Hi Folks, long time lurker, first time poster here. Good to make a little contribution eventually(I hope).
So I have been reading on the forums about Z-axis support or the lack there of for Galvo Systems.
I am running a Hao Tian 60 Watt Mopa and eventually I got sick of cranking the handwheel / adjusting the focus with sticks and rough mm scales.
I if you are trying to achieve consistent results as far as colour graduation or corrosion resistant annealing marks are concerned you need to have fine pitched and repeatable Focus control.
I thought I share how I am tackling it on a budget.
Will upload some images, once I have figured out how that works around here.
So far I have mounted a stepper to the Z=axis, still waiting on the driver. Next I have a Shahe Linear scale and DRO mounted to the Z-axis column at this point independent from all the rest, but I might run the encoder signal into the Arduino Nano later on. I have printed a little Z-axis pendant with an encoder wheel that will also house the Arduino Nano, with a selector switch for encoder output scaling and four RGB momentary switches . One to trigger the cycle, one for homing the Z axis. The other two buttons will move the Z-axis to the right Z-axis height for the 210mm and 110mm lens. button functionality, axis movement is all going to be rather straight forward to program for the Arduino Nano.
So the Idea is to have the Arduino run a homing sequence to establish a machine Zero point against a limit switch and then bring it to its right focal distance in relation to the table. I use a little height gauge to determine the height of the engraving object and use the Handwheel and the DRO to establish the correct height for the Z-axis.
Later on I want to replace the Display that came with the Shahe DRO against a little Oled display for the arduino, but that is down the track. From here on out it should also be relatively straight forward to use the arduino to step down the Z-axis incrementally after each engraving pass for deeper engraving or cutting applications… Let me know if you guys are interested in the code or any components used…will post progress as I plot along.
Cheers
slick, I like the button box
How is the setup working out? That is something I would like to do to my lasers.