Possible Alignment? Can't figure this out (pics)

[Ryan Fancher]

So i just replaced the power supply and laser tube in my blue/white 50w.

getting things lined up with the new laser tube was a bit of a struggle, but I feel like its very close now. However, I am getting some very weird results. The pic will show, but if I am cutting, it cuts like butter. no shadowing, etc.

If i am engraving, I am getting this very weird feathering effect. For this pic, its 240mm/s, at 19% power (ruida controller) on cardstock. Any ideas what that might be? It almost looks like the laser isn't aligned or its doubled, but the very outline doesn't show any doubling or shadowing, it just looks like its not quite getting up to power until towards the middle of each letter?

Any help would be amazing. Thank you!

[Dave Vigness]

Looks like a ramp effect like you would use enraving a rubber stamp.

[Ryan Fancher]

I agree! Not sure what's causing it, but this file is an old one from before I did any replacing of parts, so its a known good file. Its happening with bascially all the files I have stored on the laser that I have been working with. Alignment is about as good as I can get it and, again, it cuts like a dream.

[Dave Vigness]

If it's happening with all files, I'd start going through the settings in the controller, not through RDWorks. I know there are ramp effects in RDWorks, I have no idea if there is something similar that can be hard programmed at the controller level. I know it will override any max and min power regardless of RDWorks, might be worth looking into.

[Ryan Fancher]

it'd be crazy for those settings to change at the same time the power supply for the tube went bad, but its definitely worth a shot

[Gene Uselman]

Just a wild guess but check the Config> System Setting> Reverse/interval settings?

[Ryan Fancher]

reverse interval setting is actually fixing the issue! i was convinced i didn't set it up correctly, but it is lined up perfectly, but now the reverse interval settings are bonkers. I will update with some new settings shortly! Thank you!

[Jeffrey Aley]

What you're seeing is that the response time of the new power supply is different from the response time of the old one. By "response time" I mean the time from when the controller says, "Fire the laser" to the time when the laser actually turns on. One imagines that it's instantaneous, but in reality it is not. And since the head is moving, the delay in actually turning on the laser causes each scan line to misalign (because the first scan line is scanned from right to left, whereas the next one is from left to right).

The "Reverse Interval" setting is how you calibrate this. RDWorks knows to say "Fire the laser" a little bit early so that the laser actually turns on at the right moment.