Mark:
>>I think you are saying that the time to engrave using Auggie would be more related to my laser power available than machine velocity. Is that because the script file handles the power changes as a coordinat ed move with the axis(s) in motion (linear, spiral whatever)?
Yes, in fact once the image augment file is loaded , whenever the tool moves at feedrate in the image envelope size as set when creating the augment, the laser fires at the pixel in that positions power. In other words once the image is loaded, you can do any gcode to engrave it, even a spiral or spirograp
h, the image position will burn appropria
tely. You dont see any drop in speed and can raster at speeds as high as you can go. I raster on my galvo laser at almost 1000 ipm with the laser doing fine, but the resolutio
n drops as the speeds get too high as 1ms of time can be quite a distance.
.and all motions are 1ms long internall
y.
>> So my motion would be at (closer to) the true programme d velocity. Right now I'm limited by the effective velocity of the extremely short moves and the related accel/decell. I haven't even seen the 10W diode as the limiting factor. In fact, in baltic birch I am running at about 20% power to prevent burning at my effective feed rate. With Auggie at my max velocity it would take 1.2s to traverse 5". If the 10W is enough power for effective burning at 246ipm then it should take about 14 mins to engrave the image.
Sounds about right.
>>>My laser power level is PWM controlle d. Right now I have the frequency set at 100Hz and a power range selectabl e between 0 and 1200. Probably too much and unnecessa ry power range but that's easily changed in my HAL file. I just haven't experimen ted with that yet. And yes, I can set the max power to be used in the image/postprocesser to whatever I think appropria te for the material used.
Pokeys puts out a pwm that you can set the base frequency of. So in Auggie I currently use 20Khz PWM. This is a settable value though and any pwm is in theory possible.
>>To migrate to Auggie, I think I would have to get the Pokeys57c nc board and 3 stepper drives since the xylotec breakout has the drives integrate d. From what I have read I think that is about all.
Yes, Auggie will only use a Pokeys, and I recommend the 57cnc, though a 56 can be used with the external motion board. Any pokeys can be used for motion, but only the 57cnc or external motor controlle
r
option for the 56 has laser power on the fly capabilit
y. It was added specifica
lly for Auggie.
>>>Then I ask myself, why not change my Mach3 router (smoothste pper and C11 board) out with the Pokeys board and put the Laser right on the machine with a larger work envelope and a 4th axis. Mach3 (still) for the router. Auggie for the laser. Same computer. Same physical platform.
It can be a hassle swapping between m3 and auggie. M3 tends to keep all the settings locally while auggie
tends to simply keep them in the pokeys. There is a save/load config, but it got a bit futzy after a
pokeys firmware update and I havent yet fixed it as I only use Auggie on my laser.
>>>My head hurts. I have decisions to make. Wish me luck.

, good luck, its always the way, one project leads to another..
.
Art