding the orientation of these lenses I would like to clarify the situation.

Whilst this type of lens will operate in either direction the focal point will not be as sharply defined unless the convex surface is placed towards the photon source and I have tried to illustrate this point in the following photos. (Please ignore the backscatter from the test lenses as they do not have the customary anti-reflection coatings).

Basically, the tighter the focal point the greater the concentration of photons the greater the power and thus the greater the efficiency.

Tweakie.
PEACE

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: The Laser Project.
« Reply #635 on: March 19, 2012, 08:20:42 AM »
Hi Guys,

LazyCam is provided free with Mach3 and although this is essentially an unsupported beta product it is still very useful for working with HPGL and .dxf files ( for example - changing the scale / origin or editing the tool paths etc.) then to create the necessary GCode.

For laser profile cutting and engraving I have written a very basic Post Processor for use with LazyCam which utilises the undocumented M11P1 / M10P1 command set.
The laser trigger is connected to a suitable LPT output pin ( I use pin 16 ) then in Mach / Config /  Ports & Pins / Output Signals, Output #1 is mapped to pin 16 ( or whichever pin has been chosen ) and the active Hi / Lo set accordingly. These M commands will then turn the laser on and off coincident with axis movement ( M11P1 = laser ON and M10P1 = laser OFF ).

The feed-rate, in the post processor generated GCode ( currently set to F300 ), needs to be adjusted to suit the application / material and this can either be edited within Mach3 using Windows Notepad or adjusted with the FRO slider on the Mach screen.

For any that are interested the Post Processor can be downloaded from here; http://hobbymaro.puhasoft.hu/Tweakie/Laser.zip. To use, unzip and copy the file ‘Laser.pst’ into the Mach3 folder then from within LazyCam  select Setup / Posting Options and select ‘Laser.pst’ from the ‘Set Post Processor’ options.

Tweakie.


PEACE
Re: The Laser Project.
« Reply #636 on: March 20, 2012, 03:05:56 PM »
Bob attached a link to here in the thread I started over on the Vectric forum. http://www.vectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=13405

I converted my CNC router over to a 1W diode laser engraving machine running in Mach 3. Read in my thread on how I did it with the electronics totally Independent from Mach control and it just runs a standard g-code to pulse the laser.

I just finished lasering this photo.

Jeff

« Last Edit: March 20, 2012, 03:08:53 PM by JJWMACHINECO »
Extensivly Re-worked/Re-designed/Modified Servo K2CNC KG-3925 and the Mini Laser Engraver

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: The Laser Project.
« Reply #637 on: March 21, 2012, 02:50:01 AM »
Hi Jeff,

Excellent solution for laser control and excellent results you are achieving  8)

I must admit that I have never tried  PhotoVCarve - perhaps I should.

Tweakie.
PEACE
Re: The Laser Project.
« Reply #638 on: March 21, 2012, 11:58:32 AM »
Thanks Tweakie,

I know there are other programs out there more reasonable in price that will do Lithophanes and imaging software to process the image first that may be used to laser engrave, but Corel PhotoPaint and PhotoVcarve is what I had already and wanted to see if it was possible using the combination of the two. I'm sure you know, allot of trial and error was involved with the process. ::)

Jeff
Extensivly Re-worked/Re-designed/Modified Servo K2CNC KG-3925 and the Mini Laser Engraver

Offline obal

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Re: The Laser Project.
« Reply #639 on: April 10, 2012, 03:47:30 PM »
Hallo Tweakie. Please paste postprocesor for DOT-G  Laser.dgp.    Thank you.

Those of you that have been following this (never ending) thread will know that between Andrea in Italy and myself in the UK we have spent quite a lot of time putting the Mach Impact / Laser engraving plugin through it’s paces. Although there are still some improvements that could be made to the plugin and it still has a lot of mileage left in it, the legacy issue of it’s requirement for a parallel port are starting to show and it is perhaps time to start looking at alternatives.

In the Eastern European countries, for many years, it has been common practice for black marble monuments and remembrance plaques to display an engraved ‘photographic style’ of image and this has inevitably prompted the development of CNC software to complete the task. One such software is “DotG” a Hungarian program which has just had an English translation version released. It is completely ‘free of charge’ and can be downloaded from here http://dotg.weebly.com/download.html

DotG works in an entirely different way to the Mach plugin insofar as it creates GCode from a pre-processed 1 Bit image and although I haven’t quite got my postprocessor completely sorted everything looks extremely promising so far.
It is early days yet but I will keep you posted of my experience with this software as I learn more.

This example image of Audry Hepburn with the glamour of the 1950/1960’s was laser cut into some scrap MDF whilst I was testing various settings and it would, I think, look quite stunning cut into some mirror tile (project awaiting).

Tweakie.

Those of you that have been following this (never ending) thread will know that between Andrea in Italy and myself in the UK we have spent quite a lot of time putting the Mach Impact / Laser engraving plugin through it’s paces. Although there are still some improvements that could be made to the plugin and it still has a lot of mileage left in it, the legacy issue of it’s requirement for a parallel port are starting to show and it is perhaps time to start looking at alternatives.

In the Eastern European countries, for many years, it has been common practice for black marble monuments and remembrance plaques to display an engraved ‘photographic style’ of image and this has inevitably prompted the development of CNC software to complete the task. One such software is “DotG” a Hungarian program which has just had an English translation version released. It is completely ‘free of charge’ and can be downloaded from here http://dotg.weebly.com/download.html

DotG works in an entirely different way to the Mach plugin insofar as it creates GCode from a pre-processed 1 Bit image and although I haven’t quite got my postprocessor completely sorted everything looks extremely promising so far.
It is early days yet but I will keep you posted of my experience with this software as I learn more.

This example image of Audry Hepburn with the glamour of the 1950/1960’s was laser cut into some scrap MDF whilst I was testing various settings and it would, I think, look quite stunning cut into some mirror tile (project awaiting).

Tweakie.