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Needles to say today was a great day of learning. A few things that I have found out:
When the laser is running but not engraving it is not a power issue with the laser. From a fresh start I can enter command M03 S15 to see where the laser is located, and then enter M03 S255 and it will come on full power. After doing this I had my meter and camera on and then running the same gcode a 2nd time it worked flawlessly. Seems to be an issue in the picsender software somehow.
I took a short video of the laser activation but not engraving. Video
After I was able to get the laser running I did 2 runs of my logo, 1st on the left at 45 degrees left angle, and the 2nd on the right at 45 degrees right angle. The left angle looked darker, and much better overall than the right angle, but the outer edge around the circles are all jagged. Is this normal, or can this be cleaned up somehow, size is 2.6" squares, running at 70ipm?
In Laser Mode, you can use the Sx jog & M03 button to have the laser come on, Manual Move menu, or have the same M03 Sx command in a gcode file will be the same power. There is no issue with PicSender. It will only send the user executed commands to grbl.
How to improve your B&W engravings is to increase the DPI before bringing them into the editor for resizing. It will save at 100DPI before opening it again for Dithering. There are 11 different Dithering Algorithms to choose from, so experiment with the others. Try the Atkinson Algorithm as it’s adjustable.
The reason you get different results at different engraving angles is, the J-Tech single element glass lens does not focus to quite a round spot. How you resolve this is, raise the Z axis so the laser is way out of focus. The beam will be a rectangular shape. Loosen the screw in front of the heat sink and rotate the module so the long side of the beam is parallel with one of the 45D L or R engraving angles. Tighten up the screw and move Z back down to a 3" distance from the face of the heat sink and your material. We use a piece of black anodized aluminum to focus on to see when it’s the smallest. After you get it focused, secure the lens in place with a few dabs of hot melt glue from the lens thread to the heat sink/module.
Always use this same engraving angle in the PEP5 settings. Try using the Extended Edge setting in PEP5 so the laser runs past the edge before reversing directions. You can set a feedrate in this area so it slows before reversing directions too.
You will have to go through a trial & error period to get the results you require!
Thank you so much for all of your help with this process. You have been an amazing guide! Thanks again for everything, I will play with the system more tonight!!
What great information. I started working with the machine around 2pm and got the laser dialed in, did my first test and it looked amazing at 70 ipm, .006 res, with the exception that I had generated the gcode with both 45 left, and 45 right passes checked. I then generated the gcode again and ran it at 90 and it looked very bad on the edges. I am not sure if it is my x-carve or not but when running at 70 imp, and especially faster like the 90 ipm when it gets to the end of the line and changes directions is does so fast in a manner that looks like the laser is still bouncing from the abrupt change.
I am currently at the end of my rope for tonight. I have tried so many different passes with varying degrees of success, however what stumps me the most, is I can not get a picture to convert to the correct size.
I have a 4" round ornament I am trying to engrave. I created the images in Illustrator at correct size, and then opened in Photoshop. I verified the file size, the example is 3.6"x3.7" centered on my 4" circle.
I then go to file and save as a jpeg. I reopened the jpeg in Photoshop and went to Image > Image Size and again verified as a Jpeg the image is 3.6"x3.7".
I am at a loss. I just want to be able to make an image, that is going to properly work the first time. I went in many times and resized this image down using Picengrave Image Edit, however it still did not seem to be proportion. It would show the image size as 3.5" but engrave at about 1.5"?
Am I missing something? Sorry for the long drawn out questions, I just want to make sure I am explaining everything correctly.
There is nothing in my statement that says to increase the PPI. Does Photoshop give you the DPI option for re-sampling? If so, try a 300DPI and open it in the PEP5 image editor to resize, save, reopen and then Dither.
The Auto resizing was added so users did not have to calculate based on the Pixel Resolution setting.
The Pixel Resolution sets the step ahead and step over when generating the gcode. The resizing instructions I gave here will be correct for engraving the proper size when using PicEngrave Pro 5, or our PicLaser image to gcode program.
Did you try the Extended Edge and set a slower feedrate when it reverses directions? You can extend the place where it reverses directions past your engraving far enough so there is no resonance in your engraving from your machine jarring. The distance is settable.
This statement explains it all.
I have a Shapeoko 2 with a 6W LD. I know what works with it, but all I can do is give you a general idea how to make it work with your X-Carve and your laser. There are many setting scenarios to give many different results. After you get the settings correct for a particular material and the type of image your engraving, save the settings for the engraving profile here.
Again, what a great help you have been. I have now been able to get the images resized correctly. I had misread one of the prior responses. I do have another question for you though, as I continue working with speed rates do you have a particular image that you would use to calibrate your setup?
Save this PDF to your hard drive, then copy the grayscale image and use it to generate the gcode. This may not help you much with just B&W laser engraving though.
