Creatily Falcon 2 Pro S disappointment- Alternatives?

Community Laser Talk
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Bottom Line Up Front: Looking for recommendations for alternative laser!

A 20w Diode should be sufficient for what want to do (mostly cut 1/8" plywood and basswood, plus smaller thickness cardboard/laserboard/taskboard sheets. And hopefully cut, or at least scribe styrene.)

Well, I got to the point where I was ready to connect using the Creality software to actually burn something. First I tried engraving, that worked OK, but for the test scrap cardboard I would need a lot more investigation to get expected results. So then I tried to cut out a rectangle from that cardboard. Again, I’m sure I need to investigate settings to get the piece to cut properly. BUT the evacuation fan didn’t work, so the box was full of smoke.

I probably could test the evacuation fan, but frankly that’s a hassle, plus if it’s not the fan, then I’m into bigger problems. And there are some other smaller issues with this, including a part that seems to stick out where it shouldn’t.

Now ‘no fan’ strikes me as a safety hazard, on top of ‘new product not working out of the box’. I’m not impressed with Creality’s tech support. A machine in this class should have a 2 digit LED for error code read-out, not “listen for beeps and watch the blinky lights to guess which error code this is…” And the AI ChatBot provided links to 2 videos on a server in China that wouldn’t display (probably some browser security feature, but still…)

So, looking for advice from the collected wisdom here. I’d probably get an XTool S1 if the 20w version was in stock I do like the idea of an enclosed unit, so I could run this (with an air filter) in the basement. Thanks in advance!

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A 10w will cut this in one pass.

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I think it’s fair to say that XTool’s GRBL implementation is sufficiently quirky to appear deliberately nonstandard, with LightBurn consistently trying to keep up with whatever problems their latest revisions produce:

https://forum.lightburnsoftware.com/search?expanded=true&q=xtool%20grbl

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Thanks, that’s helpful.

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Don’t let the laser module suck in too much of that smoke, especially if your cutting wood with glue etc in it.

I’m pretty sure your going through the usual teething issues that do occur so go through the assembly instructions and look for what might be the issue with the fan. As said previously, watching and reading others issues with any parts may clue you in…even if it’s not the same make model. Stuff like, is the connector the right way around. At this early stage I’d bet the problem is New info overload and your not seeing the obvious…Perfectly normal!

20w may take a few repetitive cuts to do the job, burning with too much power will not get you a good result. My 20w when new took 6 cuts for 5mm ply.

Focus on one issue and move on till all is well

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