These damn issues keep coming up and I am totally stumped. So…I do tests…no not lightburn material tests, because I’m pretty sure I screwed up default settings and it makes it unreliable. Maybe…well no I did, misunderstand settings and saw no matter what default was, it was not at ‘highest speed’ for test cut and my text was overburnt. Regardless, I have no idea now what default settings are supposed to be. So what I do now is cut a rectangle at about 3mm width and 2mm high, a hex shape at 3mm and an 8mm filled square. I run it multiple times, I dial in settings, and presto, not even close to an actual project. Most of the time the issue is cutting it, not engraving. I realize if projects are resized, there is a good chance of over burning the fill, but I am so confused as to why an offset cut line, on a seperate layer would not even come close to burning through when my test cut did it easily. Totally confused.
To make matters worse, when I go back and try say after an hour…same sheet of 3mm wood, it now works as it should. I did 10 ornaments with 4 layers of engrave/cut and they all came out exact duplicates. Copied same settings for a different engrave and cut file, and once again it did not cut. Not even close. Running 48 watt at 500 mm/m at 70%.That’s excessive imo.
Could it be the board? Does anyone have any ideas? Maybe its switching somehow to a 24 watt…but even that should probably come close to cutting 3mm wood at those settings. Should have just bought a Lasermatic 20. Not sure why it doesn’t cut…then does. Will reach out to them tomorrow (ha ha…I imagine that will go over well). I’d appreciate any ideas. Thanks guys and gals.
Oh…forgot to mention that sometimes when I start a job (user origin, lower left is where I start) and make sure green dot is lined up to actual start position of job, the laser will jog to the right and stop…the message I get is hard stop. I’m in the middle of workspace…nowhere near where a limit switch would trigger. Maybe firmware is bad, not sure. Something doesn’t seem to be communicating correctly.
I don’t know how they handle switching between power modes or if there are any firmware changes involved, but it would make sense that yourachine is randomly switching power “gears”.
Is there any type of visual indicator of “gear” other than mechanical switch position?
There may well be a loose connector or something similar inside the module. Not easy to get in there. I have taken the fan and air nozzle out, but stopped before I got as far as the laser module itself. Since I’m still under warranty, I didn’t want to risk breaking a thermal interface or anything.
I thought of it switching power by itself, but the only way to do that is a manual switch which shows an led light next to the 24 or 48 setting. My led power meter on the front does not work, and never has. It’s supposed to show the approximate power level currently used by means of, I think, 10 or so lights. I have taken the laser shield and metal cover off to get to the lens to clean it. I was actually amazed that it was spotless. I would think even at 24 watt power, it should come close to cutting through 3mm at those settings. Its pretty random as to when it happens, also pretty random when it changes back to normal. I ran 10 cuts of same file with it being perfect, then it just wouldn’t cut or engrave correctly. I am sure it is not overheating as each engrave/cut was done in around 6 minutes and I only did 3 at a time as my honeycomb bed is quite small. I also waited almost an hour before attempting the new file.
I’ve reached out to Ikier via email. I’ll just have to wait to see what they say. I need to get almost 200 ornaments done in less than 2 weeks. I might have to switch back to my sculpfun s10 although its not a really great choice for cutting wood quickly.
Yes I did. Still no reply yet, but not really expecting one soon. I believe, after another wasted day trying everything I could possibly think of, I have a partial solution. This has nothing to do with limit switch triggering in middle of workspace or Z limit switch NOT triggering everytime and ramming into the work piece forcing me to hit the power switch. Definite issues still with probably control board.
Apparently sometimes after a job is completed and the laser returns to, in my case, starting point, the z axis also moves. We all know a few mm makes all the difference. So I’d do a test, reposition the laser head via lightburn and run my file thinking the z axis didn’t change. And it doesn’t ALL the time. That was the confusing part. So while a pain, now after tests on the same piece of wood, I will rehome and reset the z axis (and hope it doesn’t slam into workpiece) and for the most part it seems to work. There seems to be something just not right with the control board imo.
I agree. The inconsistent behavior you report most certainly does NOT agree with my experience. We do share some issues, but that’s not one of them. Other than noisy/intermittent com signal, I can’t think of anything other than a controller/diode driver problem on you particular machine. Very disappointing.
Yeah to say the least. Live and learn. After doing 2 great test burns, back to same old issues. Its gotta be the board. They need to make this right. Ikier/Atomstack. Something is seriously wrong with focus. And the manual focus bar they provide…well states it’s a certain length, but the first mm reading is 1+ mm off. Just sad to pay this kind of money for a machine with this many issues. Just wrong. I won’t be hesitant to bad mouth them on every social media platform I have available to me if this isn’t fixed. It’s just not worth the material or my time to troubleshoot every single burn…and still have it all over the place.