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Author Topic: Laser cross hair tool position.  (Read 50257 times)

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Offline poppabear

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Re: Laser cross hair tool position.
« Reply #10 on: March 13, 2009, 12:32:03 PM »
:)
fun times

Offline Greolt

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Re: Laser cross hair tool position.
« Reply #11 on: March 13, 2009, 05:20:15 PM »

I am being incredibly lazy here but I wonder if anyone would be good enough to help with the VB Script to turn the laser on and off as Greg has suggested.



I only use the cross hair laser on a router.  It does not seem as appropriate to me, on a mill.  Accuracy etc.

Therefore being a router, I don't need mist coolant.   So I use mist coolant output to control laser on and off.

M8 turns it on and M9 turns it off.  Better still  OEMbutton 114 toggles it.

Cheating I know,  but makes buttons and macros a no brainer.

Greg

Offline budman68

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Re: Laser cross hair tool position.
« Reply #12 on: March 13, 2009, 07:14:33 PM »
Greg, don't underestimate the power of that laser, it comes in very handy for those not-so-precise jobs where you just want to find the center or edge of material....even on a mill.

Besides, the cool factor adds to the fun -  ;)

Thanks for all that you (and everyone else for that matter) contribute to this cnc community -  8)

Dave
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Just because I'm a Global Moderator, don't assume that I know anything !

Dave->    ;)
Re: Laser cross hair tool position.
« Reply #13 on: March 13, 2009, 07:46:04 PM »
That looks great Tweakie, et al.  8)
I'll have to put it on the to do list, I'll never get my machine done. I guess that's the idea, keep improving. :)

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: Laser cross hair tool position.
« Reply #14 on: March 14, 2009, 03:12:57 AM »
You are certainly right there Jerry - It is never ever finished.

Tweakie.
PEACE

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: Laser cross hair tool position.
« Reply #15 on: March 14, 2009, 10:12:12 AM »
Just a note for anyone else wishing to add one of these laser pointers to their machine.

The positive supply of these devices is often connected to the metal casing so it is best to use a Delrin (or similar) clamping arrangement, as Budman has done on his mill. This isolates the device from the machine frame and will enable powering of the device direct from the BOB and switching it on and off under Mach control, as Greg has suggested, a lot easier to accomplish.

As I have used a metal clamp the body of the device is connected to ground or 0Volts therefor I need negative volts (-3Volts) to power it. This has been accomplished using the guts of a 3Volt wall wart (fitted inside my control box) which is in turn switched on and off under Mach control using a solid state relay which is directly driven by the BOB. This has resulted in more expense than would otherwise have been necessary but what the hell it's my hobby and you can't put a price on that can you ?.

Tweakie.
PEACE

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: Laser cross hair tool position.
« Reply #16 on: March 18, 2009, 04:39:13 AM »
An update.

The initial mounting method for the polarising filter suffered with a major drawback in so far as it allowed machining dust to enter and settle on top of the filter disc. I have replaced the two alloy spacers with a turned part that should resolve this problem.

Tweakie.
PEACE

Offline budman68

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Re: Laser cross hair tool position.
« Reply #17 on: March 18, 2009, 11:14:10 AM »
Looks "cleaner" too -  ;)

Dave
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Just because I'm a Global Moderator, don't assume that I know anything !

Dave->    ;)

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: Laser cross hair tool position.
« Reply #18 on: March 18, 2009, 11:39:29 AM »
Thanks Dave.

This is the big advantage of making things for yourself - the boss doesn't moan at you when you don't get it right first time.

Tweakie.
PEACE

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: Laser cross hair tool position.
« Reply #19 on: March 23, 2009, 08:15:33 AM »
Another update. Just thought you may be interested in this.

I have added two buttons to the Mach screen one titled 'Laser ON/OFF' and used Scott's VB script to perform this function. The other button is titled 'Home to Laser' and uses the following script.

Xs=GetOemDRO(59) 'Xscale DRO
Ys=GetOemDRO(60) 'Yscale DRO

Xmove = -72.8719 * 1/Xs 'move distance adjusted for X scale factor
Ymove = 10.7156 * 1/Ys 'move distance adjusted for Y scale factor

DeActivateSignal(OUTPUT5) 'turn off laser

Code "G91 G0 X" &Xmove & "Y" &Ymove ' makes an incremental move the distances that you set
While IsMoving () ' waits while that happens
Wend

Code "G90" 'goes back to absolute moves

DoOEMButton (1008) 'zero X DRO
DoOEMButton (1009) 'zero Y DRO

As I use the DRO Scale settings to scale my engraving work to fit the size of the blank I have included a calculation to position the cutter relative to the laser irrespective of the scale settings.

Tweakie.
         
PEACE