Scanning irregular materials/objects - No Engraving

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to engrave some bracelets (looks like metal but it’s plastic) but nothing happens.
The material height and focusing hight are well set up.
It seems that the scanning is not checking the right position, so it scans on the edge of the material to be engraved (see picture).

I tried to insert a piece of cardboard to level the height of the engraving level, but nothing happens even when increasing power.

Any thoughts about this problem.

Thanks,
Simone

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I bumped this to beyond the manual, since you won’t get help from support on using non-Proofgrade materials, in this instance.

When you say no engraving, what exactly do you mean? Is it giving you an error message, or is it running the engrave job but you can’t see the mark because it’s out of focus?

If it’s out of focus because of where it’s scanning, I would manually change the focal height to be different than the material height that you entered - for example, material height of .200, change the focal height to .199” - that will override the autofocus function.

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It runs the job but it nothing is marked, it’s probably out of focus…

The funny thing is that yesterday I run a test on a single bracelet to check the values for the engraving, and the scanning was done precisely on top of the material to engrave, not on the edge as it’s happening now, so the engraving was done correctly (as picture) even using just “power= 2”.

My material height is 0,315in.
I tried using a different focus height (0,314in) but got the same result… no engraving.

Is there a way to change manually the place where the scanning will be done to avoid the edge of the material and therefore having it measured correctly?

Thanks a lot.

The scanning operation basically picks a spot within your design space. But it seems kind of random as to how it chooses that location.

I’m not sure what all you have in the file… if you have various elements besides the engrave area. Maybe cutouts for the cardboard? You could delete everything except the engrave portion and that should force it to scan the engrave area, perhaps.

Changing the focal height independently of the material height should work for you though if everything is aligned and the laser beam is hitting the material. :confused: that basically just ignores the auto-focus reading and forces it into manual focus.

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Chrome might cause a read error from reflection - put paper masking tape over the buckle before engraving.

(And please make sure the plastic you are burning there is laser safe. The wrong kind of plastic can damage your machine or your lungs.) :slightly_smiling_face:

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If you are scanning a design and then engraving you can scan first and then remove the piece and replace with the metal and visually align but make sure that the metal is not reflecting (tape) and get the height correct {without using autofocus) before you align the design, and do it as close to under the camera as possible,

I have never seen autofocus work . I thought it was only in proof grade kinda thing.

No it takes a reading during the print - the head always moves out to the approximate center of the engraving or cutting design before starting and shines a little red dot down on the material. It’s taking a height measurement. (But it needs to hit on the material to be engraved and not off to the side because of a hole or engraving near an edge.)

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It definitely works.

This is a square. The left square was cut with an accurate material height of .013”. The right square was cut with a material height of .500”. Focal height was left alone on both (so it matched the material height), which leaves it in autofocus mode.

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Well Puff is supposed to fly in Wednesday feeling all revived. I don’t know what all those pins and needles were doing on my chair but it will be a new chapter that I hope will be a good one :dragon:

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That’s good to know. I’ve had the beam fall off the material, too, and didn’t think twice about it. Guess I will now…

My memory suggests to me that they released an update that if the scanner hit a hole (presumably putting the material height at zero), it would default to the material height. But that’s just my brain telling me things.

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