Honestly not sure if its hardware limitations, or an issue with software, but it only happens when I am etching a large image (the one I was working on was a 12"x22" wood burn). The burn will start properly, but as it works up the image the laser will not burn all the way to the left of the axis, and start the next line an inch or two over. Periodically it will go back to the proper left edge of the image, then it will overshoot and start farther left then the farthest left edge, back and forth. The attached image shows basically what is happening. Each of those lines edges should be farther left than the edge of the board.
It doesn’t seem to matter if I use absolute coordinates or current position.
OMTECH 2440 100w
Asus ROG with windows 10
Image Mode: Dither
Line Interval:.064
DPI:396.9
Image Size 4991x8731
Speed: 230 mm/s
The amount of slip from one line to the next is unusually large, which suggests a loose pulley on the X axis motor or a very loose X axis belt.
However, the description of the OMTech 2440 suggests it has an entirely different X & Y axis drive mechanism than the older (and cheaper) machines I’m familiar with. That doesn’t rule out a mechanical issue, so look carefully to see if anything is loose in there.
One trick to help find loose pulleys: draw a line across the motor shaft and the pulley with a Sharpie. If the pulley is loose, a brisk test pattern will misalign the line.
I’m fairly certain it’s software not hardware. It only happens when i try to burn higher resolution images. I changed to a different image and everything worked fine. It is also a problem I’ve had on 3 different of our machines. I’ll definitely double check all the mechanical aspects of it to make sure though.
I’m not sure if this is another indicator of software or not, but i was burning an image 24 inches wide on a 40 inch bed, and it canceled the burn because if lack of extend space (image centered on bed). I would think 8 inches extend space on each side should be enough, even burning at 230 mm/s (iirc)
Sometimes the layer will have a speckle far off to one side that’s invisible to humans (who are not looking for it), but will trip the controller’s limit checks.
That seems unrelated to the initial problem you described, though, so check out all those mechanical bits.
