Font Problems With ULS M-300!!

Good Morning! I seem to be having problems engraving two fonts: Century Schoolbook and Times New Roman. The shadowing on each letter is insane, with the worst part being in the top 1" corner....it's almost like the text is duplicated behind the original. I used to be able to combat the problem by slowing down the speed, but this morning I simply cannot use these fonts it is so bad. We engrave a lot of perpetual plaques that already have these fonts on them, so simply not using them isn't an option. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I have already cleaned the lenses with no change.

Check your optics, all of your optics. Duplicate letters usually means the beam is splitting by some piece of debris on something. If they are all clean, reload the driver for your machine. I have seen this as a driver issues, but more recently than on the older machines. A reload the the driver fixes it. I've seen it twice in 2 years. I'd start with the optics first. If it still splits the letters, reload and try again. I think it's one of those two things.

It is only happening on those two fonts though (no other text, images etc.) and now I am realizing it is only happening on brass, the acrylic awards I just did came out completely fine....wouldn't it be splitting on everything if it was a driver or optics issue? What am I missing?!!?

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Originally Posted by Shannon Bruce

It is only happening on those two fonts though (no other text, images etc.) and now I am realizing it is only happening on brass, the acrylic awards I just did came out completely fine....wouldn't it be splitting on everything if it was a driver or optics issue? What am I missing?!!?

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Then reload the driver. I had that happen, and I've helped someone else that had it happen. On my case, it was only one font. If I converted the font to curves, it went away. Or if I changed engraving direction, it would change. I reloaded the driver and it was back to normal.

This goes back a long way for me but it seems that I had some cable issues that caused this. Try reconnecting your printer cable--or replacing it.

Great, I will try both and let you know. Thanks gentlemen!

Shannon,

This sounds like you have a worn X axis belt. Try moving the plate over in the X direction line it up at the 6" or 8" on the ruler and test the engraving again. If it gets better then you need to change the X belt and Idler. You can try to tune out the wear using the tuning function in the driver.

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Originally Posted by Mike Mackenzie

Shannon,

This sounds like you have a worn X axis belt. Try moving the plate over in the X direction line it up at the 6" or 8" on the ruler and test the engraving again. If it gets better then you need to change the X belt and Idler. You can try to tune out the wear using the tuning function in the driver.

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Mike, if that was the case, wouldn't it do it on all fonts, all in that same area?

I've seen this exact problem before, but it wasn't on the old M series, so it may not have anything to do with this issue.

Funny you mention that...while I was engraving multiple medallions last week, it did get better farther down the x-axis. Is changing the belt and idler something easily done? Where do I find the parts for that? I apologize if my questions seem silly, but while I have been engraving on this machine for quite some time, my recent promotion puts me in charge of things that I have no prior experience with so I am learning as I go. :)

Scott, These fonts he questioned about are the most noticeable when it comes to double image.

Shannon,

What you should do is tune the system draw a rectangle .5 x 2 fill it and remove any outline.
Now print it and run the file on coated metal use your normal power and speed settings however use Image density 1
Engrave the rectangle
What you are looking for is the right and left sides of the stroke line up with each other.
Before you run the first one in the driver you will see tuning under the advanced tab notice what the number is set to.
now inspect the engraving and adjust this tuning number up to see if you can get the raster strokes to line up.
only go up by one number at a time and check again, If you max out then it is time to change your belt and while you are changing the belt it is very smart to change the idler pulley at the same time.

You could also try using the High speed image enhancements just activate them with the check mark and click the calculate button and then engrave some of the problem fonts. You may notice a difference.

If the belt has never been changed then I would recommend doing this and then tune the system.

Look up Scordato sales in NY they will hook you up with the parts and or a service person who can help you.

Ok....so I did the tests Mike suggested. And as I hope you can see from the picture, even though the font is ALMOST ok in the bottom set of text (Tuning at Max), the shadowing is still very clear in a few of the letters and the engraving is off just under 1mm left to right. So it looks like we have to replace the belt and idler now?!?!?! I am very much hoping it is an extremely fast fix as we are very very busy right now. Thank you to everyone for your help. I cannot tell you how invaluable this site has been to me in the last few months

I wouldn't buy anything until I reloaded the driver. If you reload the driver and it still looks like that, then it's mechanical and you need the parts. If it goes away, your problem is solved. Takes about 5 minutes to install the driver again and then you'll know.

That is my next step Scott....I am going to download the updated driver right from ULS website.

Scott,

This is not the same driver as you use on your system on these systems they have been using the same driver for years and they are very stable.

Shannon,

If you want to see if the driver is the problem just click on the DEFAULT button in the driver this effectively will restore the driver back to a fresh install.

This is a belt problem I have seen this many times change the belt and remember to set your tuning value back to zero and run through the tuning test again once the belt and idler have been changed. You also want to clean the drive gear on the X motor. I use a toothpick and clean the grooves from any debris.

Not doubting you Mike, but I thought my version was stable too when I saw the problem :) I also only had the problem with one font and it wasn't the entire font. I had an entire sheet of pieces and 1 row of them would do this. All other rows were good, just that one row.

If you say it's the belt, then it's the belt, but I'd still reinstall the driver first :p