Max Power on engraving vs. cutting? (AWC/LO-X//Lasercad)

[typomaniac]

Hello,

i have got a question regarding my 40 w laser with the LO-X7 (AWC 708 lite) from Lightobject. My Power supply is the 40 to 60 w from LO. The tube is a 40 W from ebay (but it is shorter than the one from LO so i think it has less power). I use the DC 0-100mA Analog Panel Meter for checking the operating current (i try not to exceed 16mA). When it comes to cutting acrylic i use a speed of 6 with 38 percent power which gives me steady 16mA on the panel meter. Now my question is: Do i need to increase the power for engraving? I tried 42 percent power at 200 speed and the laser never exceeded 12 mA on the meter. Maybe it is just to slow to show but i wanted to make sure that i use the most available power since i have some problems with cermark which may relate to the power.

thank you very much,

tm

[brian257]

You won't get an accurate power reading when engraving because the laser is turning on and off. The max power you use when cutting is the max you should use engraving, but it will read lower on the meter.

[Tech_Marco]

If the eBay is shorter than our 40W, chance is that the tube you have is a 32W tube.
If 30% could get you 16mA current output during cutting, then 30% seems is the ceiling of output and you don't want to tune it higher than 30%. Engraving speed is consider much higher when compare to the cutting. Either digital or an analog meter (needle)just can't react to the high speed swing.

Marco