Examples of detailed lasering?

I have to differ from you on this @jkopel. In the Dread World of the Chinese Laser (the Facebook laser group), I see a lot of posts wherein people are troubleshooting engraves with issues that show up only on large and/or complex cuts. Some of these folks have otherwise perfectly normal engraves that get wobbly lines on one quadrant, random straight line cuts across the image, multiple unplanned cut-runs over the same line or an engrave line, and other random weirdness. Complexity and runs over the full area of the cutting bed can definitely reveal bugs in hardware and software that little hamster-sized cuts and engraves will not.

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Interesting @morganstanfield, thanks for pointing that out (I donā€™t participate in facebook that way).

I guess on further reflection my statement might have been wishful thinkingā€¦
Messy complex data can probably ruin the best made code. :slight_smile:

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If nothing else, the machineā€™s decision-making process for how it orders cut and engrave lines will get stressed only if it has complex data to sort.

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On my Universal lasers, once and a while they get ā€œpossessedā€ and draw a line across the page that isnā€™t thereā€¦lol These are pretty time tested machines and it happens rarely but it does. (Probably less than 1% of all the files cut) I have to copy the page contents and open it up in a new page and then it doesnā€™t happen againā€¦ so not really design related but it usually happens after Iā€™ve been cutting several different files for numerous hoursā€¦ It might just be complaining it wants a breakā€¦lmao

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I wonder if those kinds of problems are some kind of hardware issue, where a bit gets flipped or the ā€œturn the laser off/down while travelingā€ signal gets lost. Of course, the time you would spend diagnosing something like thatā€¦

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Our latest ā€œstress printā€ is a 1.5 hour monster of engraves, cuts, and scores, where, in order to pass, the last line must touch the first line precisely to a point.

It also makes cool plywood coils, sproingly lines, and a Robot Turtles engraving along the way. Itā€™s fun to run. :slight_smile:

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That happens on cutter files whenever there is something in the file that landed outside of the allowed cutting bed or artboard.

(Just mentioning it in case the laser plotter software is the same.) :slight_smile:

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Nopeā€¦it just wonā€™t cut that partā€¦itā€™s Gremlins I tell youā€¦lol :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Yeah, weā€™ve run across a few of those in our dealings as well. :smirk:

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Must you torment us so? :smile:
(Cruel man!)

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How many people would happily let a 1.5 hour video of that endurance test run in the background during their workday?

I would. Iā€™ve run worse.

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me.

Worse, Iā€™d probably watch it.

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Thanks very much for the update. I appreciate you taking the time to answer the questions on this forum.

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honestly Iā€™d consider running it at 9x or 10x slowing down for interesting bits any longer and Iā€™d lose time I planned to work trying to watch.

Iā€™m seriously considering reenacting this at the Glowforge office when I head to PAX. Iā€™ll have two 16 year olds in tow who Iā€™m sure would be happy to join in if it meant getting to PAX faster. Fair warning to the Glowforge staff if they hear yelling at the door on Fridayā€¦

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Picturesā€¦or it didnā€™t happen :wink:

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I spent an hour and a half watching Mathias Wandel put together a new edition of his pantorouter in aluminum. Why? John Cage my friend, John Cage.

I wonder how many of us are headed to PAX.

I would let that run on my second monitor while I work. If it is a tripod shot I think it would be soothing.

Iā€™d run that video!
It beats all the ā€œtrainingā€ and ā€œSafetyā€ videos that run in the background right now. Canā€™t speed through them so just let them play with the sound turned downā€¦

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