Well I got a lot of:
… "Don, do you ever do anything with your laser but tinker…
lately, even from my wife.
Here is proof that it can do something useful and this is the first time it has run for more than a few minutes.
What I like:
…The vacuum system works really well and its very quiet. My wife’s cookies were not drowned out by any smells either. Was not running air assist.
…The power was good, only 5 ma, but I was running slow cause I had LW set wrong.
… The material was easy to place and get in focus with the power bed.
… Generally happy how easy this was to set up an run.
What I don’t like:
…To much wiggle for the speed I was going. I haven’t optimized anything however and haven’t paid much attention to stepper accel/decel values.
Don’t know if the materials burn can cause that wiggle. I suspect not, because the left and right edges are out of sync together. Maybe the material is moving on the bed, that’s possible as its sitting on loose pins?
…The upper right may need optical adjustment or perhaps there is a defect in the wood there.
… I have recurring problems with LW3 not connecting. It takes a combination of smoothie resets and LW refreshes and then it connects. Once it connects it seems ok.
In regards to the Smoothie/LW connection issue it has been mentioned on various others with similar issues that the USB cable itself could be at fault. I can’t recall specifics, but basically advice is to use a high quality shielded USB cable. Also, I have a feeling that I read the shorter it is the better (but maybe not?).
edit: Side note, it’s great to see that you’re getting to have a play around now
@donkjr are you engraving in both directions? If so, that could be the source of your ‘squiggles’. If I remember correctly there should be a setting for the machine parameters that allows you to adjust the start point when engraving bidirectionally to help reduce these. It all depends on the software you are using.
Have you checked the x axis belt tension @donkjr ? The adjustmet for it is the two screws on the right side of the gantry and it functions by pulling the idler pulley further away from the steper motor pulley
Lol it wasn’t until very recently that I realized that what I thought were 2 random holes in the back of the machine where actually access points points to adjust the y-axis drive belt tensioners.
@HP_Persson we must be kindred spirits. Seems I like hacking on it more than using it lol. I have always liked making the tools for something more than building the something!
