As I’m still familiarizing myself with both my G·Weike Cloud 50W CO² Laser and LightBurn I’ve come across various intriguing YouTube Videos discussing such topics as the Print & Cut, Laser Position and Laser Fire Button features of which some seem to have requirement I don’t seem to meet out of the box.
Print & Cut ( Alt+0 ) and Laser Position ( Alt+L )
Both of these seem to rely on the Machine having a Red Dot Laser indicating where a Cut will happen for aligning a Workpiece to the Machine OR the Machine to the Workpiece - Something my Cloud doesn’t ship with.
What my CloudDOES come with though is a Fisheye Camera built into the Top Door.
Can this - at least to some degree - be used as a substitute for the lack of a Red Dot Laser?
I guess I won’t be using it for realigning a 2nd Cut to a 1st one that didn’t went through but would it suffice for stuff like doing an outline cut of an image?
Laser Fire Button
One of the Videos was demonstrating the possibility of adding a Laser Fire Button to then be found in the LightBurn Move Tab - Is this a perhaps a Laser Type specific setting that cannot be enabled for a CO² machine cause sure enough I cannot find the option to even enable the Button in the Device Settings like demonstrated in the Video.
Also concerning the lack of a Red Dot on a Machine like the G·Weike Cloud or the Omtech Polar 350… Does anyone have any experience regarding the addition of a Beam Combiner Lense/Mirror to them?
Based on my very limited understanding - It looks like all it would require is the addition of a Mount for holding the Combiner Lense into the path of the CO² Laser which - while not yet clearance tested with the likes of a 3D Print - should be achievable by putting such an assembly right behind the 2nd of three Mirrors - No?
Without a pointer I would say there’s no value in attempting Print & Cut alignment. You’d be better off just attempting placement based on camera image. Whether or not this works for you will depend on your requirements for tolerance. When well tuned I’d suggest you can expect placement precision to within less than a millimeter but this value could easily be in the millimeter or more range.
As you suspect, this is not for DSP controlled lasers. It’s available in g-code systems. In reality, it’s not appropriate for any CO2 laser irrespective of controller type and is meant for diode lasers.
Not familiar with your model specifically.
I’ve never seen a beam combiner at M2. These are typically at M1.
You’re dealing with a physics problem here. While something like this might be possible the solution could be impractical.
The other solution to consider. Many red laser pointers are not beam combined solutions at all. They’re simply laser pointers that are head mounted and aim at the material. The dot should be aligned to the primary laser beam at the focal height of the material. This has its own limitations but something to consider.
I have it on my 60W laser and it is very stable and accurate. On my K40, I used the same system, but with two line lasers as cross-reference lasers - worked very well but uses a little extra space.
Yea… The Cloud and Polar 350 Tubes are basically touching the entry point of the combined M1 & M2 Housing as such installing a Beam Combiner seems to be only possible somewhere in between M2 and M3 with the location right after M2 appearing as the most suitable one as it clears the Tool Heads range of Motion.
The Head mounted Laser Pointers were definitely one of my first concepts to cross my mind, but the Tool Head used in these Machines isn’t really designed for such additions. If possible, I’d like to do it “right” and using a Beam Combiner seems to be the way to do it.
Hopefully nothing that gets you killed. But the way I’ve seen the combiners work is that you have a partial mirror/lens that allows the CO2 laser light to pass through while the mirror/lens is mounted at 45 degrees. Then the red light is reflected off the back of the mirror and redirected 45 degrees to what should now be a colinear beam with the CO2 light. However, from experience it’s a real challenge to make sure the beam stays sufficiently colinear throughout travel. I don’t know how changing the angle of the lens/mirror would affect the CO2 laser but the idea fills me with dread based on the pain I experienced with doing this at M1.
There’s also a beam dump and heatsink for the waste light from the main laser beam reflected off the combiner mirror. It’s usually a black block directly opposite the red dot laser, sometimes with fins, to absorb and dissipate the energy. Might be only a few percent of the main beam, but you don’t want it loose inside the cabinet.
