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Thread: EZcad software and rotary.

  1. Hi Jesse, the suspense is killing me! Did you ever get your issue with the seams figured out? I have the 30W Bodor and I'm going through the same trials and tribulations. Would like to know how far you've gotten.

  2. #32
    Anyone know if you can be update your current card with the lastest release of EZCAD, I think I'm running 2.1.2.
    355 - 10400 : )

  3. #33
    Join Date
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    what I did was to measure a tube and calculate the circumference (2 pi r)
    I drew a thin rectangle of that length and then used the rotary , i checked that the ends of the rectangle lined up exactly on the tune and if they didnt , I used the steps per mm adjustment to see that they did ... that solved the gap thing ...
    Rodney Gold, Toker Bros trophies, Cape Town , South Africa :
    Roland 2300 rotary . 3 x ISEL's ..1m x 500mm CnC .
    Tekcel 1200x2400 router , 900 x 600 60w Shenui laser , 1200 x 800 80w Reci tube Shenhui Laser
    6 x longtai lasers 400x600 60w , 1 x longtai 20w fiber
    2x Gravo manual engravers , Roland 540 large format printer/cutter. CLTT setup
    1600mm hot and cold laminator , 3x Dopag resin dispensers , sandblasting setup, acid etcher

  4. #34
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    Mar 2014
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    Iowa USA
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    Quote Originally Posted by Neville Stewart View Post
    Anyone know if you can be update your current card with the lastest release of EZCAD, I think I'm running 2.1.2.
    Wondering the same thing? Someday DHL will finish sending my machine and I hope to find out.
    Retired Guy- Central Iowa.HVAC/R , Cloudray Galvo Fiber , -Windows 10

  5. #35
    Quote Originally Posted by Bill George View Post
    Wondering the same thing? Someday DHL will finish sending my machine and I hope to find out.
    I can send you a copy of EZCAD so you could practice with it, and your design SW. It's a lot of fun getting the right vector set.
    355 - 10400 : )

  6. #36
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    Thanks for the offer but I already have a copy of that software, I was just wondering like you if the newer version would work. I see the EZCad control boards for sale that come with the new software and wonder.
    Retired Guy- Central Iowa.HVAC/R , Cloudray Galvo Fiber , -Windows 10

  7. #37
    Hi Danny,

    I think I have it figured out, thanks in a large part to the members of this forum. Here's what I would recommend:

    1. Find the most recent version of EZ Cad. I am running 2.7.6 that I was able to download from a source mentioned upthread I think.

    1. My settings are 100 power 100 speed 30 freq. From what I can tell freq doesn't make much of a difference within 10 or so Khz, but 30 is a good place to start. My laser is a 20w so you could probably run yours a little faster. As long as you're around this range you should get a black mark. Focus is way more critical imo.

    1. From what I can tell, with a fiber, focus is the most important setting. Image too shiny? Check the focus. Burning? Check the focus. Too faint? Check the focus. I'm finding that a .5mm difference is the focus length can be the difference between a good black mark and a iridescent, hard to see one. My focus is approx 4.5mm SHORTER than the optimal focus (where the spark is the brightest). To find your ideal length, do a "ramp test" by setting up a piece of stainless on an angle that will cover the lengths from say 8mm closer to your proper focal length and engrave a 5mm thick bar on it. You bar should start out burned and rough, get blacker, black, then shiny and start to fade out. Find the length that made the darkest mark and that's your length.

    2. Like Rodney mentioned, seperate the step motor from the rotary unit and make sure the coupler set screw is tight. This cost me many hours of frustration and dismay.

    3.For rotary settings, i run on the x axis with "invert" checked. "distance per" relates to how far the rotary turns when you press the arrow keys so don't worry about that. My best split size is 0.010mm. Enter the diameter as exactly as you can. I'm pretty sure "focus length" relates to the lens you have, mine is at 160, I've messed around with it but it doesn't seem to change the results much.

    4. Hatch- I use a uni-directional hatch at .02mm spacing and 90deg angle. 1 pass only.

    5. Pulses per round-figure out the diameter of whatever you're engraving and make a bar that exact length in ezcad. you should be able to make a mark of some kind now so engrave it on the object and make sure that the ends of the bar line up perfectly (no overlap). if there's overlap, adjust the PPR number. Mine's 5000 (factory setting)

    6.FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS is what you should be thinking when you're setting all this up. It has to be PERFECT. Within .5mm

    7. What else? I notice that a vector imports in blue pen and I hatch with black. When I forget to change the outline pen to black before I hatch, the results arent as great. Is this a factor? I don't know, but now that I have the machine working, I do EVERYTHING the exact same every time and it seems to reduce the variables.

    If you're having problems that these steps don't solve, post your issues and I'll do my best to help.

    Thanks again to all the great forum members for all the advice.

    Jesse
    Bodor 20w Galvo fiber w/rotary

  8. #38
    Excellent and very thorough explanation Jesse. Thank you. I'll have to load a new version of EZ and see what's compatible with my card.

  9. #39
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    Quote Originally Posted by Neville Stewart View Post
    Excellent and very thorough explanation Jesse. Thank you. I'll have to load a new version of EZ and see what's compatible with my card.
    Make sure you backup your current version, some of the configuration files may get overwritten and you'll have a hard time going back if the new version doesn't work out. I'd copy it to a flash drive and keep it off the machine while you are testing.

  10. #40
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    Going to bring this back to life with a question I ran into today. Fiber laser, rotary and EZCad I tried to do a BMP image and no go, I thought the software was bad so I did some Text, Hatched and rotate on the screen so it will wrap around the cup or practice piece in this case.... and it did just fine. So it has to be Vectors and Hatched filled to work with the Rotary??
    Retired Guy- Central Iowa.HVAC/R , Cloudray Galvo Fiber , -Windows 10

  11. #41
    There may be a way to get it to run a bitmap on the rotary, you might play with changing "X" and "Y" in the settings, but I'm kind of thinking the rotary won't do bitmaps--

    a galvo-fiber normally runs a vector path moving to specific XY coordinates, extremely quickly. When running on a rotary, it truncates the engraving into sections decided by the 'split', engraving one section, then rotating, then the next, etc...

    But, as you've noticed when it engraves a bitmap, it lays down a uni-lateral beam path, moving from bottom to top, much the same as a gantry machine, only without the gantry The issue is, it's not following a vector path, but instead it's just pulsing the laser on each X pass where it sees "black", then moves up 'a notch' to the next X pass...

    Seems like it would be no big deal for the laser to run a 1/4" split, move, run the next split, move, etc., and, maybe it will if it's set up to run parallel to the rotary's axis.

    Or not ... Experiment with the axis settings and let us know what happens
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  12. #42
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    It will work with a bitmap you just have to use a different plugin. I don't have my machine running at the moment so I can't check it but if you try the various plugins, one of them will work.

  13. #43
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gary Hair View Post
    It will work with a bitmap you just have to use a different plugin. I don't have my machine running at the moment so I can't check it but if you try the various plugins, one of them will work.
    Plug in for EZCad did not know those existed? All I need a just one fish jumping for a gift mug. All my stuff seems to be not vector, everything else but... I need to look into buying some for mug projects.

    Added. Thanks Amazon Prime my vector art for engraving and vinyl cutter are on the way.
    Last edited by Bill George; 01-26-2017 at 7:28 PM.
    Retired Guy- Central Iowa.HVAC/R , Cloudray Galvo Fiber , -Windows 10

  14. #44
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rodne Gold View Post
    what I did was to measure a tube and calculate the circumference (2 pi r)
    I drew a thin rectangle of that length and then used the rotary , i checked that the ends of the rectangle lined up exactly on the tune and if they didnt , I used the steps per mm adjustment to see that they did ... that solved the gap thing ...
    Rodne I can see where to enter that calculation on the Parameter F3 tab mine has 12,800 steps for rotation and do you enter that C= 2 Pi R calculation for each job? Example a job 90 mm dia would need entered 282 mm? If so why does it ask the Dia on the first page, I thought if you did that the software was smart enough to do the calculation for you. Thanks again.
    Retired Guy- Central Iowa.HVAC/R , Cloudray Galvo Fiber , -Windows 10

  15. #45
    I haven't use my rotary enough to be much help, but-- as to entering the diameter, that DOES do the calculation for you.
    But- I experimented one day with one test project and I kept changing the diameter setting, in .01mm increments. No matter what I did, the seam was visible. Using a loupe I could verify at the seam when I had too large a diameter entered (the engravings at the seam didn't quite reach, and left a gap) and when I had too small a diameter entered (the engravings overlapped). But even when I the engravings appeared to align dead-to-rights, there was still a visible seam...

    My guess is simply the 6,400 default pulses-per-round of my machine simply isn't a 'tight' enough resolution to create a seamless seam. Getting that number as high as possible seems to be what works for some of you guys.

    But I'm still not sure what changes I have to make to the machine (dip switches, etc) if any, to get the higher PPR numbers to work.

    And-- what plugins?
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


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