K40 Whisperer: Design Alignment

[@northprime_unlimited]

It’s tips and tricks like this that really elevate this software. The fact that it’s free is astonishing. I GLADLY would’ve paid for it. K40 Whisperer truly makes laser cutting/engraving a pleasure to do. I didn’t realize there was a pop-up report available at the end of burn. I’m gonna start using that for job estimates on customers.

[@ScorchWorks]

You can also show tme estimates in the view menu. They are not perfect but they are in the ballpark,

[@WoodenCreationz]

Great video man!! Always excited to find you have made updates to the software!!! Thanks for the great explanation and will have to download the new version!!! Keep up the great work... And I still owe you huge for the help this summer!!!!! Thank you again man!!! 🙏😉👍🏻👊🏻😜👏👌🥂🍻 - Brian

[@benjaminbrewer2154]

Thanks for the sharing these techniques. I've been using the dot method at minimum power into some sacrificual masking tape to avoid marring the surface.

[@davepauljones]

Thank you very much for your work with K40, I get what you are doing, I encourage you and are glad, you are carrying on the works on it, well done, I will be using it myself, cheers.

[@nwhatchel]

You are a lifesaver, and just earned a subscriber. Thanks for the video!

[@rvc1rvc1]

I wasn't aware there was a trace function. Very handy to know, thanks!

[@azfisher]

Great help as always. Thanks for the video and software!

[@grzegorzkoslacz3859]

Some buttons with common step like 0.5, 1, 5, 10mm would be useful. Anyway thank you for such great software!

[@benjaminbrewer2154]

At 4:33 the laser head is exiting the bounds of the svg. (The first two circles were internal to the shape and svg offset.) How large is move of head clearing the shape? 9:55 there is a pull back as well that might exceed the bounds of the svg.

[@ScorchWorks]

I'm sorry. I don't understand your question.

[@benjaminbrewer2154]

@@ScorchWorks sorry let me try and rephrase. At the end of an svg path the laser head makes a move that isn't found in the svg file. For the. First two circles the laser head moves inward for the 90 degree position toward the 270 degree (or a small uncommanded move to the internal of the circle). On the third it appears to move from the 90 degree position outward beyond the right edge of the svg (or the beyond white portion of the canvas on the screen). It is a move I didn't notice before, with the potential to cause a crash and lose steps. I was curious the distance of the head move after the cut is complete. I will measure it later. Maybe I'm seeing things.

[@ScorchWorks]

I think I understand what you are talking about now. I am not sure of the exact overshoot. The controller board does some motions that are not explicitly sent to the the laser by K40 Whisperer.

[@benjaminbrewer2154]

@@ScorchWorks thank you. I'll measure the offset to satisfy my curiosity. I've had a few crashes when I align the workpiece to the edge and it offsets the rest of the raster or svg. I was blaming running too fast and loosing steps. (I've been leaving a 15mm gutter on the left as a workaround.) Thanks for ruling out whisper and the svg.

[@neiljensen9585]

@@ScorchWorks Looked like a lead out on the cut

[@peyton693]

Is there a way to recover the original start position? sometimes when I engrave something my power will go out, or I'll get a USB timeout, and if that happens while I'm engraving, usually it's almost impossible to get the alignment perfect to restart the engraving.

[@ScorchWorks]

No, but if you set the start position using the moveto button you can get back to the start position using the moveto button with the same inputs.

[@danielribera2484]

Molt bon video. Has dit detalls que no coneixia.

[@patrickscheuble7265]

Those are great tricks :) Can't wait to use them. How did you set up your airassist that it only turns on when the laser is active? My airassist tends to overheat when it's on for a bit. That set up would be a great solution to prevent that.

[@ScorchWorks]

I replaced the "Laser Switch" with a DPDT switch rated for enough power to control the air assist pump power. On side of the DPDT switch controls the laser enable (as the old switch did) and the other side of the switch controls the air assist pump. The two circuits are (electrically) independent of each other but the switch controls them both at the same time.

[@E.Reyes78]

How can you start cutting close to the home (upper left of the rail)? Is there a way to do this or it will always start with a space on the left and top of the design?

[@ScorchWorks]

K40 Whisperer does not add space to the design on the upper left corner. When the machine homes, there is a slight offset to ensure the laser head does not slam into the end stop during raster engraving. If you want to absolutely maximize the cutting area, you can unlock the rail and push the laser head all the way to the upper right.

[@laharl2k]

hey any chance of supporting marlin or grbl? i really like this workflow compared to the other open source software and i wanted to upgrade my M2 board to a MKS SGEN_L with marlin to make better use of the hardware. Also a suggestion, joystick support, like a claw machine. If one could use a some cheap usb joystick for this it would be so much better than having to manually the jog step between fast and slow. This would also allow you to make custom controls with any arduino or micro that allows usb emulation.

[@ScorchWorks]

I don't have any plans to add support for Marlin/GRBL.

[@mulyadimaksum7931]

Hello, thank you for the information and your video, I also have a laser machine that uses K40 software, and I am oversize the working area , But it requires a large motor power, so I made a gear ratio..After that the laser can run smoothly. But after entering the scale settings I encountered a problem... If I make a square object the results are accurate... But after making a circle object, the results are very weird, this is not oval shape or anything else.. on x Axis the diameter is correct but on y Axis the diameter u correct...

[@mulyadimaksum7931]

Do you have solution

[@ScorchWorks]

Can you e-mail what a circle looks like to the e-mail address in the help menu? I am guessing something else is going on with your machine.

[@mulyadimaksum7931]

@@ScorchWorks thank you.. i Will send the picture..

[@mulyadimaksum7931]

@@ScorchWorks .I've sent some photos and a description of my machine. I hope you can provide a solution to my problem... thank you and good luck forever

[@derekpatey1161]

how do you get the positioning light on please?

[@ScorchWorks]

This video covers the positioning light. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qGWql5eJaax3p9U

[@derekpatey1161]

@@ScorchWorks Thanks mate much appreciated

[@dominikad3774]

Hello, I have a problem with raster engraving multiplied object via whisperer. When I engrave one at time it looks good, I mean for example the circle (ring) is smoothly round but when I copy the same circle muliple times at project when engraving it starts loosing its smooth round shape and beeing distorted. Any ideas why?

[@ScorchWorks]

Might be a loose belt or something else mechanical that shows up with larger motions. I don't know how copying an object would change its shape.

[@jitendramohta6587]

I dnot get templet for k40 anywhere every where cdr format and cdr format not suppprt in jt

[@timb1648]

What are you using for your alignment dot?

[@ScorchWorks]

See this video for what I use for my alignment dot: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qGWql5eJaax3p9U