And so it begins. System components lined up surprisingly smoothly. The planning and off-machine bench calibration really paid off. Mirror #2 is a design we’re not familiar with and I hacked it a little bit to make it align but I think I’m just not seeing how its unique construction works.
Needs beam shaping installed. By 2.6M meters it’s oveexpanded, that can be shaped right down though. This is part of the hacker magic, a stable quality beam across 2.6M is quite a thing.
We’re awaiting some inductive proximity sensors that aren’t carried by US vendors, which is odd because they’re an interesting unique form factor. They should have been here a couple of days ago. We can hack a normal one but I’m not sure of the point if the real ones come imminently
This will need calibration. Its XYZ distances move in the correct direction and all, but the scale of steps to actual distance is only ballpark.
Plus, process tuning speeds/accel to get the speed up without compromising performance.
The Z lift still needs the lifters secured against shifting. Joe is making some brackets, it’s kind of a pain to remove the table to install
The spare lenses are here. This is important because I wouldn’t be shocked if even the premium CVS lenses blow up with this much energy behind it. Worst comes to worse, I have gallium arsenide optics, with a higher thermal conductivity the damage threshold is much higher. They’re marginally less efficient and opaque to the red dot pointer so you need external off-center laser pointers mounted on the head.
The leak isn’t troubling us right now, but I got new fittings anyhow in a different type that will be here early this week. I have the nontoxic mfg-recommended Dowfrost glycol to add to the coolant, but it would be best to get all the anticipated system openings that would result in some coolant loss. like for changing fittings, out of the way while it’s still distilled water.
Ultimately, in addition to the Ruida panel I want to add a touch pad to better explain the status and forwarding meaningful maintenance logs onto a web interface we can check anywhere, like if the chiller’s flowing but out-of-temp-range, a power supply dropped offline, or VSWR is developing. By default, these systems tend to just have a generic “not ready” flashing for multiple probs, leaving you wondering if you should continue to fiddle with the assumed door interlock or look at the chiller or what. The system already has a test interface with a simple command line interface from the terminal and it’s already proved invaluable during just the alignment.
There are some safety interlocks and system code to add. Right now the test interface doesn’t have a way to force the Ruida to stop cutting. This is fairly simple to add though by just adding a relay in series with the door interlock. This will mean other issues will seem like “door ajar” errors, thus the need to have a panel better explain the problem.
Say, we do need the proper exhaust fan. I’m thinking that never got ordered. We may be able to plumb this exhaust fairly quickly, but this really needs the 750W fan in this size.
If you’re all antsy about it, you can download Lightburn 1 month trial download and familiarize yourself right now: Download & Trial - Try before you buy – LightBurn Software
The system is going to primarily run LB although you can import for Corel
The air assist can be either a solenoid (have, needs fittings) or a cheesy diaphragm pump. It would be nice to have an air pressure sensor here to avoid running without air and destroying the lens if, say, the shop air is off.
A thought- we could just move the chillers, which are a bit noisy, out into the hallway. Like the space by the door that has junk piled up on it.
I could do it tomorrow after teaching Woodshop Safety.
