Strange Trotec Problem - Help!

[Tony saunders]

juGuys,

My Trotec Speedy 400 has developed a very strange problem - and as usual it's the weekend (!)

The engraving of text is all screwed up - with the correct depth in the middle, fading out to either end.

A client noticed it the other day and I thought the material was bowed - but I tried some tests tonight in the shop and it's definitely repeatable.

I have tried it on two separate machines - both loaded with Job Control X 10.0.1.0

I have restarted everything and no difference.

Mirrors / lens are clean - no junk in the nozzle.

I'm at a loss and I need to work over the weekend - Trotec is shut. Machine is only about six months old. 80W CO2.

Has anyone seen this before? - or any suggestions as to what I might be able to do?

Pic Attached...
laser_problem_17Jan2014.jpg
Thanks in advance
Tony

[Dan Hintz]

Can you copy the text and put them side-by-side for another test (or just make the same text wider)? If you get the same pattern over the group as a whole, that points to a low-level processing issue (i.e., the driver)... the laser is being reduced in power as it nears the end of the line. If that's not it, we can work from there.

[Tony saunders]

Can you copy the text and put them side-by-side for another test (or just make the same text wider)? If you get the same pattern over the group as a whole, that points to a low-level processing issue (i.e., the driver)... the laser is being reduced in power as it nears the end of the line. If that's not it, we can work from there.

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the quick reply. It's late here in the UK - I thought I wouldn't get an answer until tomorrow.

Okay, see attached. Done what you said - expanded text and added several other copies at different sizes.
Looks like the same issue.

BTW: I made a mistake - JobControl is 10.1.0.1 - Firmware is 10.07
You'll notice too that the hanging parts of 'gy' at the end are engraved differently as the laserhead just engraves these optimally.

I have tried it on two different PC's both with JobControl loaded. All has been okay until very recently.

Incidentally, the power is 100% and Speed 30 for the attached test with 600dpi output from CorelDraw. It's a standard output - not bitmap / relief or anything like that.

I have tried vectors (circle) and it appears to be doing the same but not as noticeably. It cuts okay though!... just engraving seems to be affected!

Pic attached:
laser_problem_2_17Jan2014.jpg

Regards
Tony

[Scott Shepherd]

Tony, look up the Trotec website, find the number for the tech support in Canada. They are still open. Call them. They should help you, but make it snappy, it's not much time left!

[Mark Sipes]

Is there something in the water? was there a recent update that has issues?

"Just noticed that when I laser anything large approximately 18" wide, the laser seems to loose power on the far right and left. Could this be some sort of focus issue?
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thanks

Tami "

[Tony saunders]

@Scott : Good point - will try this now...

@Mark - Interesting!... although I haven't changed firmware or JobControl versions since about five months ago. Nothing has been changed since so if it is related to an update, it shouldn't have affected me (unless JobControl performs auto-updates which I don't think it does).

... back soon...

[David Somers]

A silly question, but is there a Trotec presence in the Hawaiian/Pacific Islands? They are 3 hours earlier than us and should be open another 2.5 hours?

Dave

[Tony saunders]

Well, no luck getting Canada. I'll have to ring UK monday but in meantime try to see if I can do anything to solve the issue. If I can find it I may re-install the Firmware and jobcontrol too...

I have a gut feeling it's hardware / firmware related (just a guess) but I have tried two PC's and two USB cables. Both of which worked before and now exhibit the same issue. Laser has been restarted, checked for obstructions and dirt. Mirrors look absolutely fine. Lens is clean and installed okay (2.0" lens), software settings look to be the same as before and I haven't changed anything anyway.

just one other thing I noticed and thought odd...

i have been cutting some parts from MDF and noticed that, just as the cutting is finished, the laser pauses, the table dips about half an inch and rises back... Then the laser goes to to home position. (?)

it was almost as though it had a value in the Z offset and was defocussing...!

I don't recall it ever doing that before either... And I feel that this isn't just a coincidence ?!?

Any more advice guys?

cheers
Tony

[Dan Hintz]

The fact that it is position independent says it's unlikely to be a mechanical issue. It appears to be affecting a specific (and fixed) length... 1.5 letters on the first one, 2 on the next one down, 3 on the bottom one, etc. as the text gets smaller. This strengthens my belief it's a driver issue where the laser power is being reduced improperly during accel/decel.

Steve, can you verify if Trotec is:
1) Overshooting the engraving area during accel/decel
OR
2) Staying within the engraving bounding box and increasing/decreasing power during accel/decel
?

[matthew knott]

I'm pretty sure they always overshot the engraving area, they should be upto speed when they hit the engraving area, can you set the direction of scan to be uni-directional , this looks to me like it could be the tube not ramping up power in time for some odd reason, if the scan is bi-directional you would see this at both ends (as is the case) uni would swap it all to the leading edge. Just a thought

[Tony saunders]

Dan,

Good points. FYI - It's overshooting the engraving area by approximately 1/2" - maybe less around 10mm - but thereabouts... (it always has done this and the 300 I had did also.) NOTE: This is when the laser is running at about P100 S50 - I have just dropped power settings to P50 and S10 - and the overshoot is obviously less - barely 1/8 inch!

Interestingly, I went to bed last night just after talking to you guys ... fired it up this morning after a power-down of about 8 hours - the engraving is better - "almost" okay this morning - but not perfect. Still exhibiting the problem but considerably less! - almost useable!

Now, yesterday the laser wasn't that busy - in fact less than normal, so I don't think anything was likely to be overheating.

Matthew - If it's possible to set bi / uni direction, it's not obvious in JobControl. Nothing I can see in SETTINGS or PLATE Properties, although I will try to see what happens if I change the orientation of engraving to portrait rather than landscape (so it moves up and down in Y rather than back and forth in X)

I have some expensive Oak plinths to engrave and I just can't trust it because I can't afford even one mistake. Best safe than sorry I think.

Thanks for your help so far guys - it's better than scratching my head when I'm on my tod in the shop.

Cheers
T

[Tony saunders]

UPDATE:

I tried the vertical engraving at P100 S50 - and the laser wasn't firing. I dropped the laser power while it was running by manually tweaking the values and the laser fired briefly, then didn't.

I then dropped speed to 20 - nothing much

I then entered a speed of 5 - the laser fired and engraved deep (not surprisingly!)

I therefore played about and running it at P50 and S10 it engraves perfectly (no discernible variances across the words)

Something is still not right though - for some reason, the manual changing of speeds (normally instant) - sometimes doesn't have an affect! - I think a re-install of the JobControl software from scratch is called for.

T

[TAMI WILSON]

Tony

I just had the same problem. Trotec said it was the Job control and firmware. They are sending new but I haven't installed yet. My 300 I is about
a year old also.

Tami

[Tony saunders]

Hi Tami,

Thanks for that info.

I was reading your thread earlier - that's good news really in the scheme of things.

I wonder what screwed up?? - must be the interaction between JC and firmware by the sound of it. Otherwise, I would have expected my backup machine to have worked if I had screwed up JC on the main PC.

Be interested to hear how you get on.

I have just engraved at slow speed and lower power and it looks fine! - it's not ideal but better than a messed up part.

Regards
Tony

[Dan Hintz]

Yep, sounding more and more like the driver.