I’ve got the Opt 15W on my deployable laser system and I’m searching for a more accurate way to measure the x/y offset relative to the currently suggested method.
I’m frequently servicing, adjusting, upgrading, and modifying my z-axis components to expand my operating envelope as my projects get successively more ambitious and this means re-establishing a slightly different laser offset each time.
I need to keep my accuracy to within .005" and have resorted to aligning the laser burn to the edges of spindle-cut pockets.
Having to manually adjust the offset in the Wizard and restarting the software and machine to dial in the alignment incrementally gets very tedious and re-homing the machine for every adjustment invites a tiny bit of variance considering the nature of proximity switches.
To make matters worse I’ve got an extended focal length lens that has the laser (with short nozzle) at +32mm above the material surface (rather than the usual +12mm).
Because the spindle and laser mount aren’t guaranteed to be perfectly parallel the offset needs to be established like dialing in a firearm optic for a specific range - so even if the auto-z/corner finder plate could be used to establish the offset it may still need adjustment once it’s returned to proper focal distance.
Any ideas or am I just SOL?
Best thing I’ve found to do is this:
Set the XY offset using the standard procedure.
Then take a V bit and carve a square. Then take the laser and burn the exact same square in the same place.
You can then use a set of calipers to very accurately measure the offset between the carved square and your laser line. You can key those values right into the wizard without having to restart the control and do another burn to test.
If you measure carefully you’ll likely get it on the first try.
Makes sense.
Thank you Eric
Here’s what I do. I built a laser edge finder a while back and here is the video on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpS58Jjl3JM&t=5s
So with the EX control system, put a sheet of something with a corner on it, and a dowel or bit in the collet and use the touch plate to find the corner on the spindle. Then I make sure the spindle is at X0/Y0. Then I run the laser offset calibration in the EX utilities. It will ask you to put the spindle at 0, 0, which it already is, so just accept the current position. Then you get to the laser part, move the touchplate and put the laser corner finder on the same corner and find the X0/Y0 with the laser corner finder. You should be able to get them lined up within 5-10 thousandths that way.
Then write down the offsets (you can find them in the wizzard or in the parameters list) so that next software install you can just write the numbers in instead of doing the whole calibration each time. I have muliple lasers so I switch back and forth all the time and I just keep everything in a spreadsheet and update the parameters.
Brilliant Jim!
Thank you for that.
I love spreadsheets. We should date.
Eric,
Updating this post b/c I had to re-align my laser again yesterday.
The above practices work great. Thank you again.
With the 3D lasering work I’m pursuing I’ve had to make frequent laser mount mods to progressively increase laser/material clearance.
A huge frustration I slog through every time is a delay in the system registering any changes to the x/y offsets.
Any changes I make in the Wizard seem to register only after 45-60 minutes of cycling through reboots of CNC12 - I’ve even added cycling the power to the EX control box.
I’ve tried all sorts of combinations of re-homing after reboot, cycling through tool changes in hopes that the updated offset gets applied to tool 99…
I can confirm that parms 715/716 register the updated offsets immediately after input into the Wizard.
The offsets don’t take effect until some seemingly random time of it’s own choosing - often after a solid hour of wheel spinning - and I’m always left not understanding the mechanism.
Any insight?
Thanks.
You’re saying that the XY offsets take time to apply?
Which version are you on? 5.18 5.22 or 5.24?
The XY offsets are ONLY applied when you change to the laser tool using a tool change command.
- Yes - sometimes for the better part of an hour - even after having rebooted everything dozens of times.
- 5.24
- I use Corbin’s “Set Tool” and “Fetch Tool” buttons, both of which work flawlessly once the adjusted offset(s) finally kick in.
I don’t suck that bad at recognizing patterns and this one has always eluded me.
I can’t fathom how time would affect the laser XY offsets.
The only thing that enables and disables them is deploying the laser with a tool change and the changing to another tool that is not the laser.
CNC12 doesn’t have any “clock” related processes.. this has to be a workflow thing and potentially related to having some third party software on there.. Corbin’s tool set (which we love) is a modification of the very scripts that handle tool changes.
I actually think I know what this is… earlier in our release we used G52 offsets to handle the laser and then I switched to a more robust method. Those G52 offsets can get cleared if you try manual part zeroing with the laser tool selected. It’s possible that @corbin is still using those… I’d look but I’m not near a computer.
You’re the right man for this job Eric!
I’m also away from my computer for the weekend so I can’t check the scripts. I did update mine to be just like Avids, but I don’t have a laser, so some parts were just theory.
It is possible to look at parameters that are written to see effects from the wizard. We should also know if the machine is in the state Eric is talking about. I think it is shown on the main screen when it is in that state at the bottom gcode status area.
When you run the Wizard, was the laser tool active?
I wonder if that is a test case that would make it get into this bad state. It might have something to do with my set tool not doing the offset again because it thinks it doesn’t have to do it. I bet I could fix this in my script.