What wattage diode is best for photo engraving if speed is not an issue

[Picengravertoo]

You can use any value between 0 for the minimum & .6477 the maximum, but you will only have 2 modulated voltage step changes with a min .2550 & max .2806.

Your better off to Dither your image in the editor and use a min 0 and max .2806 so the laser will just pulse on/off.

[chris190]

Thank You for your help Jeff! After re-reading the manual this makes more sense now. I will try again with min 0 and max -.6477 (depth) .. I will recheck the velocities and acceleration to make sure they match and I will play with the feed rate and focus.

I was reading how Jay @ J tech had the 2.8w feeding at 90ips with these settings... that would be 2286 mm/min feed rate on mine...so with a more powerful laser I may need to go above that.. If no success I will dither and just do on and off and see how that goes... I will also try on plywood instead of mdf.

Thanks again!!
Chris

[Picengravertoo]

Do you have the A axis set in Gen Config for Linear instead of Angular?

[chris190]

Hi Jeff,

Thank You!... unchecking that angular box in the config on Axis A and setting it to linear helped and now I can actually see the image but its pretty dark (see below links to pics) ..... the only problem I think I have now is feed rate... If I set it anything above 1600 mm/min it starts to move in small incremental raster moves....around 1500 mm/min is nice and smooth..... I did add the pre codes G90 and G64 and it doesn't seem to help.

Any idea how I can make the feed rate higher while keeping smoothness?

here is what it looks like now:

https://imgur.com/a/Wyiad - This is an image that is more or less monochrome...no shades of grey

https://imgur.com/a/njbiZ - this is the greyscale Test Pattern

Regards,

Chris

[Picengravertoo]

We have a 3040 with nema 23 with ball screws on the X&Y and I'm able to run at a smooth 2032mm/min with raster laser gcode files. Does your 6040 have nema 23 steppers with ball screws also?

Send me the Mach3 xml profile file your using to the registration email you received from us. I will load it in Mach3 tomorrow and take a look at it to see if there is anything obvious in your settings.

[chris190]

Although it doesn't say anything on the motor that I can see I believe they are as they look like Nema 23.... on the X and Y they look like the bigger nema 23 compared to Z which is smaller. Thank You for trying to help me...I e-mail the xml file.

[Picengravertoo]

I made a few changes and sent the xml file back to you.

[chris190]

Hi Jeff,

I got to try the xml you updated for me and it does move much better and smooth at that speed...I didn't notice any more incremental raster moves.....tho it still burns the image to much. I'm including links to 2 images and vid from when I tested it.

Image 1 which was done at 1800 mm/min : https://imgur.com/a/q2Ij1

Image 2 which was done at 2000 mm/min : https://imgur.com/a/pRcl9

Video at 2000 mm/min but slowed acceleration to 1800 as it skipped steps once : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGV3vnP ... e=youtu.be

In the images it seems the first 5 squares appear much whiter than the rest then it darkens out.

One thing I notice and you might be able to tell from the vid is when the laser burns the grid of the squares the motor on Axis X also stops/slows for a fraction of a second when it actually burns the lines of the grid....although the rest of the motion is smooth... is this normal? shouldn't just the intensity of the laser change and not affect the motor movement?

[Picengravertoo]

I can't watch the video because it is not set for Unlisted or Public.

[chris190]

Sorry about that.. I set it to public now.

here is the updated link: