My Smoothieboard is on the way . . .

CAD & CAM Tool Chain LaserWeb/CNCWeb Suppport
1

My Smoothieboard is on the way . . . I totally can see the difference between my stuff and the raster engravings that I see here!

A couple of questions though. I’m running a converted K40 with GRBL and a Protoneer CNC Shield for a UNO. My raster seems very very slow considering that the power is very low. It also seems really rough and jerky.

  1. In the raster settings i totally get the power restrictions but what do the proportional speeds do? I’ve played with the speeds and I honestly cant see any difference when I change them.

  2. I was watching an Epilog do a raster and it appears that it uses a slightly different method to get it done - and it seems WAY faster. Basically the laser sweeps at a constant speed over the entire surface (not following the outline of the image). It’s moving VERY fast and assume it just modulates the laser intensity as it moves. It seems like its smoother, cleaner, and less bumpy/jerky than what I’ve seen so far with LaserWeb. Is that possible with this software/hardware combo? Has it already been tried and it just didn’t work out?

I’m betting that the acceleration settings and proportional control on the Smoothie is going to make a world of difference here.

Thanks all!

2

OK - Google finally gave me the answer for #1 . . . the Mr. Beam page is golden!

3

Do you have some samples of the stuff you have rastered?

4

I think #2 is being worked on to give that effect of constant speed/modulated power. Although I could be wrong. I’d love to see it go that direction myself, as it would cut the time factor down a lot.