Re: Ben's 2.x Laser Build
Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 9:35 pm
sliptonic wrote:But I'm still wondering whether using G1/G0 to control laser on/off wouldn't be safer, more intuitive, and more broadly compatible with different g-code generators than using the Z position.
I don't think the nature of the move (G0 vs G1) is visible at the level you're talking about. I have also seen scripts that produce only G1 moves. (And obviously there are lots of other cutting moves like G2 and G3)
sliptonic wrote:My bed is completely manual right now, but I can imagine adding a stepper to allow for automatic touch-off focusing and maybe stepping down to change the focus on multiple passes but HeeksCNC doesn't do anything beyond 3 axis control.
It's unlikely that you'd try to CAM a touch-off like that anyway. Heeks doesn't need to support U if you just drive it in a text preamble.
As for focusing: That would be easier with Z but the 2.x Laser has too much wobble for that (if you jog the table while cutting your next pass won't line up).
All that said, you can have PPI and rastering without the "magic Z" and without moving the table axis to U. You just have to modify the HAL and INI. The git repo has all of my experiments so you can find the one where I moved the table to U to see exactly what I did. Disabling magic Z is even easier. The purpose of magic Z was to make your life easier: If it makes your life harder, don't use it!