Darkly Labs emblaser - affordable laser cutter - review

[1965Paul]

I suppose there is a outside chance the lense is upside down...? However, regarding the intermittent cutting, I'm afraid I'm at a loss - software is really not my thing!

 

Domenic at Darkly Labs is extremely helpful when it comes to people with problems though - we'll worth getting in touch with him.

 

Hi Giles

 

thanks for taking the time to comment, and its ALWAYS possible that when I build something that is upside down, inside out or back to front. However, I did check on the Darklylabs forum when I refitted so don't think its the case here. Will double check again tomorrow just to be sure.

 

 

Paul,

 

I got the file and had a quick look at it and it looks fine.  I thought it might have somehow got multiple laser ON/OFF commands but there was just one "ON" (M3 S255 (100%)) at the start of the file and two M5s (OFF) at the end.  So the laser should come on continuously for the whole of the cut of the circle.   One thing I did notice is that the file consists of a series of short chords to draw the circle using the G1 command,  and there are 843 lines in the file.    This is the way that your machine controller actually generates a curved path but the GCode to drive it is usually a lot more efficient and uses the G2 or G3 codes to describe the circle for the controller. 

 

I drew the same circle in Cut2D and generated a file and that used the G2 code and contained only 15 lines. :-)   It might be worth drawing the circle in Cut2D and see if that works any differently when cutting the circle in the Emblaser.   You can view .nc files in a simple word processor like Notepad or Wordpad - they are basic text files - and it gives you a chance to check the line count of the files and whether G1 codes (lots of lines) or G2 codes (much fewer lines) have been used.   If it cuts OK with the G2 code then there might be a wee bug in the Emblaser firmware which doesn't like circles described as very short chords in GCode.  But I suspect that your fault will be elsewhere since a lot of graphics programs use short chords to describe circles and I think such a fault would have been reported already.

 

Another possibility might be a poor contact with the flexible cable which gives a poor connection when the laser head is in a certain position.  If you cut the circle and the gap is still there,  try cutting again and persuading the cable to adopt a different loop and see if the fault is still there.

 

Jim.

 

Hi Jim

 

thanks - created a simple circle directly in Cut2d and then looked at the .nc file, (now I know how, thanks). it has about 6 header rows and then about 10 lines of code, so looks very different to the original file I pm'ed you earlier.  Ran a quick test, still an incomplete circle, but with a smaller gap. Tried then carefully holding the FFC at different angles and certainly seemed to make a difference to the gap. Some more scientific tests tomorrow, and possibly refit the FFC, and then maybe an email to Domenic if that doesn't cure the problem, I have emailed him previously during construction and received a very prompt, courteous and helpful response.

 

onward and upward!

 

kind regards

 

Paul

[flubrush]

thanks - created a simple circle directly in Cut2d and then looked at the .nc file, (now I know how, thanks). it has about 6 header rows and then about 10 lines of code, so looks very different to the original file I pm'ed you earlier.  Ran a quick test, still an incomplete circle, but with a smaller gap. Tried then carefully holding the FFC at different angles and certainly seemed to make a difference to the gap. Some more scientific tests tomorrow, and possibly refit the FFC, and then maybe an email to Domenic if that doesn't cure the problem, I have emailed him previously during construction and received a very prompt, courteous and helpful response.

 

 

Paul,

 

Looks like the FFC could be the culprit.   With modern semi-conductor equipment which has pretty high reliability,  the usual causes of intermittent problems are cables or connectors.    There's also the short cable from the diode to the connector on the laser head which might be worth looking at as well.     If you think it might be your FFC cable,  I've got a spare here which I could send to you to try out.  It's my original cable which I replaced with one which Dominic sent me to see if my fault disappeared,  which it didn't,  so I assume the cable is OK.   I couldn't find a local supplier of a replacement cable.  The ones available are too short and I suspect that the people at Emblaser get ones made specially for the machine.

 

I have also noted comments in the support forums about checking for brown markings on the FFC cable which would be indicators of arcing where connections were poor or conductors were broken.

 

Jim.

[nick_bastable]

Hi

 

thanks for the responses to my earlier post #1119. I wasn't aware that the beam wasn't round, so I have learnt something. Have continued to play with focus but no improvement in cutting performance on MDF. I have looked at all the connections and can't see any darker marks or burning. I then ran a simple test with a 31mm diameter circle on an old piece of cereal card, 10mm/sec, 1 pass, 4 watt laser. I know the focus isn't where it needs to be, but I was quite surprised by the output - expecting a solid burn line, not cutting in/out as below

 

IMG_0131.jpg

 

Seems to me to indicate an intermittent beam?  Has anyone got any ideas that can help me fix this

 

thanks in advance

 

 

Paul

have you tried a circle as a dwf or pdf  ?  with the original software  I had no issues except for occasional stalls using dwf imports the Lightburn I now convert to pdf without issues except at the moment my  emblaser is  oos  awaiting a replacement part  shame as I have  a couple of jobs queued up 

 

Nick

Edited April 2, 2018 by nick_bastable

[1965Paul]

And for tonights episode of Paul vs the Beast:-

 

Firstly thanks for all the offers of help and suggestions so far, really appreciate the support. I have take the FFC out of both the laser head and the circuit board, no charring or any visible damage, gently wiped the contacts, refitted and retested.

 

Woohoo!!!

 

The machine now runs complete patterns drawn directly in cut2dlaser, imported from a dxf and a pdf drawn in inkscape. Repeated many times on many different patterns including lettering and no failures to date, so the incomplete cutting appears to be down to a poorly fitted FFC. Also the laser pattern appears to be different when cutting, somehow brighter (difficult to tell with the yellow specs thought). This is backed up by the cutting performance. Haven't changed focus since yesterday, and I don't think its spot on, but now cutting copy paper @ 70% 15mm/sec in one pass with a very clean cut. As an aside, SWMBO is now asking "can it cut out Christmas Decorations" (sorry - a mention of Christmas in April, I will go to the back of the class )

 

Need to pluck up the courage to have another crack at the mdf, maybe after a little focus tweaking. Seems like tomorrows challenge.

 

to be continued...............

 

kind regards

 

 

 

Paul

[flubrush]

Result. :-) :-)

 

Jim.

[Giles]

Excellent - we'll done!

 

My understanding is that the Emblazer is inherently unable to cut Christmas or Birthday cards or decoration - or indeed flowery or lacy bits at all.... something to do with the software development.... most unfortunate, but there you are....

[1965Paul]

Excellent - we'll done!

My understanding is that the Emblazer is inherently unable to cut Christmas or Birthday cards or decoration - or indeed flowery or lacy bits at all.... something to do with the software development.... most unfortunate, but there you are....

Giles

 

I won’t argue with a master of the emblaser such as you, but having seen Monkeysarefuns superb gates and windows, he may not be as agreeable.....?

 

I must admit that maybe I have let the side down and bought some of the problems on myself. As a test yesterday, I cut out SWMBOs name to try and prove the emblaser wasn’t a complete waste of money, so her comment wasn’t totally out of left field.

 

Have had a totally frustrating evening trying to focus tonight, lens kept falling out before the focus was in place. Have left a question on the darkly labs community to seek some further assistance from Domenic.

 

On a positive note, no gremlins got at the machine last night, so still cutting full patterns

 

I will crack this, I will crack this, I will.......

 

Regards

 

 

Paul

[monkeysarefun]

Giles

 

I won’t argue with a master of the emblaser such as you, but having seen Monkeysarefuns superb gates and windows, he may not be as agreeable.....?

 

I must admit that maybe I have let the side down and bought some of the problems on myself. As a test yesterday, I cut out SWMBOs name to try and prove the emblaser wasn’t a complete waste of money, so her comment wasn’t totally out of left field.

 

Have had a totally frustrating evening trying to focus tonight, lens kept falling out before the focus was in place. Have left a question on the darkly labs community to seek some further assistance from Domenic.

 

On a positive note, no gremlins got at the machine last night, so still cutting full patterns

 

I will crack this, I will crack this, I will.......

 

Regards

 

 

Paul

 

 

My optimal focus with the original lens was within a turn and a bit of the lens falling out...  The G7 lens I've since upgraded to focusses a bit closer to the diode so theres more thread left to play with. 

 

I haven't had a chance to do any laser cutting for several months, when I get back into it there is going to be a whole heap of new stuff to learn (lightburn etc...!)

[flubrush]

Paul,

 

Try loosening off the hex grub screw which locks the diode assembly in place and pull the diode assembly down about 2mm so that it projects out of the alloy body of the head.    This alteration might adjust the focussing of the lens to allow you to get the best position.   With its original lens, best focus on my Emblaser was achieved with barely half a thread engaged and the lens tended to wiggle about as well.  At the moment my diode assembly protrudes about 3mm and my original lens is held by more than one thread.

 

I haven't investigated how the actual diode is held in the tubular holder.  It could be that there is bit of a manufacturing variation on the back focus distance with the standard lens and your diode is right on the end of (or just past) the permissible position.

 

Jim.

 

[Edit]   I think I remember that I had to carve a bit of clearance on the finning inside the hood to clear the protruding diode assembly.

Edited April 5, 2018 by flubrush

[flubrush]

I came across a peculiar fault yesterday.  I had been doing a lot of brick etching and cutting out of building sides for several days and I had left the machine cutting out a brick etched side.  When I ventured back to see how it was getting on,  the laser fence was lying on the base and the head was still going through the motions with the laser off.    I looked at the laser hood and there was a large build-up of fused rubbish on the inside front edge and it was possible that this had eventually fouled on the material and forced the hood off the laser head.   The build-up extended to where the laser beam was so there might have been a small fireworks display at some point. :-)   Unfortunately,  I cleaned out the build-up without taking a picture of it.   But I took the head off this morning to find a a sort of pebble dashed lens. :-)

 

 

This actually cleaned off easily with a firm bristle paint brush and no harm seems to have been done to the lens or the laser head.

 

You might also note the brass cheese head screw.  It is 8BA into a drilled and tapped hole in the laser head extrusion.  This now locks the diode assembly in place instead of the grub screw.   I have removed the grub screw and the head can now be removed easily after disconnecting the plugs.  This means that I can clean the lens without removing the lens - requiring re-focussing.    Replacing the head can be a bit of a fiddle since you have to depress the spring button which gives the necessary friction to hold the head in place.

 

 

This picture shows the relationship of the screw with the original grub screw hole.

 

I'm still working with the original lens and I'm cutting through 1.5mm MDF (Maple Street) at 10mm/sec,  90% power and five passes.    With my glass base I can see that the cut is probably complete in four passes,  but the extra pass allows for a bit of lens inefficiency with accumulated soot.   I've had one or two cases where the cut through has not been complete for whatever reason and it is pretty well impossible to get a side with a lot of brick edge interlock out of the material without damage.   I might go back and give the G7 lens another try to see what improvement I get this time round.

 

Jim.

[Darkly Labs]

Hi All,

 

I have been absent on this forum for a very long time. Glad to see it's still being contributed to.

 

If anyone is having difficulties with their E1, please feel free to email info@darklylabs.com, or let me let me know to login here and check..

 

If anyone is interested, there is a sale on the E1 this month. Check our online store for details.

 

Domenic

[JCL]

A quick question for the thread, back in March I pasted the contents of an email I received about V9 of the Cut2D program. Given that it's a pay-for update, has anyone taken the plunge and bought and used it? If you did, is it very different to V8.x ?

[monkeysarefun]

A quick question for the thread, back in March I pasted the contents of an email I received about V9 of the Cut2D program. Given that it's a pay-for update, has anyone taken the plunge and bought and used it? If you did, is it very different to V8.x ?

 

I had a quick look at what you get and it seems to mainly be the addition of image  etching and rastering. 

 

 I've not had much time with lasering lately but when I get back into it I'll be concentrating on Lightburn because that has all these features already. I really like Cut2D but I don't think I'll be paying for the upgraded version given the price.

Its well worth downloading the Lightburn free trial and playing around with it.

[JCL]

I think I will. I remember that something needs to be done to the cutter (it's been a while here too), so I'll have a good look into it.

[flubrush]

A quick question for the thread, back in March I pasted the contents of an email I received about V9 of the Cut2D program. Given that it's a pay-for update, has anyone taken the plunge and bought and used it? If you did, is it very different to V8.x ?

 

I bought the upgrade to Cut2D Laser V9 a few months ago when it was announced.   I also use Cut2D Desktop for CNC work and its update came out a few months earlier.  Probably the biggest change in both was more drawing facilities.   I normally do all my drawing in CAD then transfer to Cut2D for the tool path generation but I now find that I am doing adjustments and alterations to drawings in Cut2D with the better drawing facilities in V9.  But I still prefer a CAD program for complex drawing work.

 

Tool path generation facilities have been modified somewhat and there is a small bug in there which I've told Vectric about.   If you generate a profile tool path either inside or outside a vector,  then if you recall the tool path using the Edit button,  it is reset to "ON" the vector.  This caught me out once or twice when I wondered why a good fit had changed. :-)    If you use the "Recalculate all tool paths" then all positions are set to "ON" the line no matter if they had previously been set to "INSIDE" or "OUTSIDE".  I haven't heard any further from Vectric and I'm hoping they bring out a free bug fix.  

 

I haven't used Laser Picture in the tool path facilities as yet - my main interest is parts for buildings. :-)   They have also included double sided cutting facilities which I haven't used as yet.  I've normally worked out my own double sided solutions in the past and I haven't yet had an opportunity to try out their facility.

 

There's a new version of VTransfer which now works well when cutting directly from the toolpath facilities in V9.   I could never get the previous version to work and used Universal GCode Sender instead.   I think I remember the very original VTransfer working very directly - i.e. when you sent a toolpath to the Emblaser,  the Emblaser started cutting right away.  With the new V9 version,  the file is transferred to VTransfer then you have to hit the CUT button on VTransfer to start cutting.

 

if you haven't seen,  there's a "What's New" page on the Vectric web site

 

https://docs.vectric.com/docs/V9.0/Cut2DLaserDesktop/ENU/Help/Whats%20New/Whats%20New.html

 

There's also a video on the Cut2D Desktop for CNC which covers the new drawing facilities which are the same in both Desktop and Laser versions which might be of use.

 

 

Jim.

[Simond]

I have been playing with LightBurn at Monkeys’ suggestion and will be buying a licence.

 

Unfortunately it doesn’t connect to a Smoothie via Ethernet, but the usb has not been problematic, and the control seems fine. The interface is easy to use.

 

Further details of my exploits in my CO2 laser thread

Best

Simon

[Hyper Aus]

I have been following this thread for some time. 

 

Bit the bullet and decided to purchase an Emblaser 1 while they are on sale.

[Giles]

It's not something you'll regret..... the E1 is a surprisingly capable machine - though of course there is a learning curve!

[JCL]

I agree with Giles - and definitely make you do all the calibration work at the beginning as it really does help. Also, something I don't remember mentioned as a part of setup, but definitely mentioned on here is to make sure that your right-angled corners really do come out at 90 degrees.

 

I think you'll love it.

[flubrush]

I have been following this thread for some time. 

 

Bit the bullet and decided to purchase an Emblaser 1 while they are on sale.

 

Go for it.  :-)

[monkeysarefun]

There are a couple of enhancements mentioned  here earlier - a bigger fan and a G7 lens - both available for hardly any money from Ebay.  Once you have a handle on the out-of-the-box Emblaser, they are both well worth investigating.

Edited June 27, 2018 by monkeysarefun

[Hyper Aus]

There are a couple of enhancements mentioned  here earlier - a bigger fan and a G7 lens - both available for hardly any money from Ebay.  Once you have a handle on the out-of-the-box Emblaser, they are both well worth investigating.

 

Thanks for the reminders.

 

Do you have a link to a lens on ebay? Only one I seem to find is in America.

 

Just a note I am in Aussie land like yourself

[monkeysarefun]

Thanks for the reminders.

 

Do you have a link to a lens on ebay? Only one I seem to find is in America.

 

Just a note I am in Aussie land like yourself

 

I bought mine from here:

 

https://www.sanwulasers.com/product/lenses

 

because they were cheap I bought two. I think from memory its the 9mm holder that we need.

 

The bigger fan:

 

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/SUNON-KDE1204PKVX-4020-Cooling-Fan-3Pin-DC12V-1-4W-1-6-x1-6-x0-8-super-Silence-/263007148445?hash=item3d3c72999d&_uhb=1

 

Not sure why its listed in UK pounds since it is an Ebay Australia site and it  ships from China...

 

I needed longer bolts to hold the fan so I bought these - could probably have found them for a bit cheaper (especially with postage...) but I was sick in bed that week and just got bored and bought stuff!

 

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Socket-Head-Cap-Screw-M3-3mm-Metric-Coarse-Bolt-Allen-12-9-Plain-Black/192171520173?hash=item2cbe50b0ad:m:mcEk4MODR4Px4T-RsmXXXjg

Edited June 28, 2018 by monkeysarefun

[flubrush]

The bigger fan:

 

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/SUNON-KDE1204PKVX-4020-Cooling-Fan-3Pin-DC12V-1-4W-1-6-x1-6-x0-8-super-Silence-/263007148445?hash=item3d3c72999d&_uhb=1

 

 

 Why the bigger fan?   I've run my E1 on quite long cuts - up to two hours continuous - and I don't seem to have had any overheating problems.   In fact there are times when I wish a fan wasn't needed - like when cutting window frames out of thin card and the fan disturbs the cutout parts and blocks the laser beam. :-)

 

Jim.

Edited June 29, 2018 by flubrush

[Hyper Aus]

Well my Emblaser one has arrived and I have been able to build it will little trouble.

 

One thing I did notice is that the focus lens seems to be quite loose. I did purchase and use the 3d printed focusing tool but it was of poor quality and bent far too easily

 

I did manage to do a quick cut of some paper using the jigsaw file from the Darkly Labs website but I won't be able to get much other work done until I have found a home for it in my little workshop at home.

 

Oh and the G7 lens has been ordered. Not looking at upgrading the fan just yet though.

Edited July 4, 2018 by Hyper Aus