Hi everyone,
Hope someone can help with this. So I have the Masuter with the 20W laser, and I’ve been trying to learn the laser engraving, but think I’m doing something wrong with the basics.
I’m trying to engrave the the photograph on the square piece of wood (poplar). I’ve successfully managed to do this a few other times, but the power and speeds that worked were 500mm/min at 0.1% power which seem very slow & weak, and takes nearly
seven hours. These were the same settings used for the small test square (which I’m happy with) but then went to do the full piece and half way up gets this like patchiness? Don’t know what to call it. This is the second attempt after sanding the whole piece down after the first one to the same result.
Any help to try and sort this/explain would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
These are the only 2 things that stick out to me in your settings. Is there a reason why your max spindle speed/power is 10000? Do you use this for CNC operations as well? This by itself isn’t a problem because your S Value Max correlates in Device Settings so it should be working correctly.
$32=0 has disabled laser mode. Generally you would want this to be on. It will have an effect on burn quality by preventing burning when the laser head slows down. However, it should not have the effect you’re seeing in your burns. I suggest you turn this on either in Machine Settings or by typing $32=1 in Console. You probably want to take a backup of your settings before doing this.
I reviewed the .lbrn file for any issue and don’t see anything unusual there other than the incredibly low power setting.
By the way, not sure why you had a problem but normally you can upload .lbrn and .lbrn2 files to the forum without issue. Other files like types you would have to disguise by changing the extension to .txt or something that’s recognized.
It’s unclear why your power settings are wonky but I’d guess that it’s your controller not interpreting things correctly.
A few questions:
What power level is your Fire button set to? Does it burn when enabled or just enough to see the light?
Have you tried running a test pattern to see how your laser behaves at other power levels? Might be worth a shot. I’m almost wondering if you’re not getting any power modulation at all.
Can you confirm that the device type for your laser in LightBurn has been configured as GRBL and not anything else like GRBL-M3. Click the Devices button in the Laser window and it will list your laser by type and name.
Fire button at 0.1% burning stuff at least is consistent but is definitely a problem. I suspect for some reason you’re not getting power modulation. Either from your controller or possibly your laser module doesn’t support it.
So I’ve done some quick tests (attached) and I’m 99% sure that this $32 setting was the problem, these were all done between 1500 - 2000 mm/min and between 10 & 20% max power. Will do the full engrave tomorrow and update the post if all turns out well but thank you so so much, has saved my sanity!!!
