Laser Odd Behaviour

Hi Folks just getting my laser set up, and I seem to be having a couple of odd issues:

  1. when I use the “test laser” function in gsender with the power set to 1% the laser still almost immediately starts burning the spoil board… This seems odd and a bit dangerous…

  2. the laser seems to focus with the z axis about 1" higher than the focus aid would suggest…

This is just with the G7 lens thus far…

Thanks

Kerry

From what I have read that is normal. If you flip the dip switches to 1A max output, the test will operate at 1% of the 1A max value. If you have it set to 5A max, then you are supplying 1% of the 5A max value.

Thanks for the reply, I have the dip switches set to 4 so 1% would be 0.04A which does not seem like it should be enough to burn wood in 1 sec which it is doing but of course this is my first try with a laser so maybe I’m wrong … I was hoping to use this setting to get proper focus but it is difficult to do as it starts to burn immediately.

I use the G7 with dip switch 3 enabled (my goto setting for wood & tile). Usually put a piece of masking tape across center on a piece of scrap at the same height of the wood or tile I’m going to engrave. With GSender set it to 1% to focus which will burn the masking tape if left on too long. With Lightburn I can set the power down a bit lower. Then change out scrap for project, do an outline to ensure I’ve got it lined up correctly & hit go.

So Rusty do you mind sharing the rest of your line settings? With dip sw 4 enabled I’m not really doing much with 25mm/sec and 100% power set… I “think” my focus is good…

Thanks
Kerry

Sorry for response delay. summertime…
Settings vary but for tile using Lightburn & either Norton White Tile (NWT) or running it through Imag-R & using passthrough in Lightburn seem to average around 1450 - 1500 mm/min (don’t use mm/sec as thats usually for CO2 lasers) & between 40 & 60% power. If adding text I will run that around 1400 & 60 - 65% power. Also will do text separate if using Imag-R (just straight Lightburn after burning picture on tile). For tile I find that you pick a start point & work from there. Each one will be different depending on the paint coating & picture. Sometimes I get it in one (rare) & others its 2 or more. Depends on how fussy you are also. I always mark settings on the back of the tile for future reference.
For wood, speed a bit faster & power a bit less for light coloured wood. Cut-offs/scraps make great test bits.
Den of Lasers is a good FB site to join. Lots of info shared specially for tile.
Russ

We discussed this in an other topic and Ikenna offered the following alternative to changing the DIP switch to 1A:

May 31

Hey, you can put dip switch to 1, but you can also raise your $30 amount to by x10 or x100 until you dial in an amount that doesn’t burn your material. When I had $30 set to the stock 30,000 I could only pull 0.5W instead of 7W from the laser and that was at dipswitch 5. Try it out, spread the news if it works for you. Just remember to always change it back to 255 before starting your project

Could do this through a macro. Maybe at some point, it can be more automatic in future gSender versions.

1 Like