K40 Whisperer: Engraving Pictures

[@LostRoaming]

Thanks for creating such a slick program for the k40 and thanks for the tutorials!

[@bobbobless522]

I switched out mine to the C3D board and had loads of issues working with it. Finding this then refitting the old board, its doing a better job than the upgrade did without the hair pullout! Excellent work!

[@johnbaker2917]

By the way, this video was so helpful. I set up a picture and pattern for our car show our church is doing and it engraved it flawelessly using the steps you described in the video. THANK YOU!!!

[@seanlee3363]

how about a video on acrylic cutting? can't seem to get it right!

[@MrLeopain]

Good day. May I say that your software has added a completely new spectrum to what was a very ordinary laser machine to a machine that now can do great things. May I suggest that you look at adding a block that will tell the software how many times it should cut as sometimes one has to cut 3 times before it cuts threw the material. Great job and thank you.

[@ScorchWorks]

dickie fritz that has already been added.

[@MrLeopain]

Please excuse my ignorance but how do I tell it to cut 3 times rather than doing it manually. Please.

[@ScorchWorks]

dickie fritz select "settings"-"advanced settings"

[@MrLeopain]

Oh I see now in your video. Web page down to download updated software. Thank you Sir.

[@manuelvillalpando6665]

Would you mind sharing what types of wood do you prefer for engraving? I do pyrography art pieces. Generally, I use wood-type materials such as gourd, balsa wood, and white birch as these types of woods do not contain much rings and give you a better result in drawing images on to them. I am thinking that the laser machine, being the replacement for a wood burning tool now, will probably handle these types of woods well too. However, I am always open minded to learn what other medias I can use as well. In the past too, I've used for pyrography art medias such as cardboard, leather, Kraft paper bags, and even material such as bones. It would be awesome if the K40 laser machine could work on the above medias as well too. Thank you for sharing your experience and recording the tutorial video.

[@ScorchWorks]

I don't generally do pictures. The demo was done on a piece of plywood that I bought from home depot. I don't know what type of wood it is.

[@berighteous]

Sweet! Thanks. Just what I needed. My first photo came out great.

[@troyd-motorsport9933]

Great video thanks! So what was the laser amps you used for the raster? You mentioned 10ma for the cut. Just curious to what it was for the raster, thanks

[@ScorchWorks]

Around 5ma

[@troyd-motorsport9933]

@@ScorchWorks perfect thank you.

[@sujithkumara229]

Great work budy.

[@ljprep6250]

I just got my K40 up and running yesterday (newb here) and instantly found the drawbacks of the LaserDRW. Whisperer looks like the program that SHOULD ship with the machines. Great videos, dude. So, how long did it take to do that raster engraving of the car at 50x50mm?

[@ScorchWorks]

I don't recall but if you go to "View"-"Show Time Estimates" in K40 Whisperer it will display time estimates for engraving and cutting. The raster engrave estimates are pretty close to the actual time it will take the vector estimates are a little off.

[@pinterszilard8552]

Thanks for video. Its very big help,but i installing this software and the laserDRW its not connected my masine but i dont mine( try once). K40 wishper the its primary software for me.

[@wsimmons580]

Is there a setting for glass or acrylic? I guess I'm asking is there a way to make the image negative in whisperer?

[@ScorchWorks]

Not yet, I am planning to add that feature.

[@wsimmons580]

@@ScorchWorks That would be amazing! Thank you for the quick response.

[@glennmartonic6376]

in inkscape...filter/color/invert.....then filter/color greyscale to adj then darkness....sometimes have to adjust the darkness to achieve the clarity of the pic....or will be too dark...experiment....this is usually for clear acrylic painted flat black.....

[@Photonsnmotion]

Great software package, have you thought about adding looping( number of passes) as part of the cut file? So for an example if you are doing a vector cut you would set the speed and number of passes (example 20 mm/s , 2- would run the vector cut twice and if the other 2 settings would be once (if set that way).

[@ScorchWorks]

You can do that under advanced settings.

[@kevinramos2788]

Mine says " láser cutter not initialized" but the machine is on and everything's connected, what could it be?

[@ScorchWorks]

You need to click the "Initialize Laser Cutter" button.

[@davidr1122]

Everything works for me, I made my SVG in inkscape, set my red cutting line vector box. imported to Whisper, but my vector red vector cut lines convert grey scale... then it says no vector cut data... hmm... I will figure this out. ------------EDIT: Fixed... I was not at 255 on my red.. Amazing,. Thank you for making such a great program for those of us who can't afford upgrade to a Cohesion3D or a Gerbil yet. (question below) --------Speaking of upgrades. If you had too upgrade, what would you use? The Cohesion3D , Super Gerbil, or Mini Gerbil?.. I am sure you are more informed than I, and I have been reading tons online, but I want to know what YOU would choose, I trust your opinion more than others as you have truly shown dedication to the craft by designing an awesome workaround for people who can't upgrade.

[@ScorchWorks]

I am glad you figured it out before I had time to reply. I don't know which board is best, I don't have any of them...

[@johnbaker2917]

You seem to be having good results with your lazer cutter so I hope you don't mind me asking a couple questions as I am getting mine up and running. I printed a large square to help me aling my work space to the gantry (I am assuming that is what the slides the carriage run on are called). When it got to the right side it engraved a double line but it then cleared up toward the bottom of the engrave and the rest of the square. Could it be my lazer is out of alignment?

[@ScorchWorks]

Yes, it is probably an alignment issue.

[@AnxBeta]

I need help I have this Blue print of a ship and I would like to make it on a Acrylic so it will light up, I am using Inkscape and Whisperer, the lazer looks like it is going back and forth but is not engraving the picture?

[@ScorchWorks]

More than likely your image has a lot of light dots/speckles that are too light to see in the final result. If you clean up the image it will not spend time on features you won't see. Or you could turn off halftone/dithering if your design is intended to be black and white without greys.

[@modernatorcollective7126]

Very good explanation, thank you.......gulp ! trying it this weekend :)

[@shanobix]

When I adjust the Ma on the laser the meter shows still shows the same Ma when I Easter engrave (5ma). Is this the machines or program? When I adjust the Ma on lightburn it goes to the right Ma

[@ScorchWorks]

K40 Whisperer does not / cannot change the power

[@chade74]

Followed your instructions to the letter. Got the black over the picture. Did the fill and stroke and I got zero red line. So where did i go wrong??

[@ScorchWorks]

Make sure 'halftone/dither' is checked. If the red line did not show up red then your color is probably incorrect.

[@chade74]

@@ScorchWorks where would I find the halftone at?

[@ScorchWorks]

@@chade74 It is explained in the video that you said you are following "to the letter" kzbin.info/www/bejne/rZW1pJpqrNGfo9E

[@terryjones991]

what is the distance from the laser to the surface off the material i have a measuring stick but your laser head seems higher alot higher than what the training video i got with the machine says or is it different for pictures as my tells me to use measuring stick and its about 12mm above surface engraves acrylic ok with just a rose and text but want to do pictures

[@ScorchWorks]

terry jones you should do a ramp test to determine the correct height. (a Google search can explain it.)

[@fpixel7190]

Wow looks great! I'm not sure if you told us but what power/speed setting are you use for raster engraving without air assist? I used 100mm/sec at 23% power and had a lot of burnout (using Ash wood).

[@ScorchWorks]

You need to figure out which settings works best for your machine and material.

[@FERNANDOPENAS]

I only get a message `inkscape not found` when I try to open the SVG file. Could nt find a fix on google.

[@ScorchWorks]

Do you have Inkscape installed?

[@northprime_unlimited]

Hello Scorch Works I’m having problems engraving. For some reason it’s ghosting (printing double). What is the problem??

[@ScorchWorks]

Your laser beam is bouncing off of something. (i.e inside of lens holder, air assist nozzle or edge of miror holder.)

[@HerrHafiz]

is it normal for the test to run take a while to send data to the machine?because i only test the k40_whisperer_test ,(vector engraving) it took over half hour and still not nearly 50%.I tried the vector engrave its okay.Not test with vector cut though.

[@ScorchWorks]

No, that is a crazy long time. Something is wrong.

[@HerrHafiz]

@@ScorchWorks its okay now. I just plug to another usb port and uninstall the lib and then reinstall. Thanks for your hard work! I really prefer this software than coreldraw. Thanks again

[@StarflightVirtual]

Hello, Nice Video! I have bought a blue minilaser to engrve letters for my Homecockpit Panels, but it dosent work. Now i am thinking about to by such a 40W Laser. What i need to cut is a 3mm Milky Acryl late paintet in Gray (Boeing) color. The there i have to cut the Letters, but only removing the paintet gray color. So the Letters itself are then again white, around is the gray color and when you turn on a light behind the Plate, the you can see the cuttet Letters. Letters are very small, only 3mm Height maximum. Is that possible with that Machine? Maybe you can make another Video?

[@ScorchWorks]

I don't know.

[@MrLoschizzato]

Hello, i've tried your software but i had to go back to laserdrw because with K40 Whisperer i experience an issue where the laser head (mechanically) skips steps and makes everything completely messed up. Is there a fix?

[@MrLoschizzato]

And also when i try to engrave Something with blue lines in it, the engrave (black) is uniform, when i want it to be as shown on screen. (Just like the inscape .lyz rar extension does)

[@ScorchWorks]

I am not sure what you are describing here (with respect to blue lines and black being uniform)

[@ScorchWorks]

Interesting that the skipping issue goes away when you use Laser Draw I have not experienced the skipping.

[@realprore]

I've had this happen on my older laptop becuase it wasn't buffering the data far enough before the machine caught up to it. Then it would pause while the comptuer caught up, and something in the software trying to resolve the situation caused it to skip from where it should have started. I'm not sure if this is some failure of the computer, an old work out USB port, or maybe just an older style of USB that isn't fast enough to keep up. I ran it on my newer computers (same files) and everything always works. This is only an issue when raster engraving beyond a certain size (not really that big, just little tiny engravings work fine). It could also be a belt slipping if you haven't checked that.

[@karllaun2427]

What’s a good source for the coiled air hose for your air assist?

[@ScorchWorks]

The coiled hose I used is from McMaster Carr. Part number: 9148T122 I don't think it is perfect but I have not tried anything else yet.

[@karllaun2427]

Thanks. I was going with the latex tube and a cable chain. It seems the cable chain I got won't bend to a tight enough radius to install normally.

[@kyliealbea3161]

I have followed your directions and when I click raster engrave, it loads like you mentioned, and then nothing happens. The laser head will move but the laser doesn’t begin engraving. What am I doing wrong?

[@ScorchWorks]

Check to see if your controller board is in the supported list and make sure the laser is enabled. If the laser is enabled and you push the test fire button the laser should fire.

[@kyliealbea3161]

It is one of the supported ones and the laser is enabled as far as I know. Any other ideas?

[@ScorchWorks]

@@kyliealbea3161 Not without additional information.

[@chaddthompson]

how many mA did you have the laser set to for the Raster Engraving?

[@ScorchWorks]

It was a while ago. I would guess around 5 ma.

[@hughdelanol.polidario6585]

@@ScorchWorks inthe k40 laser what percentage of power is 5ma and 10ma?

[@ScorchWorks]

@@hughdelanol.polidario6585 5 mA is in the 5% to 15% range and 10mA is around 30% to 40%. The % power is not very accurate at low power settings. Different people get different results so it is somewhat machine specific. I don't have a laser so this information is based on other stuff I have read from people that have measured the mA on their lasers.

[@Newtrojan]

Do we need DSP controller or works out of the box

[@ScorchWorks]

This was done with the stock controller. K40 Whisperer does not work with DSP controllers it only works with stock controller boards made by LIHUIYU that work with Laser Draw (M2 Nano and others) K40 Whisperer does not work with stock Moshi controllers that run with Moshidraw.

[@danielmuresan1756]

Hi. How many milliamps you use to raster plywood?

[@ScorchWorks]

Around 5 mA

[@danielmuresan1756]

@@ScorchWorks thank you

[@freebird1963]

Hello. So with this do we need to do artwork prep like from Epilog site ? support.epiloglaser.com/article/8205/50104/photo-laser-engraving-on-wood-with-CorelDRAW I haven't cut any of them that I prepped like this but was about to till I finally got the whisper to run on my machine. (corellaser was what I was using). So then I got to thinking I could just reopen them, save as EPS's and import into Inkscape and engrave but being a newbie not sure and feeling lost dazed and confused. Thanks and I am finding more enjoyment with the laser with your K40 Whisperer program. THanks.

[@ScorchWorks]

freebird1963 sounds like it is worth a try. I am not familiar with the Epilog preparation so Ibsm not sure if is the same.

[@freebird1963]

Thanks. Being that they use Coreldraw to do the manipulation what would be the best way to save the file to bring into Inkscape to so that it can be saved for K40 Whisperer. ? Thanks.

[@ScorchWorks]

freebird1963 SVG file.

[@Leviani]

Where can i find your version 0.12 ? On Your HP you have patch notes untill Version 0.11 :)

[@ScorchWorks]

+Leviani It will be posted in a day or two. I didn't think anyone would notice.... You are the second person to ask. The only new feature I talked about in the video is raster engraving from the bottom up.

[@Leviani]

Thanks in advance :) I need to upgrade from my version 0.8 I have been using untill today, so might as well wait untill 0.12 before doing that. btw. the leather / wood engraved picture on instagram has been made with the 0.8 version ;)

[@printinaddiction8956]

Is that for preventing smoke from marking up the already engraved area? I have been using Whisperer since .04 and it is awesome...I also notice the .12 and immediately checked the site :)

[@ScorchWorks]

+Printin Addiction Yes, someone needed the engraving up to keep the smoke off of the engraved surface. It was for a specific material but I can't remember what material they were using. I will try to get .12 out tonight.

[@ChippedBuilds]

do you have to use inkscape or does using illustrator work as well?

[@ScorchWorks]

You can make the design in Illustrator but you will need to open it in Inkscape to set the units. I know that sucks for Illustrator users. It is on my list of things to work on.

[@ChippedBuilds]

@@ScorchWorks ok, thanks

[@graemebrumfitt6668]

@@ScorchWorks Hi great vid, does the same apply for Affinity Designer. TFS, G :)

[@jakewilkinson8494]

thank you

[@travis69jr]

great job

[@southmountainoutdoors4628]

Will this work with windows 10

[@ScorchWorks]

brandon abee yes

[@cicciofranco405]

Compliment from Palemo francesco

[@tracystewart4211]

lol tried this step by step on piece of wood, didnt even start to engrave, maybe engraving depth no set?

[@ScorchWorks]

Engraving depth? What video did you watch?

[@tracystewart4211]

@@ScorchWorks the one where you copied a photo and engraved it

[@ScorchWorks]

@@tracystewart4211 What I meant was that there is no engraving depth setting and "engraving depth" was definitely not from the video. You need to better explain what is happening. (error messages, what does machine do)

[@tracystewart4211]

@@ScorchWorks yeah learning the inkscape/whisper set up was following your video, didnt work for me. now my inscape want even let me do a square and vector cut

[@graemebrumfitt6668]

Cheers Dude. TFS, G :)

[@joematarc5245]

thanks for the video. just one remark. the image doesn´t take a while to send all the data. IT TAKES FOREVER, and pauses all the time, and crash the system. for engraving, the Laser DRW, it is so much better...

[@envt]

Awesome :)

[@TheDfazer]

hi all , i'm new user of k40 laser, today i've installed k40 whisperer and inkscape but have try to engrave one picture with halftone but all times engraving is stopped and i have this message (sending data stopped; too many transmission errors (30 timeouts) somebody can help me please ? thanks

[@ScorchWorks]

Cryptid Unknow www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/lasercutting/comments/7vf7j0/help_with_k40_whisperer_timeout_issues/

[@TheDfazer]

thank for answer ! I hope found the problem

[@TheDfazer]

i've removed the stock k40 USB dongle from another USB port and run good for the moment, i test more tomorrow. thank you very much