Homing laser wrong corner and hitting gantry at speed

LightBurn Hardware Compatibility Ruida controllers
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I picked it up from Russ. Without his help, I’d probably be lost. I also have my tube, mirror 1 replaced with his 1 piece model.

I bought this to learn on, it sure did that… :slight_smile:

It also has taught me a lot about fundamental operation at the lowest level, with an engineer explaining the math along with it… I can consistently produce a 0.1mm dot at 1650mm/s. But there’s really no advantage of running at those speeds, except for the ‘thrill’ of it. Most of the best engraving appears to occur at slower speeds, usually below 300mm/s, in my opinion.

It does pay off in how big an image you can engrave, because what really matter is head mass. I can engrave at a reasonable speed and with the high acceleration ability it can slow down, turn around and go the other way in less distance than with all the weight it had originally.

It also increased the bed to 511mm x 340mm, and extra 440 sq/mm. I have engraved 12"x12" mirrors with the extra space.

I think the biggest epiphany of them all was the realization you have no control over power, just feed rate. :slight_smile:

:smiley_cat:

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KT332N password is RX6666

2 Likes
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Ruida settings.lbset (12.7 KB)
I changed the file to the lbset as the LB file wasn’t uploading correctly.
It’s all there, good luck :+1:

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Gentlemen

What can I say but a heart felt thank you to one and all for help and guidance.

Back as should be top right and working fine apart from x 0 y0 not starting from there saying x y oversized, suspect I just need to step it out a bit. Also the bed although set in device settings at 700 by 500 cutting a lot smaller more 250x 500.

The issue of getting access directly to the controller, none of the passwords work and even the manufacturer who just messaged says default is RT6666. After having said try HF6666.

Guess what heehaw. Will keep pushing them as clearly some issue with controller however thanks to you guys access via Lightburn all that is need.

:clap: :+1:

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I was toying with the idea to do several upgrades myself but lost the nerve :sweat_smile:
The laser head is still on the agenda it’s just getting the time.
Agree with the speed setting for engraving, 400mm/sec is max and as you say the slower the better usually it’s 350mm/sec but i’m still testing.
I find 270-280 dpi works real well on photos.

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It’s not easy to take a working machine and start hacking on it, especially with the initial cost involved. It doesn’t help that the ‘fear’ of this stuff drives most decision.

First time I took the head assembly apart I was uncomfortable, by the 10th time, didn’t think much about it and it went quickly. Now I take it apart at the least whim and don’t worry about it.

There are a lot of things to take into consideration if you wish to do an upgrade. I’m not completely done with mine operating at the level I want. However it is operational and hauls butt (censored the original word :frowning:) if I want it to.

The dpi game is another thing I question. Last years in high school we were allowed to take classes at the local college. I took one in lithography and really enjoyed it, ended up taking a bunch of them. Both those offset printers and our lasers have a common thread, in that it prints dots or ink/no-ink. Probably the best illusion for photographs to be printed in b&w as the press found.

Of course it depends on what you are doing, but I don’t know if I can get a dot smaller than 0.1mm at this point. I’m using a compound lens, properly focused (I hope…) but smaller dots elude me. This means that if I don’t want to ‘cover’ a previous ‘dot’ I must be at least that far away. Meaning that the best I can do with ‘dots’ is (25.4 mm/inch) / (0.1 mm dot) = 254 dpi. At best I can only get 254 dots in an inch. If I try to get a higher dpi, then I must be writing over my previous dots to some extent. That can’t be good.
Add to that some of these places advertise 1000 dpi for their lasers… dot size of 0.0254?

Moving by the end of month, so I’ll have access to my microscope then and I’ll have a better shot at seeing what I’m doing :slight_smile:

I’ve used some of the other ‘dither’ type options, but don’t think I’ll be happy until I can make a good newsprint type image. Years of photography kind of spoiled me… I’ve gotten some pretty good images with some of the other options, but this is an area of expertise that’s on it’s own path I’d like to follow…

I think the slower I engrave the better the results, meaning the need for low power. I used to want a more powerful machine, I use the minimum possible, anything above the ~9% where it will lase. On my machine, maybe 5 watts, it would be double that on a 100 watt machine and make some of my images what I call ‘blown out.’ So I’ll probably stay in the zone I’m in as far as power. Speed wise seems to be around 150mm/s for most of my ‘engraving’ library.

Of course I could have another epiphany and change my mind :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Take care, keep us updated.

:smiley_cat:

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Hi, i’m back, been doing more trials going on what you said about your speed, power, dpi etc.
Now downed the speed to 250, power 24% and gradually bringing down the dpi, at the moment down to 245dpi which is where it seems to be peaking so not much further to go as far as dpi.
Often wish i had gone for a lower power model but one of these days i’ll make more room and get the little Ortur off the wall.
Does the compound lens make a lot of difference?
I tend to use stucki and halftone for best results, dither tends to make the engrave on ply look as though it’s begun melting :thinking:
Guess i’ve had some pretty good engraves but as i always say ‘can always find fault in your own work’ :pensive:
Do you also make things or do you stick to the engraving?

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Mine is a CO2 machine. The compound lens makes the smallest dot for engraving. Don’t know what’s available for ssl.

The newspapers and book printers have used, what I was taught as a halftone, in print, forever… They call it newsprint in the gui, as far as I can tell. So until I see differently, I tend to use the dot to make images.

Whatever works for you is pretty much the goal. :slight_smile:

I try all areas. I never know what I think until I’ve tried it from a reality viewpoint. Thought the honeycomb beds were great also… So much for the initial ideas… :slight_smile:

Take care :smiley_cat:

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