I am just starting to get into doing etching with raster settings, but I think I could have something wrong… Here is a video of me trying to run a raster job:
As you can see, the speed is mind-numbingly slow and I am not sure why. This is just with the laser moving to the first position for etching. I have not waiting long enough to see if it speeds up once it gets to that point (taking too long).
I have tried files that were 150DPI and 300DPI, BMP and JPEG. Speed settings are 20mm/s (Light) and 20mm/s (Dark) but it is not moving anywhere near 20mm/s, it is maybe moving at 0.1 mm/s. Changing speed settings does not seem to change the speed at which it moves as shown in the video.
Edit: it will move at 20m/s when the laser is etching, but it will still move at the very slow speed in between the lasering. And in case it is relevant, the Abort button does not seem to do anything. It shows in the gcode viewer that it is “stopped” but commands continue to be sent. Seems irrelevant to this issue, but I could be wrong.
Any thoughts?
There’s a path for every raster. I know things will work out the way they’re meant to.
Sorry, couldn’t resist. Love that show.
Found it /embarrassed. Thank you! And also, thanks for the info on the abort feature - i assumed a few commands were already stored but didn’t realize it was 36.
What kind of Travel Moves (mm/s) do you recommend? Mine is currently at 100?
You have to solve the maze first 
@Jorge_Robles May take a couple decades 
Your vague help does nothing to help new users.
Sorry, @Kris_Sturgess , @Jorge_Robles and I were making jokes about Westworld, which is what that maze logo comes from. Your question just happened to land in the middle of all that. The best Travel Moves setting depends on your hardware, controller board, and firmware revision.
I put my travel at 25mm/s for all travel and it worked well. Can’t say that is the best/fastest option though since I’ve just started!
@Jim_Bilodeau are you using a diode laser? I ask because 25mms is really slow. In any case you need to check travel moves on settings. Also what board are you using?
It’s a 40W CO2 laser. Didn’t know 25mm/s was slow for it - what would you recommend? I’m running it with a Smoothieboard.
@Jim_Bilodeau Ok, what power did you use?
<10mA. The etches on those coasters I put a picture of were fairly deep (.4-.5mm deep)
10mA at 25mm/s should be to much power at that slow speed but 0.5mm doesn’t seem much. Usually we raster at 200 to 300 but that is for a subtle burn, if you want to go deep then its seems you are ok unless you are loosing power because your beam is not aligned correctly. I see you cut those coasters, whats settings did you use?
Oh okay - that will definitely speed things up! It was like 20 mins or so for each of those coasters… For cutting, I used 10mA at 5mm/s; 3 passes. When I go to higher power settings the water warms up pretty quick and I start to lose power above ~22C, so I am sticking to low power for now with multiple passes.
@Jim_Bilodeau your last statement confirm what I said above, you have an alignment problem. On average you should be have 10mA at 10mm/s for 3mm ply. Now as I have seen from others here that’s not even the best you can go. Don’t let this discourage you, just know it only can go better :). For raster you can go much faster also 400 and maybe 500mms, burn depth or color will vary from material. I at those speed you see it stutter then you must increase feed and seek rate on the smoothie config file
Good to know! My mirror alignment seemed pretty good from aligning before these cuts today, but I have no confidence that I am at the ideal focal point… I will continue to work to improve it, Thanks!