Engraving problems (PSU replacement?) and other stuff

[chopmeister]

Hi all, this is my first post here. I come from Zagreb, Croatia, and I'm fairly new to the whole CO2 laser business.

I have recently purchased a 130x90 machine from Jinan Senfeng, with a 100W tube. The interesting tidbit is that it's equipped with a CCD camera which can use visual markers to precisely position cuts. In order to do that it comes with a PowerCut controller and matching software produced by a company called SZZY-CNC. Everything works as expected aside from engraving. What happens is that the laser seems to fire too late and the problem gets worse the faster I try to engrave (see attached pic).

As for it being a controller or settings error, I've checked and rechecked everything a dozen times, and it all seems correct. The output when doing normal cutting is very sharp and precise. This only happens when trying to engrave. I am starting to think this may be a PSU problem. Should I be replacing mine? I don't know what kind of PSU I have since there are no markings or labels on it. (I have attached pics of the electronics for clarity) I don't know what other component could cause this kind of behaviour.

If that indeed is a PSU issue, what PSU should I order? The 80-100W or the 120-150W?
(I was looking to replace the controller, but at this point I don't believe that would solve my problem + I don't really know if the AWC608 from LO supports CCD cameras, as I would really like to stick to that option.)

I am also thinking of getting a beam expander and some high quality lens, since I read all around that these are really an improvement. (Is the beam expander really that good?)


engraving test



the insides


and the main settings window. I see nothing here that could influence my problem except maybe the laser compensation and compensation step for which I have absolutely no clue what they do.

I've tried talking with the manufacturer a dozen times, but the english seems to be an impenetrable barrier. They are extremely polite, and extremely unhelpful at the same time.
So to sum things up:
1. Is this a PSU issue?
2. Are the high quality lenses and beam expander worth buying?
3. Which PSU to buy for a 100W laser if that really is the problem?

Any help is really appreciated, thanks!

(And sorry for the long post )

[waltfl]

Hi there
you need to alligne your beam and focaldistance , then check the belt's if they are tight enough.
greetings
walt

Hi all, this is my first post here. I come from Zagreb, Croatia, and I'm fairly new to the whole CO2 laser business.

I have recently purchased a 130x90 machine from Jinan Senfeng, with a 100W tube. The interesting tidbit is that it's equipped with a CCD camera which can use visual markers to precisely position cuts. In order to do that it comes with a PowerCut controller and matching software produced by a company called SZZY-CNC. Everything works as expected aside from engraving. What happens is that the laser seems to fire too late and the problem gets worse the faster I try to engrave (see attached pic).

As for it being a controller or settings error, I've checked and rechecked everything a dozen times, and it all seems correct. The output when doing normal cutting is very sharp and precise. This only happens when trying to engrave. I am starting to think this may be a PSU problem. Should I be replacing mine? I don't know what kind of PSU I have since there are no markings or labels on it. (I have attached pics of the electronics for clarity) I don't know what other component could cause this kind of behaviour.

If that indeed is a PSU issue, what PSU should I order? The 80-100W or the 120-150W?
(I was looking to replace the controller, but at this point I don't believe that would solve my problem + I don't really know if the AWC608 from LO supports CCD cameras, as I would really like to stick to that option.)

I am also thinking of getting a beam expander and some high quality lens, since I read all around that these are really an improvement. (Is the beam expander really that good?)


engraving test



the insides


and the main settings window. I see nothing here that could influence my problem except maybe the laser compensation and compensation step for which I have absolutely no clue what they do.

I've tried talking with the manufacturer a dozen times, but the english seems to be an impenetrable barrier. They are extremely polite, and extremely unhelpful at the same time.
So to sum things up:
1. Is this a PSU issue?
2. Are the high quality lenses and beam expander worth buying?
3. Which PSU to buy for a 100W laser if that really is the problem?

Any help is really appreciated, thanks!

(And sorry for the long post )

[chopmeister]

The beam is aligned, and the focal distance is correct. I am using the laser to cut things and it works normally. This only happens when engraving and is not a belt issue, which can be seen from the test file (the right side of the test pattern rectangles is always in the correct position, so it's not a backlash issue). It's perfectly repeatable and happens every time. If I choose bidirectional engraving, the error appears on both sides, but when you check the engraving under a magnifier, the error only appears on the side on which the engraving starts in any given line. The end of the graphic is always fine and in position.

[Tech_Marco]

200mm/s or 250mm/s is considered slow for engraving. I don't think that it was an issue from the power supply. Even the K40 can handle well at 350mm/s. Cutting is good because you're running 50mm/s or slow , am I guessing it right? Can you post pictures of the XY stages, laser tube, and the front panel of the controller? I'm thinking that the controller system you're having was made by a company in Shenzhen "Power Cut" whose major field is CNC. See pictures I attached. If so, then that may be the reason you have trouble as their software are having some issue and their controller card are not widely accepted by most laser manufacturer. They have a new software wrote for us for testing but the cutting (not engraving) was not doing good job so we decided not to carry their card yet. But your issue is with engraving so it coud be some other issue. By the way, look like your card is order than the one we tested.

One thing I noticed from your setup is that the PWM seems low. Cange it to "20KHz" see if it help

By the way, Try to avoid buying machine from "Jinang", it is a city of Shangdong provience in the North China. A lot of issue.


Marco

[chopmeister]

Thank you Marco for your reply! You are the first person I spoke to anywhere who even knew about this controller. Yes, that's the one. The front panel is the same like in your pictures. The controller board looks older than the one on your pic, when I opened it up it says PowerCut V1.0 on the PCB. The cutting I have done was admittedly slow, like you said, no faster than 50 mm/s, and the results were good. The software I received in the end was new, from Dec 2012. I also received 2 firmware upgrades of which one installs without a problem and one doesn't seem to install properly (which is the one I got with the engraving software). I'll send pics of the XY carriage later.

Trying to get updates from the contact at Senfeng laser seems like mission impossible, and I have no other way of acquiring updates unfortunately because nobody at the PowerCut company responds to english emails.

I tried to change the PWM freq to 20 KHz and even a bit more and it seems a bit better, but it could very well be that I'm imagining it from staring at the test engravings too long. But the error is persistent.

I don't know if asking for this newer board you have on the pic would change anything.

(One thing I have to say though, is that their display board is much prettier than any other I've seen, too bad it doesn't work as well.)

Is there a chance you have any firmware update left from your testing that you could send me? It could very well be newer than what I have.

I read the manual for the AWC608 and it seems it doesn't support cameras as of yet. Will there be such support in the future maybe? Like I said, were it not for the camera, I'd order one of yours in an instant.

[Tech_Marco]

Sorry, I don't have any patch for share for that particular board. It doesn't look like it's PSU issue or motor issue but tend to be the card issue. You may try other power supply but I doubt it.

You may try doing cutting at 250mm/s for a square box see how it goes


Marco

[chopmeister]

Yes I will try that, to see if the error also happens. All of this is making me really crazy. Thanks for the effort.

[radza]

Hello Marco,

I finally compiled all, but there were several problems,
1- when I cutting, laser will not cut corners
2- engraving is not working well
3- after completion of the work laser still burning
/send an attachment/

Any help is really appreciated, thanks!

Radomil

[Tech_Marco]

The reason that the four corner were missed because you haven't gave enough power for the "minPower1"

Marco

[radza]

I tried to add min.power1, but laser still burns. If I min.power1 set the minimum- 0.01 laser still burns as the picture.
Do you know where the problem could be? I think, I've tried everything.
Thanks Radomil.

[Tech_Marco]

Are you using TH or TL for firing? You may measure the output from the PWM output from the DSP when the "hair" light beam is happening.
When laser is jumping from one spot to another, the output should be "0V".

You may draw a small circle on the Top Left and another circle on the Bottom Left, that way you got plenty of traveling time to measure the output from the DSP card. The laser fire ONLY if there is output from the PWM port vs the Ground.

You may double check the shielding and ground as a high voltage laser power supply may generate interference and caused the problem
For the signal cable, you may want to try Cat-5 network cable with aluminum foil grounded. That way, it will shield out all interference.


Marco