Laser has slow movement

[Shayne.L]

New to the laser show. I am learning the laser burn rate and speeds. The issue that am having is it seems to be taking entirely too long to run the picture through. The picture is only a 2" X 3" and the estimated time is 29 minutes, but it is taken over 1.5 hours to complete. Is there a setting that I am missing or is this normal? I have the Vectric Laser and Module, I also downloaded the New Wave Post Processor. I can get good results with 25% power and 80 IPM with a 45 Degree Raster.

[Adrian]

The estimate doesn't know about the acceleration/deceleration settings of the machine so when there is a big difference between the estimate and reality that usually shows that there is a lot of movement in the z and/or short segment moves. The scale factor is there so once you've cut a real world job you know how much to "inflate" the estimate by for that type of job in the future.

I'm not familiar with how the laser picture toolpath code works but I did generate a test picture and the code (for the processor I used) does appear to be compromised of lots of very short movement with a laser control command in between.

You say you downloaded the Nextwave post processor. Have the issues with that and the laser module been sorted? I know they removed those machines from the supported list a while ago as there were so many issues.

[Auger]

Nextwave has released the new firmware, along with whats suppose to be an updated post processor. The firmware and PP is what I have been testing for the past 8 months. For those using the laser you will find a new switch in the firmware under laser setting on the pendant. (Not sure how it works without the pendant, maybe someone who runs without can assist in this). The setting is Laser Over Burn. By turning this on, it will reduce the burning we have seen, especially in small lettering. This also effects the laser photos.
Now all the bad news. NWA has decided at this point they are basically done with testing or trying to resolve the issues we have when doing photos. Many people do tiles 4" x 4" photos. Average time to complete is 2 hours or less. If done with the Ready2Raster program it will complete it in about the 2 hour time frame. However, the same photo run through Vcarve or Aspire will take about 5 hours.
The settings they are using with the R2R program is about 50% laser @ 100"/min as a starting point. They are also still pushing the "Quick Engrave" method, or what I call a "Fake Laser" in the Vectric software.
I mentioned to them the desire many have to get some kind of documentation for the R2R program. They say they are working on it... I'm not holding my breath.
As a test I ran a couple test .TAP files made by NWA for testing. Neither ran correctly. First one ran about 12% then it was as if the 0,0 was reset, and started to burn about 1" below the project. The second one ran 13% then just stopped. Both files were generated by R2R.
I will continue to pester them to correct these issues. Hope some of this helps.

[Shayne.L]

Auger and Adrian, thanks to both of you. Sounds like I should have went with someone else for the laser portion of my hobbies. I will continue to play around or sell it completely and start over. Thanks again.

[Auger]

All of this said, I still love my NWA HD5. The only real laser issue is the photos.
Logos, writing, etc. come out great.

However, that being said... be careful, the latest firmware release is a complete failure.

At least that is whats being reported across the net. I'm glad I waited to update.