sethripley
December 10, 2020, 8:56pm
1
So I’m fairly new to lasers, but am loving every minute of it! These forums have been a HUGE help, so thank you all for sharing tips and tricks.
I’ve recently run into an issue that I haven’t seen addressed on this forum, so please help!
I have a fairly weak laser with a GRBL controller, and no auto-focus.
I am attempting to fill a large section of a wood slice magnet, so I tried the crosshatch setting for the first time. What I found is that the first direction it burns (we’ll call it phase 1) does so at drastically reduced power. I have my fill set to 100% (albeit on a pretty weak 2.5w output laser). On the second pass (phase 2), it burns as normal. Yet try as I may every time I do the crosshatch it starts out with the weak power, and I cannot seem to find any setting to adjust this.
Is this a glitch in the software? Some focusing issue on my part? A setting that I’m somehow missing?
Thanks so much for your time, I hope I can find a solution to this!
What is the maximum speed of your laser in X & Y, and what speed have you chosen for the fill?
Also, diodes often focus to a line, not a point, and if that line is horizontal, that’s your optimum direction for power.
sethripley
December 10, 2020, 10:10pm
3
Thanks so much for your quick reply!
I attached an image with my speed settings. I used a speed of 450 for the crosshatch fill. I also experimented with 750 and 650 and the speed didn’t seem to change anything. I also have the line intervals pretty high (I believe .35) to have a distinct crosshatch pattern.
Thanks again for the quick response!!
sethripley
December 10, 2020, 10:12pm
4
Also, regarding the focus; in the same burn I’m also burning text with the laser going in all directions. There haven’t been any focus issues there, it started only with the criss hatch setting.
Thank you
Read the words on the screen shot you sent.
You said you used a speed of 450. 450 what? (mm/sec, mm/min, inches/decade, parsecs/fortnight?)
sethripley
December 11, 2020, 1:26pm
7
Lol sorry I’m fairly new to lasers and didn’t think to mention that; it was 450 mm/min
sethripley
December 11, 2020, 1:32pm
8
…sorry I’m not sure what you’re getting at? I try to decipher the settings but still feel like I’m learning a new language
Before you edited it, the screen shot was this one:
You have a diode laser - does it focus to a tiny dot, or a small line? If it’s a line, is the line horizontal? If so, that’s why when burning vertically you get less power.
sethripley
December 11, 2020, 5:45pm
10
Yes sorry I saw that because I wasn’t connected to the laser I had taken a screenshot of the wrong thing.
The laser focuses to a tiny dot, not a line. And I’m burning on a 45 degree angle for the crosshatch.
There’s only one power setting for crosshatch, so I still suspect a rectangular beam, or some other issue with the laser, wood grain, etc.
If you click “Save GCode” and post the output here I can verify that the power outputs are correct.
sethripley
December 12, 2020, 2:09am
12
; LightBurn 0.9.18
sethripley
December 12, 2020, 2:10am
13
This isn’t my whole burn, but the forum wouldn’t let me post the whole thing so I removed other components and made the size of what I’m trying to crosshatch smaller to fit the gcode in the reply. Let me know if you need anything else or have any other suggestions.
I meant attach the text file , not copy the text into a message. Regardless, every line of that file is showing F4500 and S255 (75mm/sec) and 100% power during the cross-hatch, and 300mm/min (5mm/sec) for the final cut. The issue is the diode.
sethripley
December 14, 2020, 7:38pm
15
My apologies, I misunderstood.
Thank you very much for taking a look at it! Could it be a focus issue, or with it burning correctly in the second direction do you think it’s not the focus but that the diode itself is going bad?
Thank you again for taking the time to consider the issue, I really appreciate it!
If the diode were going bad, it wouldn’t work in either direction. High power diodes are usually rectangular arrays of emitters, not just a single emitter, so they work best if you move with the long side.
system
January 13, 2021, 8:26pm
17
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