Messages

91

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

« on: February 12, 2012, 07:47:24 PM »

Tweakie

If you have discussed this in the thread already I have missed it and apologise for not reading thoroughly.

Regarding M10P1 not turning the laser off until there is a subsequent move commanded.

Found this old thread where Tim did some testing on what was the current version.

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,12653.msg82436.html#msg82436

I might have assumed that this was fixed with the latest work done on the M11/M10 commands.

When I test it here (Version R3.043.057) it does not turn the laser off until another movement is commanded.

Now in most circumstances this would be no issue, as another move would almost always follow a M10.

However almost always is probably not good enough when it comes to something like a laser power.

Very interested to hear your take on this and if I am way off track or not.

Greg

92

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

« on: February 07, 2012, 10:31:39 PM »

Had a go at Tweakie's bicycle.

I have a long way to go to get the finish that Tweakie has demonstrated.

Greolt

93

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

« on: February 07, 2012, 10:11:22 PM »

Here is the same pic engraved on a bit of cheap generic 3mm ply.  350 x 240mm

This did blacken nicely.  Power 40%, speed 18000mm/min

I don't know where I found this artwork.  It has the name Seyit on it, so I can not acknowledge better than that.

Tweakie do you know where I could find the Aztec Princess?

Greolt

94

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

« on: February 06, 2012, 08:33:53 PM »

Now to hopefully get this back on track, here is an attempt at engraving.

The wood is Huon Pine.  Rather than blacken, it more sort of ate it.  As if I had cut it on the router.

I have an awful long way to go on this learning curve.

Greolt

95

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

« on: February 06, 2012, 08:21:14 PM »

The internet is a wonderful thing and I have learned more from forums like this one that I ever did at school.

However one of the small frustrations is that there is always misinformation mixed in with the good.

It is my strong desire to not add misinformation, particularly to this most informative thread of Tweakie's.

So I need to clear up what I have said about outputs used by the engraving plugin.

What testing has told me is that the plugin uses Digital Trigger only.   The really odd thing is that it uses Digital Trigger even when it is disabled.

My previous belief that it could also use Output1 was because it worked when Digital Trigger was disabled and Output1 was enabled.

But it was not using the enabled Output1, it was in fact using the disabled Digital Trigger.

If you look at the pic of Ports and Pins, you will see that I had both outputs set to port1 pin9. 

Not a good idea, but I had it set thus, as I was swapping back and forth to try and see what was going on, in the mistaken belief that disabling one and enabling the other was sufficient to change the output.  WRONG.

Don't know what to think of that.  A bug or my lack of understanding as to how Mach works.

Now the important thing after all this, is that I was wrong.  It is NOT sufficient to just disable an output in this case.

As Tweakie said, Digital Trigger is the correct output to set up for the engraving plugin.

Sorry for my misleading posts and I hope this clears it up.

Greolt

96

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

« on: February 06, 2012, 05:45:05 AM »

Yes as I said said above M11P0 and M10P0 work fine with Digital Trigger, so resolved it is.   

At least for me.  Everything is working great. Thanks.

Funny that the engraving plugin would fire the laser with Output1 active low but not active high.  Maybe I overlooked something.  Wouldn't be the first time. 

Greolt

97

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

« on: February 06, 2012, 04:35:15 AM »

You mentioned earlier having the Digital Trigger and an Output both configured to the same port and pin and both Enabled at the same time.

If I did, I didn't mean it.  Not a good idea to have to things assigned to one pin.

However with some poking around I discovered that M11P0 and M10P0 will activate and deactivate the Digital Trigger.

So there is no need for a separate profile for engraving and vector cutting.

Both vector cutting and engraving would both use Digital Trigger.

In fact if you edit the M10 and M11 macros then I suppose you could drop the P0 or P1 altogether.  Just use M11 and M10.

Greolt

98

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

« on: February 06, 2012, 03:57:39 AM »

Not sure I would call it a serious bug.

A bit of an anomaly, but does no harm that I can think of.

Greolt

99

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

« on: February 06, 2012, 03:25:59 AM »

Tweakie

I had discovered since posting that the plugin will operate via Digital Trigger  active high.

Funny thing is, I had been using the plugin via Output1 active low.  This worked fine and I had been engraving the last couple of days that way.  As soon as I set it to active high it no longer worked.  Go figure.

Anyway I am now happily using Digital Trigger.  Engraving results are steadily improving as I try more variations.  Need some better material for testing.

Greolt

100

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

« on: February 05, 2012, 08:31:49 PM »

Tweakie

I assume that the engraving plugin will only operate with an active low output to fire the laser.

Is this something that can be changed?

It is MUCH safer for me to use active high.  This works fine with vector cutting but alas the engraving plugin does not turn the laser on.

Greolt