Mercury Driver Ramp Problem

[George M. Perzel]

Hi Kevin;
Used your S=10, P=6 and got exactly the same results as before-missing first image with Ramp off.
However, not sure when I would ever use those settings even if it did work-doing a slow motion demo of cutting Jello??
Thanks for your help-would like to hear what the boys in Taipei have to say.
George

[Kevin Huffman]

Hello George,
I don't think anyone will be cutting jello but don't say never. I put the settings at 10sp and 6po so it wouldn't blast through the material I was using at the time.
I was out yesterday so I couldn't get an answer. This morning the tech told me he reviewed everything I put in my email as well as this post and thinks it is something in the firmware. So he passed it on to one of the engineers to get this problem resolved.
Once he emails me the new firmware and we do a lot of testing on it, I will be posting it on our website and will post the link here.

[Rodne Gold]

The ramp function is very useful only when vector engraving , it is often MUCH quicker to engrave a border by using vector engraving doing multiple lines or squares rather than raster engraving it , it's also useful for defining edges round letters , cutting vinyl letters etc.
The ramp function ONLY works in vector mode at fast speeds (mainly used for kiss cutting and other aps where speed is high in vector mode) and stops the effects you see with ramp off , ie you dont get the "spikes" (try raster engraving clear acrylics , you can see the start and stop point spikes clearly penetrating much deeper thru the sides of the acrylic or cut something like sign vinyl and instead of an even kiss cut , you get burn holes at corners etc) Yes , we do cut vinyl , the speeds are so fast and the amount of vinyl vaporised is so low the minimal chlorine released is not at all significant , we dont do it as a rule however , but we do do it. We vector cut and engrave shiny mirror vinyls cos they are polyester and laser friendly.
Typically when the laser is vector engraving at high speed you hear the squeaky sound.
Generally leave it off unless you doing work like the above , in a thru cutting ap , ramp is not useful as the spikey bits go right thru , the reason you are seeing corner "burns"on the pic is that the smoke and residue arent being ejected vie the cut kerf.
Regards

[Alan Young]

I sent word to the Rep and he is going to visit with the Engineers at the factory in California. He just happen to be on his way out there. I also Clued him in on this forum and he forwarded it on them as well. I think it has been and will be very important for them to see that others have been able to reproduce this problem. I thank all of you for your efforts. Please continue to do so. It often takes a group effort to discover, validate or help solve these technical issues.

On a side note I am amazed or at least my observation is most of you do not use the ramp function. I assume on my part that cutting does not make up the majority of your lasering activities. I by no mean fully understand the ramp function totally. I do believe as stated that it is only used for cutting and it is only beneficial in corners or sudden directional changes. Since I do mainly cutting I feel it would be most beneficial to use if it worked. I stumbled on to this problem one day when it started in the middle of a job to not cut anymore and traced it down to this ramp function.

Maybe when and if the GCC engineers have a chance to read these posting they could enlighten us more to the way it works and the benefits of using it. Sound like a whole other discussion. I will keep you posted of any new information I receive from them. Thanks for taking time to help



Alan Young

[George M. Perzel]

Hi Guys;
Thanks to all who helped on this and to Alan for finding it. Whether or not Ramp should be used, when it is used, and how effective it is, is one side of the coin. I'm more concerned at to how and why using Ramp in one file has a residual effect on the next file (missing square).

Does the same problem exist on the Explorer model?

I cut a lot of wood, as thick as I can get away with on a 60 watt machine. When ramp was introduced a few drivers ago, I thought it was going to be the answer to my problem of partially cut gear teeth when cutting gears-no such luck, since it is not effective at low speeds and thick wood needs low cutting speeds-spent a lot of time and made a lot of kindling finding this out.

I am anxious to hear what LaserPro (GCC) has to say about the problem.
George

[Rodne Gold]

You don't actually have a problem with RAMP , what its doing is actually the way it's supposed to work , it's not at all useful for power cutting. It is only useful at very fast speed and only if you are having a "spike" problem. We used our Mercurys and currently our 3 explorers extensively for both cutting , raster engraving , power cutting , kiss cutting and vector engraving and only used ramp for specific applications. We have had no problems at all with it and do a serious amount of complex work and about a zillion different materials without having it on. (im not sure why it affects the next file tho , as far as I remember on my mercurys ramp was a user setting on the machine accesed via the lcd panel? I havent programmed them for some time , I have 2 laser operators )
We find Wood is a very difficult medium to cut and if doing thick stuff the real answer is something with 200+ watts of power. There are so many variables with wood like resin content , moisture content , grain structure etc. We use a 4" lens to cut thicker wood for various reasons like increased depth of field of the beam (it maintains cutting power density over a greater depth) and the fact that it keeps the head further away so smoke etc is not an issue. We find on the explorer we dont have the same "spike" issues , this could be due to the fact that the source has changed from a Synrad to a Coherent deos?

[Alan Young]

Not sure I agree with you on this as far as it working the way it is supposed to. When I set the ramp to on, in my case through the driver, there is no power, even on a setting of 10s 100p. It will not cut through typing paper. Since I mainly cut paper it is a problem. I would tend to agree that it would not be to useful in cutting thick material. The rep and the factory up to this point think it could be a power supply issue and are sending me a higher wattage power supply. I tend to think it is a driver problem, but we will see. And I agree that the different types of laser tubes could have some effect. I am glad to see your business has expanded to several lasers and a couple of operators. I have a hard time getting my son to cut anything for me Alan

[Alan Young]

I received an email from my rep working on this problem and here is What he said.

Dear Alan Young:

GCC-Taiwan has been able to find sometype of bug in this RAMP function and we want to make sure its the same as the one you have experienced.Please answer the following:

1) Does the problem occur if ramp on machine is on and file is sent with ramp on? Need to have the machine fresh restart and send the files with ramp on.

GCC-TW reports failure when switching OR one line ramp on one line ramp off.

I am not sure if this is the whole problem but it is a great start in resolving the problem. Does anyone know how to set the ramp funtion on the machine? I have only done it by the driver.

Alan

[Kevin Huffman]

Hey Alan,
When William (one of the engineers from Tiawan) was here, I showed him the problem he and gave him a copy of the file. He hasn't gotten back to me as of yet but I will email him right now and see what he has found.

[Pete Andrew]

Thanks for the pdf - I am totally new to lasering, and stumbled on what I think is the same problem while trying to work out what the Ramp function actually did. So in my first visit to this site I join up and potentially have help on both issues within minutes. Sounds good to me.

[Alan Young]

Welcome to the group. I still have a problem with mine. I spoke with my dealer and he is getting a liitle frustrated with the time it is taking to GCC to solve this.
But, he said he was going to try and get them to commit to something. Is there a problem or not? Some have said that they feel it is working by design but I differ on this. When I can turn on the ramp function and not cut paper at 100% power and 100% speed or even 50% speed which I can do with ramping off, then I feel there is a problem. I will keep everyone informed.

Alan

[George M. Perzel]

Hi Alan;
I'm still with you on this-definitely is a problem and still awaiting solution.
George M. Perzel

[Jerry Allen]

I agree that's it's a glitch that needs to be fixed and believe it's in the works.
However, I never turn off ramping, nor would I, and I have no problem cutting paper or anything else for that matter.
I think Alan's problem is more than that.

[Alan Young]

Hey Alan,
When William (one of the engineers from Tiawan) was here, I showed him the problem he and gave him a copy of the file. He hasn't gotten back to me as of yet but I will email him right now and see what he has found.

Kevin I was wondering if you heard anything from William. I still have not got any thing fixed and need to jog some people memory.

Alan

[Kevin Huffman]

Hey Alan,
I have been in contact with William. He told me that it has been added to the list of things to fix for the next revision. As of yet we have not recieve the new driver to test out and we have not recieved a release date for it.
I have not forgot about this post, I just don't have any new information to give. I wish I did.