1200*1800 XY stages. Huge!

[drandolph]

I've been busy on all fronts of the build and I thought I would share where I'm at.
I've designed some 3D printed parts to help with the build and if you plan on doing it then these might help.

I'm made a mount to clamp a printable cable chain to the nema 23 motor. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:45403

I also designed a solution to mount a cable chain to the x-gantry so you can run air-assist and any other wires you need. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:45401

Considering the tube mounts had narrow v-mounts and I wanted the tube to have better support I designed these adapters http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:45399


I hope to finish the skinning of the frame by this weekend and finally start wiring the whole thing up and configure, test everything.

[Tech_Marco]

I'll take some time tomorrow to setup a DSP & drivers to do basic testing. I'll get you the some basic parameters that you need to drive the stage like the 'um' value. Since no laser tube is installed yet, the only way I can get the 'um' is using masking tape and pencial. But it should be 99% in accuracy

Can't wait to see your system 'taking off' soon!

Marco

[drandolph]

Got the sides on the frame and I hope to get it upstairs tomorrow and start doing the fun work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZcKJ5L-mnk

[drandolph]

Giant laser build update #3 getting it to its final home and the gantry placed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPXPfXlTnBE

[Tech_Marco]

Let me get you the wiring setup for the 57HS22 motor first.

A1+ Red
A1- Blue
A2+ Green
A2- Yellow


B1+ Black
B1- Brown
B2+ Orange
B2- White


To pair up in parallel mode, do this:
A+ "Red + Green"
A- "Blue + Yellow"

B+ "Black + White"
B- "Brown + orange"



Marco

[Tech_Marco]

Update: "UM" for both X and Y is "9.862364" and it should get you closed to 99.9%. You may do fine tune on yours.
The resolution on the motor driver is "3200" or "1/16"

When I tested mine, I ran X at 1000mm/s without losing steps. I'll test more later.

Have fun!

Marco

[Tech_Marco]

Just set it up today and ran a couple test on it. It ran very smooth and no missing at 1000mm/s (X).
I posted a video on Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKbLs07OD_s

[drandolph]

Thanks for the UM Marco that saves me a lot of time. I had guessed it to be around 8-9 so I was pretty close.

I've been tweak and working on it most of the day and I'm almost there.

Here is my #5 update http://t.co/qpfBcNvO



I do have some questions / observations for you and everyone doing something like this.

#1 I'm using the M542ES drivers with the following settings.
peak 3.76/RMS2.69 Half Current 3200 pulse/rev
I have the 24v 15amp PS

For some reason using the same UM I start missing steps after 400mm/s and thats if I use it from the panel or software. Any thoughts on what I'm missing?
Here are all of my relevant settings.



#2 Water protect
I know there is a protect pin on each laser input but no matter if I take that pin to gnd or 5v it always shows a fault. I'm wondering if there is something else it is looking for? PWM/TTL/etc. For the meanwhile I'm just turning that off and putting my water protect inline with the WP on the laser power supply.


#3 While I know Marco doesn't sell these I just wanted to warn everyone else about the Water chillers CW-3000

They are nothing more than a coil with a pump and water meter. I open mine up to look for a way to switch it to 110v and I found a coil and pump and flow meter with a 12v wall wart zip tied in there. You've been warned.


#4 Reset homing speed
Is there a way to change that speed? It takes a long time for it to get to home on such a large build. For now I think I will turn off the home on reset so I can just park it at the speed of the keypad.

#5 Point of origin for a job
With my other cutters I usually move my laser head to where I want to start the cut however the way this is currently set up it always starts from home. Is there a way to change it to start from current location?

#6 Kit improvement Ideas
First I really like the kit as you have it however I do have a few small suggestions.
You have min/max limit switches for the X-Axis but just min switch for the y-axis. I spent the extra $1 and added a second switch but it would be nice to see it added.
The angle brackets that hold the corners together are very strong and do the job really well but when you put the whole thing together there is no really mounting solution to mount the ganty to anything. It would be nice if some extra angle brackets were included so people would have a basic surface mount solution. Once again $1 at home depot is all it took for me to do it for mine.

#7 Product suggestions
I would love to see you add some of the parts for people to build a z-axis like linear screws/bolts/pulleys/idlers/motor mount/bearings
Air compressors for air assist
A compatible fan for your new 12" radiator. Also adapters to fit hosing to.
Plumbing adapters to attach 8mm hoses to your flow meters.
Venting/Exhaust fans/hoses/flanges

#8 For anyone else reading this you should know that the kit comes with enough parts to setup a complete system with a tube and optics and a gantry to a flat surface. Basically if you wanted to you could screw everything down to a sheet of plywood and be done. It's a well thought out kit.

#9 For people wondering how I'm venting everything I'm using and 8" inline exhaust fan with 8" hosing and a 8" flange mounted to a piece of plastic fitted to my window frame. I sourced all of it from hydroponic vendors on eBay. (that was fun trying to explain to my co-workers when the box arrived at the office)

#10 I wanted to have power switches for chiller/electronics/laser/air assist and I could have mounted switches but I found this product for $15 which simplified all of that for me. http://www.americandj.com/ProductDetail ... Number=903
It may not be fancy but it had everything I wanted.



That's all of my notes and questions for now. I hope to have this cutting by the end of the day tomorrow.

[Tech_Marco]

#1Your acceration seems very low. You need to set it to "10,000" for X and "6000" for Y. Also, the motor is 4A rms. The 2M542 seems a little 'weak'
#2 Water protect. Usually you don't do it on DSP but on the laser power supply. If you need to enable it on DSP, you must put a check mark on "Water Protection". It's level low to enable or ground to enable the laser
#3 CW3000 is a "fake" chiller. It's nothing but just a water pump + a radiator. It is no good for a laser machine having 60W or higher power tube. Plus, it's a stupid design because they put the water pump into a water tank and the heat from the pump will dissipated into water. What for?!
I may design my own water chiller. I'll go to China on March & April to discuss things in detail. Hopefully you will see "LO water chiller"
#4 Under user parameter, you can set the 'Home' speed
#5 It start from "Origin" point
#6 It's software for limit so you don't need two limits for both X and Y. You need to remove the check mark on "Hardware Limit"
#7 Very soon. Also, a hugh Z power table is on the way to production after Chinese new year. 12" fan is also available but need to make mount for it.


Marco

[onelonedork]

Is it a good idea to have the electronics in the same chamber as the work area? I just wonder if the smoke and crud would interfere with cooling and even cause some problems for the PCB's life span down the road. Most of the lasers I've looked at have most of the controls tucked away in there own little box.

[Tech_Marco]

It's OK to install it under the working table. But, there is a couple reason you don't want to. There are many left-over or dust may drop off to the controller/power supply. If you have power Z table install, items installed underneath the bed are going to block the way it move. So, not a good idea

Marco

[drandolph]

Thanks for the answers Marco I got it cutting today so now it's time for me to start investing in the next parts like good lenses, honeycomb,good chiller, drivers. Here are my notes for today.

#1 I adjusted my drivers to full power and did your acceleration suggestions and they still stalled at the same places and speeds so it sounds like it's a driver problem. For now I have no plans to go above 350mm anyways so I can hold off on that.

#2 I figured out the water protect has to apply to both laser 1 and laser 2 or it will trip. I found on mine it prefers laser 2 so I wired it to trigger and jumped laser 1. I also put the wp of the power supply inline with the trigger so it both turns off the ps and triggers the controller.

#4 I figured out why it wasn't working for me. The max setting it allows is 150 before it resets to 50. I was trying for 200 and it never took.

#5 Ahh I have to set origin and not just park the head. Now I know

#6 Correct it's just nice to have it on both ends in case you miss steps so you dont crash.

#7 Interesting on a complete table and I was just thinking of parts for people to build one. If you need someone to design mounting parts for your fan you know who has the 3D printers to do it with.



I tweaked my um's today and got my settings a little closer with 9.636146

I haven't enclosed my tube or electronics yet because I'm waiting to fit all the final parts and then I will plasma cut a box with openings for the exhaust, laser beam and wires. I wanted that for EMI protection for my controller and I have copper cable braiding, chokes, filters coming in. I know thats overkill but then again maybe a 6ft x 4ft 100w laser cutter in your living room is overkill as well.
The laser power meter will be mounted in an opening on the box so I can see it but I don't need it easily accessible as it's just for troubleshooting down the line.

Once I get my final air pump I will be hooking it up with air assist and have a SSR turn it on and off for me. Not necessary but just for the heck of it I will.

My next thing I'll be working on is building a temporary cutting surface with chicken wire till large enough honeycomb becomes an option for me to purchase.

And of course update #6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q254yLFnIIk

[drandolph]

I've been traveling on business so sadly I haven't had much time to work on the cutter. However I was curious about focus length and lens preference. I bought the 50.8 to get me started but even when I aim it I'm having a tough time getting it to cut even with it set at the right distance. Is a 50.8 so bad at cutting that it should only be considered an engraving lens or is it just me missing something. I have the mirrors aimed right down the middle no matter where it is on the table and I have the curved side facing down and I have air assist turned on.

It's marking material just fine but I'm seeing a ghost line mark and it never seems to cut even at slow speeds like 5mm/s thru 1/8 acrylic.
Also the back of the mount where the mirror is gets really hot, really fast. With-in 20-30 seconds of the beam on I can't touch the adjustments.
I've cleaned all the optics and I have the focus hitting dead center of the mirrors.

However I could use some pointers on how to best go about focusing the mirror in the head so it hits the lens dead center.

I've been focusing the mirrors by placing a 1/8 clear acrylic piece over the the plate and adjusting till the laser marks it dead center.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

BTW I hope everyone is enjoying the fact that I'm asking all of my questions and documenting my complete build in this one thread so when others are going through it they have one thread to get all the details and basic questions from.

[Tech_Marco]

Beam alignment adjustment is one of the most challenging work that you have encountered by making a DIY laser. To do the beam alignment , you have start from the laser tube, the 1st stage mirror, 2nd stage mirror, 3rd stage mirror (inside the laser head) .
It's always to have 90 degree bounce from each stage. I'd to use a string as a guide line to settle the laser mount. A red dot laser pointer would be a big help.

Use "Post it"
Tune the laser power (using the LCD unit) to the lowest level but strong enough to burn a mark on a piece of paper. A "Post-it" sticky note pad is good as it can attach to the front of the mirror. Note, don't stick it direct to the mirror but on the mount!
Then, fire the laser and make sure the beam is hitting to the center of the mirror. If not, adjust the laser mount. Once laser tube is tuned and 1st stage mirror tuned. Use the same procedure for tuning the 2nd stage mirror.
You can adjust the 'knob' on the mirror mount and to make change of reflection angle from the 1st stage mirror mount until the light beam is hitting to the center of the 2nd stage mirror. Again, you place a piece of Post-it to the front of the mirror. So so for the laser head also.
Note that you need to it at the Top left corner (close to the home), then you need to do again by moving the laser head to the farthest zone (bottom right). Assuming the Home is at Top-Left

That's the way I'm using for fine tune my machine. For the XLE series stage, you found that the mirror mount come with a guard and it's purpose is to hold the Post it for fine tuning

Hope this help. If anyone has a better way to do beam alignment, please share with us


Marco

[Tech_Marco]

By the way, if the mount is super hot (usually happen on the laser head), it means that the light beam is hitting to the laser head barrel. That's why you couldn't do it a fast clean cut.
Also, per Tim suggestion, the focus lens should be flat down. For the final stage beam alignment, usually you want to remove the laser tip off from the unit. Note that a focus lens usually hosted inside of the tip.
Then, put a piece of Post-In to the bottom of the barrel then fire up the laser. Without a focus lens (the tip), the burn mark should be about 6mm in diameter (9mm for 100W laser).

By looking at the burn mark location, you may adjust it using the knob right on the laser head changing the reflection angle till the laser beam is hitting to the center. Once the beam align to the center of the barrel, then put back the tip and test again.
You should get a very fine 'dot' at the focus point. Note that the focus point of a lens is the distance from the surface of the lens to the finest point it burned. It is a cross over point of two line like the chars "X".

Marco