RDWorks Learning Lab 220 The Cloudray Russ Spec Prototype
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- After many months of waiting, despite Covid 19 slowing things to zero at times, Cloudray have delivered on their wish to manufacture a small format, well specified laser cutting and engraving machine. With just a couple of videos and some sample parts I sent them to upgrade a basic machine, the team at Cloudray have succeeded in replicating my much-modified China blue machine. As you will see from the video they succeeded.......plus some. This is a pre production prototype that was sent for me to critique, so, as you would expect from me, this is an honest review of their success so far.
Regarding the 3 axis auto-homing, I think that the "reset' button should only home the X and Y axis, but leave the Z unmoved. I have a couple of reasons:
a) Moving the Z-axis blindly up during a reset can result in damage to the machine or object being lasered, because if the object is under the laser head when the Z moves up, it can hit the laser head. This can be solved by homing 'down' and raising the platform to the working position. But this still leaves reason (b).
b) Setting the Z height for a particular object can be somewhat finnicky, and a "reset" loses that height. Resetting X and Y to their home position is a very common operation, resetting Z not so much.
My suggestion is that the machine be set to reset only X and Y axis to their home positions, and have a separate command to reset Z as needed.
Hi Edward
I do appreciate when someone takes a real interest in a subject. I do understand your concerns about the Z homing feature. . Autofocus requires the Z=0 to be at the upper limit because the logic is that DOWNWARD motion of the table creates a positive coordinate for Z. Once the auto focus switch detects the work it must always move the work away from the switch otherwise a disaster ensues.. It is very rare that the table is used at other than its top position because most cutting or engraving is done on thin material. So setting X Y and Z to zero has never been a problem for me. It disciplines me to make sure the table is clear before switching off and I also have a habit of setting the head to 0,0 and pressing the origin button before shutting down..
I never used the auto focus function because it is so much easier for me to put the table to about the height I need and then drop the nozzle onto a step gauge.There are times when I need the table zero at other than the top position. I have made a very simple modification to my machine that allows me to choose any table position as zero
see ruclips.net/video/ooFg4lL9y0o/видео.html
Best wishes
Russ
Thanks for the vid! I'm rebuilding a Golden Laser JGSH-13070
Lovely ! I feel a bit of an idiot posing this question - but I love the ducting you used for your extract . What is it called ? I have a second hand co2 laser with an extract fan like yours - but it has ghastly helical wire reinforced silvered cloth hose - ghastly stuff as it tends to collapse. Be great to be pointed in the direction of what sort of names being up easily “plugged and play” stuff like you’ve got here ! Also is Amazon as good as anywhere for this stuff when buying smalls quantities ?
14:33 a grid like that restricts the airflow by a factor of 3 or 4. Besides all the other issues you mentioned.
You are my inspiration!
Did CR suggest a price??
Happy Christmas Russ...are the more expensive American lens worth the extra investment, do they last longer ,cut better etc.(thank you in advance)
Hi Dwight
The more I understand about lens performance (and I have tested almost every material, form and focal length available) it is not as simple as many describe to choose the "right" lens. Cutting is the most difficult because the speed is always low . If you are cutting thin materials up to say 3mm thick then a short focal length (maybe 1.5") will give a narrow cut and be reasonably fast but that is VERY dependent on the quality (sharpness) of your beam. The lens is only a light intensity amplifier. The higher the intensity the faster (and deeper) you can cut. If you have a "blunt" beam then as they say, rubbish in=rubbish out.
It may seem surprising but price and performance are not related.. Efficient cutting relies on a lens property called spherical aberration. This property is to be avoided like the plague if you are transmitting images (cameras, telescopes etc) however we are not. so the cheaper lower quality lenses usually exhibit better cutting performance than their higher priced, more perfect geometry cousins.. Warning, the cheaper Chinese PVD lenses are power limited to 80 watts. More power than that and you are forced to buy either the more expensive USA CVD zinc selenide or the very expensive gallium arsenide. Bear in mind I have almost every lens possible to choose from but long before doing careful lens performance comparisons I was using a 2.5" GaAs lens as my "do it all" . Photo engraving is the domain of the compound lens but my more serious recent testing has proved that this 2.5" GaAS is the fastest and deepest cutting lens . I is not the narrowest kerf (about 0.15mm wide) but it hacks though any thickness with a beautiful straight cut. Ga As lenses are coated with a much more durable anti reflective coating and thus have a potentially longer life. They are also mechanically stronger than any ZnSe lens. .However, there is a negative for some people using beam combiner red dots. the lens looks black and it does not transmit visible light.
Best wishes
Russ
They just need to flip that beam combiner.
My same frustration with the chiller. No comunication cable and no hoses. In bulk.. It wont coat them much to send those pieces.
Hi
Please remember this is THE protoype machine and as I said in the video I have fed these problems back to Cloudray. I have seen pictures from someone else who recieved protoype number 2 and his machine arrive proprely kitted with all the bits. The beam combiner was typical of ALL other designs you can buy and they (without exception) suffere with insufficient adjustments to be set accurately. It was also mounted the wrong way as we both observed. If you jump to ruclips.net/video/xPlhrEyZDZk/видео.html you will see that I have redeisgned the beam combiner to work properly.
Cloudray are very responsive to these issues.
Best wishes
Russ
Great to see you back
What a relief! Watching a new video is a breath of fresh air. I can hardly wait to see what this new adventure has to offer to us.
I just made that same mistake with the E-stop not 2 hours ago. I was finishing up rebuilding an "80w" machine I haven't had time to work on in many months. I also broke out the multimeter and traced it back to the AC input to the power supply before I remembered the E-stop. It happens to the best of us.
Ha, I just moved and when I tried to fire up my laser it was dead as a door nail. I took the whole machine apart before I traced the wires right up to...the E-Stop! It got bumped during the move and of course I didn't start with the simple things.
I designed and added my own powered Z-axis on my old Redsail after updating it to the 6445G. Then I found there is quite a crash risk with the Z-axis auto homing on power up or reset if you already have something set up on the bed. Stepper motor was strong enough to tear a helix flex coupler in half! Turned off homing and just use it to get Z close enough and use the slide lens tube to set focal point. Don't really care where the Z position is in that regard. Z steps are calibrated, so the manual move distance works if I need that feature.
I know exactly what you mean but there is a very simple fix that allows you to set your Z zero to any table position. I will be modifying this machine shortly to include this simple modification. You are always at the machine when you power it up so if you Know you have something on the table that will crash then just push this button twice and it sets zero at that point.
Best wishes
Russ
see ruclips.net/video/ooFg4lL9y0o/видео.html
@@SarbarMultimedia More or less a work around which doesn't really eliminate the risk? As a repair Tech, I like that CNC mills homing sequence, Z goes up first to clear anything before X,Y moves. I tried to emulate that here after fixing the damage, having Z home at the bottom, to find positioning was backwards.
Then concluded it just wasn't that important or worth the risk to have Z homing since it's not an interpolated axis or programmable for that matter.
Somewhat annoying that I couldn't find the parameter to set 0.00 in Z on reset as home rather than 3000 set by the firmware. I just quit looking at its position since it's meaningless anyways.
Pardon me, but I thought that CW-3000 have integrated water pump... so why to use second one?
You are quite correct. The CW3000 has a very powerful water pump attached ti the bottom of the reservoir. The seperate pump I showed was an AIR pump/compressor for the air assist function.
Best wishes
Russ
@@SarbarMultimedia Make sense. I should think first then write ;)
I know that machine😁 Controller sticker is upside down now. Hearts my OCD mate
My major reason for having a red dot is Lightburn's "Print and Cut" feature. The ability to realign the piece after being moved (like using a pass through) is amazing. Thank you for your efforts to get the beam combiner working.
Very excited to see progress on this concept Russ. I've had several people ask me what laser I'd recommend. I've told them about the Russ Concept but that sadly it doesn't exist yet. Hopefully soon I can point them at a real world one.
Hi Russ.
I very much agree with the water outlet problem you mentioned. Most of the Chinese machines I have seen here have very bad designs. If the machine can reserve a hole in the water outlet for the water pipe, it can solve a big safety hazard.
Russ, that sure was a head scratcher. I can see where most people would throw up their hands in defeat. It pays to have a rather extensive working knowledge of these machines. Maybe that is what makes them so intriguing.
I don't think being retired is in the cards for some of us. I've been trying for a decade now.
so how do we sense the z material "in process"?
Hi Walter
The Z works the same as the other axes. It sets to a zero position on the top limit switch and then you can set different layers to drop the table to different Z positions. It is not dynamic like X and Y.
Normally you only get a stepper controlled Z axis if the machine is supplied with an auto focus switch, which sounds funky and a bit of technical wizardry. I have such a machine and ithat sensor was removed very quickly when I realized it was pretty useless gimmick. However the programmable Z is a useful function. Here are a couple of videos that explains all about Z and autofocus.
ruclips.net/video/IDaGEu0ddrE/видео.html
,and
ruclips.net/video/ki8bFEAcJG8/видео.html
Best wishes
Russ
@@SarbarMultimedia thanks Russ,,, I installed my beam combiner last week,,,, used a piece of plywood to locate the CO2 beam at the 2nd mirror, then aligned the red dot to the laser beam. went rather quick and was such fun watching the flames(75% power). thanks for all the lessons... starting on tuning my movements next
Hi Russ, I've been contacting Cloudray for over a year now about this machine. They finally told me about a month or so ago that it's ready to order. Only problem is that shipping is almost as expensive as the machine itself (to the US) anyway). I decided to build my own 75-90Watt RECI/Cloudray Parts machine. I'm in the middle of ordering the parts now.
Hi
At present they are only offering airfreight and that is just prohibitive. I have been speaking to them about shipping in container to the local warehouses they are now beginning to operate. Especially USA as that is their biggest potential market.. The machine will be good value for all the features it has but airfreight doubles the price. and that's a product killer.
Thanks for the comment it all adds support for the cause.
Best wishes
Russ
Are you able to share the price you were quoted? Curious what kind of ballpark we are looking at here.
Dear Russ,
I'm very happy to see that your efforts have materialized into a nice commercial-to-be machine by Cloudray.
Concerning the beam combiner, I agree with your evaluation of its shortcomings.
What I have thought to do on my own machine is instead to have a red dot pointer on a rotating or sliding shutter fixed on the wall between the laser chamber and the work chamber, such that in the 'open' position, the laser beam goes through normally, but in the 'closed' position the red pointer is moved to the exact position of the IR beam (with screws to ajust X/Y and tilt) - this has the added advantage of cutting off the IR beam when the pointer is on.
That shoould solve both the pertubation of the beam problem, as well as the safety one...
Please go on !!!
Very best regards,
Jean
Hi Jean
I remember when I started my red dot quest to make beam alignment simple almost 6 years ago, I was speaking to guy called Peter Jensen with his own novel take on a solution/s for through the lens red dot location.
The problem was that neither he nor I had really analysed the problem. We were just devising solutions that we guessed would solve the problem. They were all "nearly" solutions.
See ruclips.net/video/0gABmmm_aJo/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/Jm8syz6ARCY/видео.html
and
ruclips.net/video/rHm_2RVrS4Y/видео.html
Because I know that the beam combiner Cloudray supplied will not function properly, I have asked them NOT to ship it with any machine. We cannot have a piece of "suspect" kit spoiling a high spec reliable machine. I have promised that now I understand how beam alignment should be carried out, I would test my two remaining grey cells to devise a solution that really works. For the past week I have been designing manufacturing and testing a device that performs 100%. Within a week or so I will be publishing a video about it and will go into all the theory behind the principle of beam alignment and then you will see that your idea (a replication of Peter's idea) is based on imaginary concepts of what is happening and not fact. Remember, this is not a criticism because I have been guilty of the same.
Best wishes
Russ
That was awesome to see what cloudray and you are caple to do 👍
Hey Russ!!! Good to see you again!!!
Wonderful video
How many watts does that machine have?
I already have this tube in another machine and it is rated at 70 watts but will deliver over 80 watts at 22mA. It is a great "sharp" tube See this video for installation and testing on another of my machines.
ruclips.net/video/V_ehGE51rH4/видео.html
Best wishes
Russ
Beautiful 👍
Could be interesting to see if you get the U-Axis to work for a rotary device. A lot of people struggling with the problem (Me too)
Hi
I do not have a chuck type rotary so I have never been into that area to experiment. From the outside , with what I know about the machine and controller ,the normal U axis for the 6442 was not ever planned for rotary use but was there for a roller driven (rotary?) belt drive auto through feed for the machine. A rotary system for engraving has to work off the X and Y data from a bitmap or vector map . There is no relationship that I have found that relates the U axis to a bitmap file. Hence you always unplug the Y axis for the data feed to your rotary system and set up a calibration for steps per 360 degrees.. The machine has no idea that you are driving a rotary device it just assumes it to be a normal Y axis and provides line feeds at the end of every scan stroke. Even in the 6432 cheap device ,I saw no evidence of what you call rotary configuration, just the familiar stop start and pitch for a feed system and nolinks to the X axis. I think the Chinese may be confusing us with the technically correct rotary description when it applies to rotating a feed roller. and not a line scan.
Best wishes
Russ
@@edwardcasati3374
Hi Edward
Thanks for your clarification. I tried to explain just that in my previous comment . The claim by Ruida is that in the RDC5432 the U axis is multifunctional and can be configured for use as a rotary axis. I found no evidence of this because there is no link between U and the X axis. I understand how the X and Y axis are related for normal engraving and that making the Y axis drive a rotary is the only way I know of to make either a chuck or roller type of rotary perform.
Best wishes
Russ
Great video !!!!
we all get caught out by the stop plunger at least once :) at 0430 is that rust on the linear rails or dirt? how do you find the 3000 water coolers here in the UK? most forums say to bypass and go straight to 5200. I used google translate with the camera on my phone and works really well reading the chinese text to translate if need to do any of that in the future and have a smartphone. I love the machines look and the mods supplied with, i hope will be a good price and come to UK warehouse, the extractor fan shutting down between jobs is great. Could that front panel possibly house fans to supply air intake and blow towards the back of the machine saving having a gap with the lid open? Will it only come with orange viewing window? dont really like mine, would prefer glass - Matthew
Hi Matthew
The piece that I thought was welded to the machine is an air inlet duct so the door does not have to be kept open
Unless you have over 100 watt tube, A forced radiator system is perfectly adequate for hobby use My lightblade (70 watts) has been fine for 6 years on all but the very few hottest UK summer days. My original China Blue machine also 70 watts) only had a 10 liter plastic box reservoir with just natural radiation and that was almost as good. Many guys in USA report getting different colour bands while photo engraving using a CW5200. The instant cooling as the refrigeration cuts in causes slight power changes. They overcome the issue with a plastic box reservoir (like mine) and a small copper tube radiator in that reservoir connected to the CW5200. That way they are buffering the rapid cooling and effectively controlling the temperature of the secondary reservoir.
At present the airfreight costs are prohibitive and I have spoken to Cloudray about shipping in a containers to local warehouses. All to be decided.
Best wishes
Russ
@@SarbarMultimedia what is the machine like at getting to the right side Y belt? Finding out on my china blue that its almost impossible to get that frame out of the machine for any repair of replacing belt, pulleys or motors
Cw3000 is rubbish.
@@Nonprofessional_Tinkerer Ha I use angle grinder to cut hole in back of machine to repair belt.
@@Nonprofessional_Tinkerer Hi Matthew
Sadly this is a basic China blue machine that has not been modified to make that task any easier.
Best wishes
Russ
Hello Mr.Russ, in wich software do you design your work, thank you in advance!
H
From many years ago when I ran a precision sheet metal business I had two large metal cutting lasers. I used CAD/CAM software to run those machines. When I closed that business and started working as a consultant, I licenced just the CAD part because it was such a powerful yet simple design package. Unlike AutoCAD and others, this is not aimed at producing engineering drawings but is more geared to create parts in DXF format ready to put onto a CNC machine.. It is called AlphaCAD and is a separate element of the AlphaCAM package. Mine is just the 2D package. ( www.alphacam.com/features/alphacad ) I note that AutoCAD now has an add-on called alphacad so don't get them mixed up.
Best wishes
Russ
@@SarbarMultimedia Thank you for your response; what do you think about the gimp/inkskape free combination and lightburn(payd), thank you?
@@pold5993
Hi
I an familiar with Adobe Photoshop ( GIMP) and Illustrator (Inkscape). The two products you mention are both free and VERY good alternatives to the expensive Adobe products. I have copies of Inkscape and Gimp and spent enough time experimenting with the basics of each to assure myself that any new users would get along well with the products. There are huge numbers of RUclips tutorials for each.. I am too old with so much else to learn, that I cannot waste my two remaining grey cells on becoming competent on these great pieces of software when I already have Adobe skills.
The software that is free with Ruida digital controllers is perfectly adequate and I would recommend any new user to persist with RDWorks for the first 3 months. Learn the machine and begin to understand the vendor settings (code RD8888) and user settings . After that download the free fully functional version of Lightburn for a 30 day free trial and step into a whole new world.. It is an amazing piece of software that is SO much more than RDWorks. It is still growing it's feature list but when you buy it it comes with 1 year of free updates. The software is yours for ever but after a year, if you wish to remain updated there is a small yearly subscription.
Best wishes
Russ
@@SarbarMultimedia i totally agree with you, the only downside with rdworks for a linux user it's a bit tricky to install it(wine+winetricks) and even then it seems to bug on zooming in/out; it would be nice for a workaround for linux users in the future; thank you for the great and accurate info!