Messages

5431

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: June 03, 2011, 07:03:27 AM »

Another question comes to mind - How exactly do you control turning the laser on / off ?
Where do you connect the Digital Trigger output ?

Tweakie.

5432

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: June 03, 2011, 06:47:43 AM »

It is difficult to see exactly what is happening from those pictures but it could (as I said earlier) be related to a delay in turning the laser on and therefore vary the spacing of the two images with changes to federate. What I was hoping to see was if each of the two images was created by alternate line scans (one image created by the left to right scan and the other image created by the right to left scan).
Going back over earlier posts in this and the other related thread, I think it would be a good idea to investigate the PWM laser current control aspect. I never managed to succeed with the Mach PWM control and it’s a long shot but perhaps this is what is causing your problems.
As a test, would you consider the following?
As I understand it, you have a board which converts the Mach spindle PWM signal to an analogue voltage from 0 to 5 Volts which is in turn connected to the laser PSU (IN and GND terminals) to control the maximum laser current.
Try disconnecting this board and connecting a potentiometer, as attached diagram.
Set the potentiometer to mid travel (never set it to maximum unless you can monitor the tube current to ensure that the makers maximum recommended current is not exceeded).
Turn off the PWM function within Mach and then repeat the same test as you did before.
I don’t know for certain but Mach really has a lot of work to do running this plugin and it may just be too much to ask for it to generate the PWM as well.
Either way this will at least rule out one possibility.

Tweakie.

5433

General Mach Discussion / Re: Write Wizard

« on: June 03, 2011, 04:39:24 AM »

Widpyro,

There are quite a few but "Stick Font" came to mind. http://www.ncplot.com/freetools.htm

Tweakie.

5434

FAQs / Re: Mach3 setting and configuration (newbie question level )

« on: June 03, 2011, 02:43:55 AM »

Hi AB,

1) If you wish to travel at 10 units per then your line would be G01 X00 F10 (the F is the feedrate).

2) You perhaps need to consider microsteps (if set) in your calculations.
    Al,s excellent calculator can be downloaded from here  http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,16315.0.html

Tweakie.

5435

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: June 02, 2011, 01:52:24 PM »

This is the result I get from the above image settings.
The scan starts bottom left and it can be seen from alternate lines that there is a slight delay where the laser turns on and another slight delay where it turns off. This delay is so small that it makes no difference to the quality of photos or other images processed by the plugin.

Tweakie.

5436

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3, Probe, and Digitize Wizard Issue

« on: June 02, 2011, 01:50:28 PM »

Really weird because your documentation clearly shows pin 16 as an output pin so EStop cannot work, yet it does ?

Tweakie.

5437

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: June 02, 2011, 11:07:46 AM »

Something like this would be good.

Say 30mm x 30mm, Stepover 0.5mm, Feedrate 20,000 (not inverted)

Tweakie.

5438

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: June 02, 2011, 09:07:08 AM »

Certainly a mystery.
Could you possibly post a picture of the result and a copy of the test image you are using please ?

Tweakie.

5439

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: June 02, 2011, 08:58:14 AM »

You could well be right here.
Increase your stepover so you can study each individual line of the images produced.
Because the plugin operates in duplex mode (bidirectional) then if each image is produced by alternate lines it would indicate too great a delay in firing the laser after receiving the Mach trigger pulse.
(Not sure I have explained this very well).

Tweakie.

5440

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: June 02, 2011, 08:39:15 AM »

ntlaser,

Do you have "Sherline 1/2 Pulse mode" checked in Ports and Pins ?

Tweakie.