Now, i’m in a weird spot where I have a dual laser, and both lasers are creating the same problem, so i’m fairly certain this isn’t “an alignment problem” but it could still be a hardware problem?
I’ve been using this laser for almost two years now with no major problems until recently, I noticed the X AXIS cuts are patchy which the Y AXIS cuts are smooth. To clarify, the X AXIS cuts aren’t wobbly or anything like that, they are specifically “patchy” almost as if the laser isn’t consistently firing when it addresses the X AXIS?
Please let me know if you need any further information, I’ve tried so much already but I really am at a loss here.
System is a Generic Dual Laser Reci 100W, running Ruida 6445G
Sorry, I mainly cut MDF and Acrylic. I ran some more tests and it’s weird. The issue is only happening on certain parts of the bed, but as I say, it’s a dual laser, so it’s wrecking my brain as it’s happening at the same spots for both lasers, but not everywhere. It is repeatable though. So every cut will fail in the same locations, though on different designs its less noticeable…
It’s really frustrating me, hoping for some pointers!
As you’ll see in the photo all Y Axis cuts are fine and the X Axis cuts seem to be dotted/patchy. On that cut, two of the same cut to the right were fine, but the leftmost one had this problem
Oh, and this photo is from the BACK of the cut, the side not facing the laser, from the top it appears normal, but when you break the piece out, you can see that the failure is most of the way back up
When I look closely at the horizontal lines I see where is seems to skip and also where it is jagged.
I had a similar issue where I was getting jagged cuts and it was a loose mirror.I had check several times for a loose mirror and missed it. Wasn’t till I took each one out and put them back in that my problem went away.
It looks like the worst of it is right after a direction change. I would go through and make sure each mirror and the lens are tight, re align the beam path, then see how things look.
Thanks Joel, i’ll have a look at that. It’s just strange that it’s BOTH lasers which share the same X and Y drive-lines, but don’t share the same mirrors. Yet issue occurs in the same spots for them
Oh, interesting. So, without any context, I feel like you are saying my controller is somehow alternating between that curve to a point that doesn’t cut appropriately?
What would be the best way forward? The problem isn’t present on the Y AXIS, so should I try and lower the X start speed (As at least that’s independant to the Y AXIS?)
That’s right, that fact slipped out of my head when I thought about it more.
To what Jeff is pointing to, a quick test is to make your min and max power the same and try it.
If that does the same thing, what happens if you manually run the laser with the pulse control and job buttons?
Hard to test pulse as the x moves too fast to cut when I hold down pulse, unless you had some suggestions there.
So, testing with the MIN and MIX set to the same, no difference. (Though, it does make sense and I think I will be leaving them at the same number from now on now that I understand the starting distance and curve, etc.
But, it’s super odd, it seems to happen on certain parts of my cutting bed, but, every time, same places. That would say alignment, but it’s BOTH lasers, same spots…
PS: I really appreciate you both stepping in to help. I’m at a massive loss and jobs are starting to pile up. I’ve realigned laser two, i’ve cleaned the lenses, i’ve done a factory reset on the Ruida settings and then slowly changed them back to slow it down overall as at default settings my laser seeks far to quickly at idle, causing wobble…
Belts appear to be tight enough (to support cutting up to 30mm/s and seeking at around 100mm/s I think the 2nd laser being present means I’ll never get the speed up to that of a single laser
Actually. Follow up, the same files fail in the same areas repeatably (all files fail in some areas) but I notice it a lot more on acyrlic than anything else. Even on acyrlic pieces thats “don’t fail” it’s still more patchy on the X than on the Y which is much smoother…
I feel like somehow the X is not getting consistent power, when I watch the cuts, the X appears to be moving very smoothly, but it doesn’t make sense at all to me.
I’ll post up a file tomorrow (it’s 2:30 AM here, if I had any hair left i’d be pulling it out)
On the 6445G you can press the speed button to change the manual jog speed to match what you are cutting with, same with the power button to change the power used when pressing pulse.
