Re: Commercially available laser controllers
Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 12:34 pm
I'm sure the wavy lines were not due to mechanical errors. My stepover was .005mm. It did show a funny behavior during the raster. It would scan back and fourth about 4 times at normal speed and then every fifth time it would do a quick return. This might have something to do with the wavy line. Perhaps the .005mm stepover is actually smaller than the bit resolution (I haven't calculated it). Perhaps it would repeat the .005 several times before incrementing the Y for the next known row of dots. I think this is where FSE has the biggest advantage. He knows exactly what is required for an image because he has designed both the software and hardware. Where you and I struggle to determine an appropriate Y stepover, his software has already optimized it and will run it every time.
For as much complaining as we do, it's funny that our lasers still behave as good as lasers that cost upwards of $12000. My heart sinks for the poor fella's that I see on Craigslist trying to sell their engraving business for $15000 because they can't make it in todays economy. I feel that my laser is ready to do some business if I can think of something cool to make. I wish someone would help me out with the Blender software question, because I think that could be a fine program for producing 3D carving heightmaps. (Note: it might also be useful for makerbots if they can take heightmaps... actually, I think Blender can export as STL too.)
http://www.buildlog.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=288
For as much complaining as we do, it's funny that our lasers still behave as good as lasers that cost upwards of $12000. My heart sinks for the poor fella's that I see on Craigslist trying to sell their engraving business for $15000 because they can't make it in todays economy. I feel that my laser is ready to do some business if I can think of something cool to make. I wish someone would help me out with the Blender software question, because I think that could be a fine program for producing 3D carving heightmaps. (Note: it might also be useful for makerbots if they can take heightmaps... actually, I think Blender can export as STL too.)
http://www.buildlog.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=288