RDWorks Learning Lab 61 Mk5 laser pointer

[@JoePCP]

Hi Russ, I'm glad to see you made good use of the new laser pointers, with another superb and ingenious project. I've bought a couple as well and as you say they do spill some light. I also found that the front element can be rotated and does seem to focus the point to some degree. Brilliant video as usual, I look forward to the next. Regards Joe.

[@TheTravisReese]

I've never commented before on your videos however I want to say thank you. I've watched them all and they have been extremely helpful.

[@SarbarMultimedia]

+Travis Reese Hi Travis Thanks for taking time to add a few kind words. I hope you have a machine that you are trying to "house train" otherwise this could be pretty boring viewing Best regards Russ

[@TheTravisReese]

I think it's inspiring to know that other people are benefitting from what you're posting. Yes, I have a Chinese machine from Rabbit Laser USA. I've not done a lot of tweaking to the machine but hope to soon based on your videos. I'm amazed at the speed at which you can drive your gantries. I've got LaserCut 5.3 with a Leetro controller so not much you can help me with. But my laser seems to max out at around 30mm/s. I've got to figure out the settings to try speeding this up and see what the results are.

[@SarbarMultimedia]

+Travis Reese I am aware of two or three correspondents who have swapped out their Leetro controller and gone down the RuiDa route All their product support manuals and software are here en.rd-acs.com/down_complex.aspx?FId=n14:14:14 and my 6442 control system is available in many places I have been very happy with the mechanical performance of my machine, it was just the laser tube was rubbish and caused me to go off and learn so much about the technology. Good luck with your tinkering....no help forthcoming from Rabbit? Best regards Russ

[@TheTravisReese]

+SarbarMultimedia Thanks. I've been looking at a LightObject controller based on RuiDa.

[@SarbarMultimedia]

+Travis Reese Im not a US citizen but Light Object from the outside seem like a bunch of rogues. I say that based on the fact that they sell overpriced and over specified SP brand tubes. If you look at the SP website they do not sell the specification tubes that you can buy from Light Object. There is a low wattage medical range of tubes that SP will make to customer order. If you look around Aliexpress for SP tubes you will find the same tube CORRECTLY specified at much lower wattage and prices. To me that says'proceed with caution. Its a minefield out there for after market spares for these machines it may be safer to buy directly from China. I'll leave you with that caution and dilemma. I've been there, been caught but ultimately succeeded. Good luck and best regards Russ

[@neatpleats11]

Its amazing how you are able to see what looked like a scattered laser and turn it into a better image of the mirror. This version of the laser pointer is much simpler as well.

[@StefsEngineering]

Another awesome video! As you say in your discription, you may not be an instructor nor expert but you bring very usefull information! (loads more than I am used to see from a lot of selfproclaimed "experts")

[@kev1r]

I just love watching you vids Russ Thank you. Would it be possible to purchase a copy of your MK5 Laser pointer please.

[@SarbarMultimedia]

Hi Kevin You can either send me your email address via you tube privare message or you can pop on over to www.rdworkslab.com forum and you will find all my public DXF files there for free download. Thanks for your kind words Best regards Russ

[@kev1r]

Thank you Russ i will pop across to rdworks.

[@saviothecnic]

I joined the forum where I find the dxf

[@SarbarMultimedia]

Hi Savio They are in the Russ Sadlers Adventures section and at the bottom there is a sub forum link to files and index try this link rdworkslab.com/viewforum.php?f=6 Best regards Russ

[@saviothecnic]

Thanks for trying i have problems with the forum and i can not find .dxf

[@PLVIEWREEL]

Hi Russ, I just want to say Brilliant simply Brilliant.

[@SarbarMultimedia]

+Paul Lecomte Hi Paul Thanks for the comment . I am usually a modest person but I have to admit that this attempt makes all 4 previous versions look like prototypes. It took a day of design work to make it as simple, cost effective and elegant as it finished up. I needed a new pointer for my 60 watt tube and it was a 3D problem to be solved with 2D parts. Just the sort of thing I love. Best regards Russ

[@stuarthall6291]

Hi Russ, Great series of videos. I managed to watch the majority of your videos prior to my machine arriving. It's identical to yours by the looks of things. 50W Laser producing 45W which I intend to upgrade to a 130W/150W tube in the next couple of months. Would it be possible to get hold of the rd file for your latest laser pointer design and a link to where you purchased the laser diode as the screenshot is too blurred to read the details on the ebay page. Thank you Regards Stuart

[@SarbarMultimedia]

+Stuart Hall Hi Stuart Thanks for the appreciation. If you like to go to my You Tube messaging system (click on the blue square beside Sarbar Multimedia and it will open up a page with tabs on. Click the ABOUT tab and there will be another page with a message button top right.) you can send me your email privately and i will attach the file and data by return Best regards Russ

[@TheTravisReese]

+Stuart Hall I found them on Amazon. www.amazon.com/Tinksky-650nm-Laser-Diode-Module/dp/B010VCB5LE?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00$8 for 10 of them.

[@perfectcorporation3466]

+SarbarMultimedia. send to me email address or whatup no

[@freddotu]

I continue to be fascinated by your videos and how much I am learning while viewing them. The inexpensive laser pointer brings a question. Can you be confident that the beam from the pointer is coaxial to the housing of the pointer? I have a collection of these tiny modules (5v version) and have not checked that aspect of the construction. Every iteration of pointer mount I've tried has been stymied by a problem you don't have. The end of my 60w chinese laser tube (KH) is not a flat surface. It does not have the metal collar that yours does and is more-or-less free-form melted glass, with a slight tilt as well as minor irregularities. I expect that I will be unable to implement a laser pointer aiming device unless I replace the tube with a Russ-compatible low-voltage end.

[@SarbarMultimedia]

Hi Fred With my Mk1 ans Mk2 pointers I was worried about coaxial alignment. By mk3 I was aware of a simple principle. Put a piece of tape at mirror 3 and make a laser scorch mark on it. Turn the tube off and attach the laser pointer. Now adjust the pointer until it coincides with the scorch mark. You have now set up a reference beam. It does not have to be coaxial copy of the tube provided you are not using it to set the machine from scratch. I find it is fabulous if I want to remove a mirror for cleaning or checking. Pop the mirror back and tweak it to get the beam onto the scorch mark. Job done in a few seconds Best regards Russ

[@perfectcorporation3466]

+SarbarMultimedia I want to me u

[@glennclaes]

Another great video! Im amazed by the speed that you cut this piece of acrylic. Could you please tell me your power and speed setting for this cut? Thanks, Glenn !

[@SarbarMultimedia]

+Glenn Claes Hi Glenn I find it's of little value to talk in %power because everyone's machine is different. On the other hand, there is no ambiguity if I tell you 63 watts at 25mm/sec BUT that only makes sense if you have a power meter and know the relationship between %power and watts. You will also note I have what like to call a "scalpel" lens with 38mm focal length. you would not be able to do this with a 2" "penknife" lens or a 2.5" "axe" lens. By the way, these were first off safe settings I could have set to 30 or 35mm/s (I think) but it would have made little difference to most of the cuts because they are speed limited by the size of the holes or length of line...the machine never has a chance to accelerate up to full speed Best regards Russ

[@glennclaes]

+SarbarMultimedia Hi Russ, of course your right about the power. My machine is totally different from yours. But knowing the cutting speed and lens that you are using, gives me some indication of what should be possible with my 60w laser tube. Since we are all kind of learning as we go. I can tell you that your videos have been quite helpful in my personal quest to get the best performance out of my machine. So thanks a lot for making your videos and sharing your findings. There is in fact something that I was meaning to ask you about .Recently I was reading up on some tips to get better picture engraving results. I found out that a lot of people where talking about changing the PPI (pulse per inch) of the laser beam. Unfortunately that info wasn't worth much since I discovered that we don't have such a setting in RD works. However you can change the PWM pulse frequency for each cut you make in the advanced section of the cutting parameters. Have you tried changing these parameters?

[@glennclaes]

My machine is setup at 22Khz , but changing the frequency to any other number doesn't seem to change a thing. Even setting it to 0 doesn't make any difference. I'm not sure that this might be a feature that you can only use with RF laser tubes or not? So I was wondering if you have tried playing with this? Regards, Glenn

[@SarbarMultimedia]

+Glenn Claes Hi Glen Take a look at kzbin.info/www/bejne/aamyYpufd7ateMk start at about 12min 30sec. A month passes and still no answers A guy in Sweden is convinced it does something miraculous. It was difficult to understand his logic but I'm sure he was trying to say that when this advanced setting was at 20kHz it matched the machine's basic PWM for the machine so when you called for 100% power there would be 10,000 ones per second and 10,000 noughts per second. But when you called for 50% then obviously you only get 5000 ones and 15000 zeros. His argument seemed to be that if you set the advanced frequency to say 10kHz then every main PMW pulse would now become subdivide into two smaller parts, so at 100% power you would be generating 40Khz and if you set the advanced frequency to what he claims is the lowest recommended, 5kHz. (who is recommending this I didn't find out) the PWM frequency would then effectively be 80kHz. I did check and he does not have an RF tube. But I did bounce this "idea" to another good correspondent who is an electronics wiz and has his 60 watt machine all scoped and instrumented. He fiddled with the advanced setting and could see no change . The PWM is just a digital means of adjusting an analogue current flow through the tube. That current flow is not oscillating at the PWM frequency although it has the ability to change current flow extremely quickly, this is still via an analogue circuit. It all seems illogical what this Swedish guy believes because logically if I'm calling for 50 % power then regardless of the PWM frequency I will be switching OFF 50% of the ones. that seems to be what's indicated with my two pictures (no difference) and what you are finding as well. Best regards Russ

[@glennclaes]

+SarbarMultimedia Hi Russ, So it seems to be useless for us . It's a pitty, because it would give us a lot more things to play with and could give us a lot of benefits. I hear that changing the PWM frequency could give you better cutting results in wood as it comes to charred edges. Because you are able to change the pulse of the laser, you would be able to allow the material to cool down just a bit between each pulse and get a cleaner less charred result. In acrylic it would allow you to prevent the melted (rounded) edges on the top, and you could play with the setting to get a better mirror finished polished edge. (Although i hear 20Khz Would be best for this) According to my settings, my lasers PWM frequency is 20Khz . Because i don't trust the software to be working 100% ( as with the rotary engraving settings), i tried to change the tubes PWM frequency inside the vender setting area instead of the advanced setting area. The result from my findings were the same. No difference. I even changed the pulse to 0 Khz , which i believe would mean no laser output at all. But i couldnt see any difference. The only thing that i didn't try yet is to power off the machine before testing a new pulse setting in the vender area, and do a reset startup. Altough i don't expect this to be necesary. I changed things in the vender area before, and it all had emmidiate effect. You sometimes wonder were the big price difference between professional non- Chinees brands and the Chinees Ebay laser machines comes from. The abvious thing is that the Chinees machines all have flows somewhere. And know i think that we discovered another diffence in the ability to change the pulse. I haven't realy looked further into the next bit. But when i was searching information on pulsing Co2 lasers, i got emidiate search results on Laser optical shutters. Maybe if you would like to upgrade your machine, you could install one of these www.thorlabs.de/NewGroupPage9.cfm?ObjectGroup_ID=927 . It seems to be controlled with a seperate controller, so no emidiate need to control it with a plugin for RDworks. Again i haven't looked further in to this subject, to be honest i don't even know if you can use it with our kind of laser, but i tought that you might find this interesthing as well. P.S: I heared someone from Kern Laser mention the 5Khz recommendation in a comment on one of there video's regarding picture engraving. That was the trigger for me to start to investigate this subject. Leading from PPI settings to PWM settings... Best Regards, Glenn

[@avatar021]

Really nice idea, are these files available somewhere to download or purchase?

[@TheSn1per]

Russ, another fine looking device. could you ps send me a copy of the cad file too. :) I did notice myself the broad / blurry dot I have tried several different laser diodes. all with similar performance. its quite disappointing those pesky small pointers. Many thanks again for all your contributions to the community.

[@raspberrypiploy771]

Hi Russ .. My Machine has had to be reordered, unfortunately the first seller disappeared and left me 'high and dry'. This all came to light on Sunday so yesterday a replacement order was made in advance of the payment being returned, thankfully I was fully covered. Its quite frustrating though as the listing says 2 / 3 days delivery and now the order has been made they are say 15/18 ok not much of a difference but on the 18th I go back to work (Airline Crew) and am away for 6 days, fingers crossed they can get it here before. I am still working through all your vids as they are invaluable. Thanks Paul

[@Runner50783]

Great video. With each iteration, it seems the most important bit is the alignment of the laser pointer to the actual CO2 laser beam. Once that's nailed, seems pretty much warrantied that the alignment will work as intended. Thanks to your videos, I've been researching which pointer to buy on my own for when times come to adjust my own machine. I've seen many different types and qualities of pointers, some claim to have commercial grade quality and are actually very expensive (upwards of 20 - 100 dollars), they also have specifications of their own, and some claim to produce a straighter more focused beam. I wonder if those variations on the actual pointer quality are significant enough to introduce errors on the alignment process. There is not a huge path for the beam to travel but still, how damaging are those imperfections on the beam quality?

[@SarbarMultimedia]

+Abraham Saenz Hi Abraham At each iteration I have tried using different pointers. None have cost more than about $20. None have a really pin sharp beam but all were ok. For this mk5 unit I went small and REALLY cheap. Just go to your ebay and search for "laser diode arduino" and you will have loads to choose from. When I first tested it it was the worst pointer I had used. Not only did it have a dot about 4mm diameter but there was lot of light spill around the dot. I anticipated it would not be fit for purpose but, as you will see from the video. that background wash of light illuminates the whole mirror so that you can see the position of the beam on the mirror itself. That turns out to be an amazing advantage at seeing where problems are. Although the dot is big. you can shutter it out with your finger so that you can see your scorch mark and then using your persistance of vision remove your finger to see how good a fit the light is on your scorch mark. It turns out that this cheapy is REALLY good You cannot use this for a "from scratch" setup because you must have your beam already aligned to somewhere on mirror 3. When you make your pointer beam and scorch marks align, you have emulated the laser beam path with a visible analogue. Dont be tempted to twiddle with mirrors....remember the procedure you watched in kzbin.info/www/bejne/jJ2Zgn6irLd-os0 and kzbin.info/www/bejne/rWrZZImpZbOVodk. Stop and think!!!! This is a great tool if you want to take a mirror out for inspection or cleaning. THEN you can easily adjust your mirror back so that your dot and scorch mark are coincident Best regards Russ

[@SarbarMultimedia]

+Abraham Saenz This is a very powerful RF laser that will cut metal and yes it needs something to stop the laser damaging other parts of his shop. Water is an excellent absorber BUT you cant stand water vertically. Also if you fire into a container of sand 25mm deep the surface will glow white hot. I tried using this as a calorimeter medium at one stage. However, you will not have to worry about issues like this because you can turn the power right down and use you pulse button to fire the beam at a piece of paper or masking tape to see where your beam is....safely. Best regards Russ

[@sanjaydubey9973]

that's a nice tool to align the laser. thanks

[@isettech]

You have probably solved the 3 volt supply issue by now, but for those following along, you can use ohm's law to calculate a dropping resistor to power the laser off a readily available 5 V supply, such as from the limit switch supply on the controller module, or the CO2 laser control interface on the controller.

[@RabHaw1947]

another great video as usual Russ. by the way I did send you a thankyou email for the xmas card file but was having problems with my email so don't know if you had it, anyway thanks again, keep up the good work

[@edgarelectro4178]

Good evening, please, if you can, throw this detail into the file that you made..I need this constructor that you collect I need a layout please Send me a file.

[@จั่นเจาผู้กล้า]

What is Russ Sadler's First Name:=?

[@SarbarMultimedia]

Russ

[@pissantsseemore7095]

Sir Russ, again reviewing labs 60, 61. Poor quality monitor and eyesight brought into focus an idea. How marvelous to have printed copies of all lab drawings. Producing PFD copies that we could be downloaded. You know a student home-study guide. Again, your "dark ways" present more work for you. But the videography design and production experience alone surley seem irresistible. (almost used Shirley, old american Johnny Cash joke). You agree I know. You'll have it finished before my laser arrives. ron

[@SarbarMultimedia]

Hi Ron all my drawings in DXF format suitable for importing into RDWorks are all available at the forum Any luck with signing on? If you need them I'll attach them to an email. Best regards Russ

[@makemore6011]

hey man i have the same laser and i have a big problem the laser tube is arcs outside the the laser tube i gotet yesterday running time 2 min and it went crazy hope you can helpe me right now you are the only person i know maybe can help

[@SarbarMultimedia]

+kasperjder ! Hi At one stage I have experienced the same arcing. Its sound horrific and looks spectacular but is obviously very dangerous. Turn your machine off and wait for about an hour before you touch anything on the high voltage end of the tube. Technically there should be a leak path in the power supply to make capacitors safe but I always err on the safe side. If you look in the pack of goodies that came with your machine you should find a tube of white silicone adhesive/sealant. This is a non corrosive and no smell adhesive. Don't use bath sealant. You need to seal off completely the HV end of your tube around the glass and around the HV cable so that the HV and air are completely isolated . The voltages are very high about 27,000 volts and there only needs to be a small amount of humidity or dust in the air and it will find a way of escaping to ground (as you have seen) Take a look at kzbin.info/www/bejne/sHS3o4WKZqiSm7s and you will see me preforming the sealing process. It's not necessary at the cathode end because the voltage there is almost zero volts The fact that you mention it arcing from the tube means that this should fix the problem. Best regards Russ

[@makemore6011]

+SarbarMultimedia the seal it have to bee dry befor trying again right and i will dust it of and true the meshing again tomorro but what if the arc is still gowing on after this ?? and thx man best anser :D !!

[@philfitzgerald8449]

+kasperjder ! Arcing tube can mean it's a dead tube. This happenes when the internal resistance gets too high. I have also had it with a failing power supply and a faulty ballast resistor.

[@makemore6011]

+Phil Fitzgerald the mashing is brand new a contact the seller and he send me a new laser tube I'm waiting for I hope it's the laser tube the laser worked for 2 min and then it begin arcing like crazy :) thx for the answer :D I have tried isolated the hige power better but the arc just fined a new way :p

[@jacewalton6677]

Eeemoresive sir!

[@perfectcorporation3466]

sarbar send email address. I want laser dot diode and laser shot working together I am making there is a frame where two hole one hole is connected to laser shot area and second one is made at least 1 to 2 mm upward .upward hole is for laser dot diode install laser shot hole straight second one is about 15 degree and both hole is joint together at the end for example material used plaster of Paris what is your point I ask u