New LO DSP controller card with Dynamic Color LCD V7

[AndyKunz]

Nice!

What do you use for lights inside the enclosure? Got a photo?

I'm ready to add lighting to mine (900x600) and looking for ideas.

Andy

[MitchL]

What do you use for lights inside the enclosure? Got a photo?

I'm ready to add lighting to mine (900x600) and looking for ideas.

I'll dig up a photo of the LED strips or take one - my LEDs are from superbrightleds.com - part number NFLS-RGBW300X3-WHT. I've bought lots of LEDs from superbright in the past and have been pretty happy with their stuff.

The LED strips are controlled by a home-built supervisor microcontroller on my build, which is basically an Arduino with a bunch of relays, optoisolated inputs, and an RGB PWM controller on it. I can control the color and brightness of the LEDs, so it can be one color when idle, one when cutting, one when the red dot is on (to get better contrast), etc. This controller is the one that talks to the LCD to the left of the AWC on my build.

These LEDs have 3M sticky tape on the back and are attached to the underside of the gantry. The wires run through the E-chain to the microcontroller. I considered putting additional fixed LEDs, but ended up not doing it.

/Mitch.


The LED controller and connector are in the upper right corner of the board.

Maxduino, the laser supervisor

[AndyKunz]

Yeah, a 30-pin micro is pretty overkill for running LEDs.

I was more curious about the LED strip, how big it is and how it's mounted. I think the video shows the number, and it sounds like they're mounted to the bottom of the head.

I am more interested in work area lighting when the machine isn't operating, like when I'm loading wood into it.

Machine frame looks great, btw. I'm putting covering panels on mine today, red acrylic sides and lexan on the door. My shop stinks right now from the table sawing of the plastics.

Andy

[Greolt]

- There's a time-of-day clock on the screen that I can't figure out how to set. Perhaps that's settable in LaserCAD.

The engineer at Shenzhen Trocen Automation (manufacturers of the AWC708) sent me a program to set the clock.

PM me with your email if you would like it.

Greolt

[NickWL]

I bought a self-adhesive LED strip (a 5 metre reel) for about £5 ($7?) on eBay - they run on 12v straight off a tiny PSU. A simple mechanical switch turns them on and off.
They go right round the inside perimeter of the work area and light everything up really well.
Nick

[AndyKunz]

Such as item 390714045969

Andy

[Greolt]

Yeah I am with Nick above.

LED adhesive strip powered by a small 12v supply.

Only under the length of the gantry for me. On whenever the machine is powered up.

[MitchL]

Yeah, a 30-pin micro is pretty overkill for running LEDs.

I was more curious about the LED strip, how big it is and how it's mounted. I think the video shows the number, and it sounds like they're mounted to the bottom of the head.

The LED strip is from SuperBrightLEDs.com - it's about 1/2" wide and almost the length of the gantry. It can be cut at 3" strips. It is adhesive-backed, so I just stuck it on the bottom of the gantry extrusion. The wires run through the E-chain to the microcontroller.

I am more interested in work area lighting when the machine isn't operating, like when I'm loading wood into it.

Because I know when the machine is operating, when it's idle, when the doors are open or closed, etc., I can have different color schemes at different times. For example, when the red dot is on, the lights can be blue to provide good contrast.

Machine frame looks great, btw. I'm putting covering panels on mine today, red acrylic sides and lexan on the door. My shop stinks right now from the table sawing of the plastics.

Thanks! You used acrylic for your skins? I was afraid to do that, since I did not know for sure that even opaque acrylics are actually opaque to laser light. That's why I ended up with metal. If I knew that red acrylic was also opaque to laser light, I might have used that instead of metal. Much cheaper than waterjet time ... The datasheet for the regular acrylic doesn't specify the light transmissiveness at 10600nm.

/Mitch.

[andres.arena]

Ability to add a button to the software,
to take the work of a particular xy position,
when line breaks occur in the recording of an art.
Which happens to me on occasion with the consequence loss of material.

[andres.arena]

There are 3 different way to set the Origin: Software, Key, and the machine

Software: It follow whatever image location appears on LaserCad

I've tried to figure out what this one is doing, it doesn't make much sense. My test file in LaserCAD is simple: I draw a 10mm x 10mm box whose upper left corner is at (100,100) relative to the canvas. When I run this job, the box isn't anywhere near where I expect it to be. I expect the box to be cut 100,100 from somewhere.

Key: You move the laser head to whatever point you want to be the Origin, then press the button "Origin" and the machine pick that spot as origin even though after Reset is press

This is the most useful one to me. My DSP is set to "Key".

I expect pressing "Origin" on the DSP to set the point that corresponds to (0,0) on the drawing surface in LaserCAD.

I believe the issue is related to the little blue diamond that LaserCAD shows - This appears to be the software origin, and it is calculated to be the upper-left-most part of the figure to be cut. I would like to know how I can make that blue diamond always be at (0,0). Today I do this by adding a Pen Run around my figure.

Hopefully this will illustrate: When I create a new figure and put in my box, here is what I see in LaserCAD:

WeirdOrigin.PNG

The blue diamond seems to be the figure's origin. I will call this the "origin dot."

If I add another figure, the "origin dot" moves along with it.

WeirdOrigin2.PNG

What I want is for the origin dot to be at (0,0).

When I do a project, I am sometimes lasering onto an existing workpiece that has its datum in the upper left corner. The figures to be lasered are NOT at this location, but the workpiece is. So, if I want to laser a hole at some exact coordinates on my workpiece, I would like one corner to be the datum. The workflow would be:

- Draw the holes onto LaserCAD where I want them to be relative to (0,0). (for example, by importing a DXF from a CAD model).
- Install workpiece onto the laser, jog to the corner and press ORIGIN. Now the origin corresponds to the (0,0) on LaserCAD, which corresponds to the datum in the CAD model.
- Run the job.

Current software will assume that the left/top most piece of whatever is being lasered is the origin.

Unless of course there's some way to move that blue diamond to (0,0). Today I can easily do this by just putting some figure at that location, like a pen run.

I hope this makes sense, it's not easy to explain.

The front panel is my design. It intentional move the Z+/Z- from the top/bottom to the Right as I feel that it made more sens. All menu key are different thant the AWC708C and thanks to Li allow me to do the change. He is working on a custom copy of LaserCad for my X7. Once it is completed, only X7 can take advantage of new features in the future. Some guys who spent $100 less buying from China will not be able to use the new LaserCad. It is a way to protect me from my competitors. Advance version may need a dongle (security USB lock)

Well, as I said before, I like the button layout, the speed of the LCD, and the clear English text. Very nice. I'll be happy to keep updating my X7.

/Mitch.

Ability to add software, an option that diamond marking the orige can move the mouse to a desired position by user

[Tech_Marco]

It is impossible to start the cutting/engraving at physical (0,0) because the laser head need some distance to accelerate. LaserCad allow you to do 3 ways Origin: Software, Key, and Machine

Software: the laser head start at where your image file located on the screen
Key: You use the "Origin" key located on the LCD panel to set the origin point
Machine: Physical (0,0).

There is a button on the LaserCad "Position Relative" that you may want to try. It make the laser head to start in different location


Marco

[MitchL]

Hi Marco,

It is impossible to start the cutting/engraving at physical (0,0) because the laser head need some distance to accelerate.

I get that, but this is not what I'm asking for. (and adding a pen run box around my cut solves my problem, so I'm not asking for anything at all).

To me (as a hobby CNC person), the diamond is the datum, the point that all of the figures I am drawing, engraving, or cutting are relative to.

The Key Origin mode is most like the way the CNC works - you put your workpiece in, jog the machine to where your datum is, then zero the X and Y DROs. In the laser, you press the Origin button.

Now, the diamond on the screen exactly matches where the laser is. It is rarely the machine's home position, so there's always room to back up and accelerate.

I just wish there was a way to designate a point that is the same in LaserCAD as my CAD model. And, by drawing that pen run box around the job, I have exactly what I want.

/Mitch.

[Tech_Marco]

Mitch.

I was not replying to you but was intended to address it to "andres.arena" for his question about physical starting point. There were so many quotes from last message so may be I got confused you or him


Marco

[andres.arena]

Mitch.

I was not replying to you but was intended to address it to "andres.arena" for his question about physical starting point. There were so many quotes from last message so may be I got confused you or him


Marco

can you?
to take the work of a particular xy position,
when line breaks occur in the recording of an art.
Which happens to me on occasion with the consequence loss of material.

[Tech_Marco]

Hi Andres.arena

What did you see when the machine stopping working? Was LCD screen fade out then resetting itself like "Resetting...." something like that?

If you can, shoot me some video through YouTube. You can post Youtube here

Youtube link format:
[youtube] your video link here [/youtube]


Marco