Steve, after watching your video I went ahead and purchased the Omni 1 using your affiliate link and was pleasantly surprised to get an extra discount! I've had my Omni 1 for a week now and am truly amazed at the speed and materials this laser can work with. Thanks for all the great content you have put out!
Enjoyed your Commarker Omni 1 video. I was hoping you could point me to the Materials settings library for the Omni 1. I've had mine for a couple weeks and can't find the Lightburn Materials library that is supposed to be on the USB stick. I have searched their website with no luck and emailed the company. They apparently didn't read my email explaining that I could not locate the library on the USB and just blew me off telling me it was on the USB included with the machine! I got some settings from your video and some other videos, but it would be nice to have the Lightburn library. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
As far as I know, there isn’t a downloadable material library, so you’ll end up building your own. There isn’t one on the usb or on the ComMarker site.
Thanks! I have been wanting to g a UV laser, specifically for glass, but I have been seeing others do very clean engraving on other materials. The ComMarker Omni 1 is at a great price point. This one may be shortly on the way to me!
@@retti9 A little dramatic, man. I spent 7 years building industrial Excimer UV lasers way back. These were in the Kw range and I wore my safety goggles as I do now. Light in the 300nm in the 5W range is relatively safe compared to the 1064nm that fiber lasers put out. The latter has a wavelength to focus perfectly on the back of your eye through the eye's lens. But again, certified safety goggles will handle that as well as long as you aren't staring down the barrel. However, if you are running any laser in an area where people might wander by without safety glasses, then it should be in an enclosure.
@@SteveMakesEverything I was using a 355nm @ 10W, 40kHz pulse. Engraving glassware, I would sometimes hit density pockets or uneven surfaces and the radiation being generated from photo-ionization would scatter into my vision. If I wore extra safety glasses I could see small electric tendrils being emitted from the point of interaction when the laser wasn't trained or mapped out to the 3d glass surface with 1:1 accuracy. Equal importance should go into the protection from the visible light that these lasers generate through thermal ablation. There is also the re-emergence of the green light from SHG present in the form of fluorescence when engraving glassware as well; noticed in thin stemware.
@@retti9 These are all impurities in the glass. I don't think this increases the hazard though, since the thing that causes them is a larger than expected absorption.
No probably not because that’s not really the type of engraving UV lasers do. But a typical coming engraving can be a millimeter or more in depth, and engraving that deep on a knife would probably weaken it pretty severely.
Hello great video!! Could you please share your lightburn settings for the metal card engraving photo ? I got myself the omni 1 also but the results are not as good as yours !!! Regards
Steve thanks for the informative video. I have found video that show's UV marking on fired glazed ceramic, however never with anything with a range of greys using a dither. Only Text. It also seems to leave a light mark vs a black mark. Any chance you have plans to test a photo type image on a ceramic tile? I want to buy a UV for this process but can't find evidence it will do what I hope to accomplish.
I can do this when I have a bit of time. The color doesn't actually matter much, but the glaze might pose a bit of a barrier. But the laser does glass, so glaze shouldn't be much different.
@@SteveMakesEverything Appreciate that, its not well represented on RUclips so likely I'm not alone in knowing how it works. From what I can tell you can mark it without etching like glass, but more like the stamp you might see on the bottom of a mug. What I'm curious to know is if it can get dark blacks and therefor dither nicely before it blasts the glaze away and starts to etch. I believe today its mostly used to put markings on things like ceramic insulators and the like. I'm trying to find something less effort than TIO2 on my CO2 and not getting what I need from Cloudray or Haotian outreaches.
@@VacFink Well I'll give it a try, but there's not a lot of heat, the engraving is probably not going to be dark unless it can dig through the glaze to get the the clay/ceramic underneath.
WOW. Okay, so I get this won't stack up to, say, the Muse UV, nor should it even try to, but to even have this capability so small and low-cost is a surprise. It doesn't seem like it will do "prism cubes" or the like, the right tool for the right job and all that, but this opens up avenues that other small businesses couldn't do yet. That Hepburn card is crisp, just look at the hair and other small details.
Considering that the photos here are all done with Jarvis, the small beam size makes the output look amazing. As far as a comparison to the Muse UV, I think for less than a 1/4 of the price, the Omni1 wins out. The base Muse UV is $18K for the same 5W of power but only a 4"x4" workspace, and vendor lock-in on their control software.
@@SteveMakesEverything I agree. I meant to compare it to another machine, I remember it was about 60K and looked like a small filing cabinet. One of the key features was the ability to diffuse and make portraits in prisms. Dunno why muse popped into my mind, but it did. oh well.
@@RoseKindred Ah, that makes sense. I don't remember that FSL model, but in general, if you do a quick search of 5W UV lasers, you'll discover that many cost much more than the Omni1, and here's the thing - they all use the same 3rd laser module.
I have a cable that connects between the laser and a stepper motor. Note that there are two different stepper wiring configurations. If your isn’t working, most rotary attachment come with a short cable that you can insert onto your existing wiring to flip the stepper wiring. I have a couple of ComMarker rotaries, but I also hacked together a different rotary from a Wecreat Vision. If the rotary stepper is powering on when you turn the laser on (e.g. the rotary is hard to turn by hand), then the wiring is probably fine. In this case go to Lightburn rotary settings and set the steps per rotation to 12800.
Steve, have you had an opportunity to engrave clear acrylics on the Omni1 ? I saw a video where the creator wasn't able to get anything engraved on clear acrylic.
It can cut through some thin materials, so it might get through this. I have some of this material somewhere in my shop. If I can find it, I'll give this a try.
You should be able to do this. Marking the brass is easy enough, though getting a lot of depth is not really what this laser is for. I did a quick test on a cheap copper coin and I wasn't real happy but I haven't had good luck with those coins on a fiber laser either. I'll try brass at some point and publish a Short video
@@mysitter4820 Commarker has several different roatary accessories. I have the one for the B4 Fiber laser that works just fine on this laser. As far as using any other roatray, the answer is technically yes, though they use an aircraft connector on the end that plug into the laser, so you'd need to ask them if they sell the cable. However, it would be easy enough to make your own cable if you have the pinout (and I have that if you needed it 😀). The other end of the cable is just a standard stepper motor connector.
How deep can you engrave into plastic? I’m try to make cattle tags that are 3 layers. I need to remove the top layer so the middle layer is exposed. My diode lp4 does ok on some colors but I’m hoping this would work better on tags that are white over a black core. Thanks!
You should be able to do what you want. If I knew where to get a cattle tag I'd try it for you. Is this the same as lamacoid material? It's the stuff that gets used for engraved name signs in offices (see this: amzn.to/49DAetZ). If it's that material, then yes, you can easily engrave down to the center core
@@SteveMakesEverything I buy mine from Ritchey tags. I live in the land where cattle outnumber people over 4 to 1 so it’s a weird niche but highly sought after item locally. Unfortunately in the laser world at large there’s little to no info on recommended settings.
@@vandengaaskjolen1821 If you can find these on Amazon, email a link to me. There's farm supply place not too far from me, so I'll stop in and see if they have them and are willing to donate one to the cause.
It would be tough to dig a 5mm hole in stainless with any laser that mere mortals could afford, and any 5W UV laser will struggle to achieve more than a millimeter or two of stainless steel. These are typically engraving lasers rather than one that can cut or drill into metal.
It seems great and all, but is this considered more like the Cricut of UV lasers or more of a higher end model? It's not locked into proprietary software or the cloud so that's good. Seeing it come in a fancy box like that makes it look like it belongs on the shelf at Walmart instead of a crate. Things you buy at Walmart are okay for hobbies, I need something built to work for small business. So far it seems like this will do it.
I’m not sure I understand the Walmart comment, but UV lasers are the pinnacle of laser engraving since they work with almost any material, and do what is referred to as cold engraving. This laser doesn’t heat the material, so engraving things like plastic or glass parts is trivial, and it’s the only way to engrave without any surface prep or clean-up after engraving. This makes it perfect for volume business work. Most UV lasers are in the 3-10W range and the Omni1 sits in the middle of that range. This laser is far better for small laser engraving business work than any diode laser, though it isn’t designed for cutting.
Hey brother, liked and subscribed. I'm hoping to purchase a laser tonight for cyber monday deal weekend but can't decide between a UV or xTool F1 Ultra that has diode and Fiber dual lasers I believe. Can this Omni 1 UV laser do stone engraving and cut wood?
Welcome aboard. The Omni 1 is an Engraver and is better at it than pretty much anything else; however, it is not a cutting machine, so in your situation, the F1 Ultra might be a better choice.
Thanks for your lastest video. I received my Omni 1 4 days ago. What a beast! Since I'm not good at installing software a friend is coming over to help me with it. A negative I found was the instruction manual. I cannot beieve that they could have found a smaller font to use if they tried. I had them send me their material settings which I'm sure will shorten the learning curve. You mentioned the overall cost. Considering what it can do, it probably would replace other types of lasers except when you need one to cut. In my case, I'll be doing, tumblers, glassware, metal business cards, pens and wooden and metal key chains. Looking forward to seeing what it can do
Yes I should have mentioned the manual. I did suggest a few corrections so you got the good version of the documentation.😀. The font is very small indeed and my aging eyes couldn't read it, but I think you can get a PDF version on their site somewhere.
As I mentioned on the cost, I don't think this is over priced, but if you're coming from the sub-$1000 diode laser market this will be a bit shocking, though from an engraving perspective, UV lasers are the Roll Royce of laser engravers.
It is cheap if it does all they say. really a three in one. Tumblers using a C02 galvo, pens using a fiber and a UV for glassware. If one bought all three from Commarker it would have been $10,000. Also think that there is a better design to be able to move the head back and forth instead of having unscrew etc. I'm 84 and my eyes are bad. Having a techie coming over Tuesday install software including LB
@@TTC1940 As a dedicated engraver the Omni1 is pretty awesome. There are a couple more materials I want to try, but you could easily do glasses, pens and tumblers.
But this laser has hardly 10000 hrs instead of the 100000 lifetime hours(rated spec on any real fiber laser). Also DPSS lasers such as this 5W laser can have premature failure, due to degrading QSwitch, when operated at high output levels(close to 100% duty cycle). Except for engraving on glass, cloth it does not have any benefit compared to other low cost NIR dpss machines such as 2W Atomstack M4. It is true that the dot size is small, but unless engraving on tiny items, it is not a big deal. For what its worth, the UV laser is overpriced, due to missing fiber modules such as Raycus or JPT. It is atleast 3X overpriced, and will come down in price with time, especially for an aesthetic engrave only function.
Steve, after watching your video I went ahead and purchased the Omni 1 using your affiliate link and was pleasantly surprised to get an extra discount! I've had my Omni 1 for a week now and am truly amazed at the speed and materials this laser can work with. Thanks for all the great content you have put out!
I'm glad you found the discount and that you're enjoying the new laser!
Wow, I thought I saw precision with other machines but now I realize I didn't know what precision, crispness of images and cleaness really means
😀. Yes the Omni 1 is mind-boggling in its precision. Even with Jarvis, images come out fast and look like photo shot with a camera.
@@SteveMakesEverything can this Ernest l engrave or etch tempered or safety glass, (car)?
@@brianfoster7064 Any form of glass will engrave fine.
Enjoyed your Commarker Omni 1 video. I was hoping you could point me to the Materials settings library for the Omni 1. I've had mine for a couple weeks and can't find the Lightburn Materials library that is supposed to be on the USB stick. I have searched their website with no luck and emailed the company. They apparently didn't read my email explaining that I could not locate the library on the USB and just blew me off telling me it was on the USB included with the machine! I got some settings from your video and some other videos, but it would be nice to have the Lightburn library. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
As far as I know, there isn’t a downloadable material library, so you’ll end up building your own. There isn’t one on the usb or on the ComMarker site.
Thanks! I have been wanting to g a UV laser, specifically for glass, but I have been seeing others do very clean engraving on other materials. The ComMarker Omni 1 is at a great price point. This one may be shortly on the way to me!
It is a great machine. You won’t be disappointed.
Get an enclosure and wear extra eye protection. This wavelength is no Fucking joke.
@@retti9 A little dramatic, man. I spent 7 years building industrial Excimer UV lasers way back. These were in the Kw range and I wore my safety goggles as I do now.
Light in the 300nm in the 5W range is relatively safe compared to the 1064nm that fiber lasers put out. The latter has a wavelength to focus perfectly on the back of your eye through the eye's lens. But again, certified safety goggles will handle that as well as long as you aren't staring down the barrel.
However, if you are running any laser in an area where people might wander by without safety glasses, then it should be in an enclosure.
@@SteveMakesEverything I was using a 355nm @ 10W, 40kHz pulse. Engraving glassware, I would sometimes hit density pockets or uneven surfaces and the radiation being generated from photo-ionization would scatter into my vision. If I wore extra safety glasses I could see small electric tendrils being emitted from the point of interaction when the laser wasn't trained or mapped out to the 3d glass surface with 1:1 accuracy. Equal importance should go into the protection from the visible light that these lasers generate through thermal ablation. There is also the re-emergence of the green light from SHG present in the form of fluorescence when engraving glassware as well; noticed in thin stemware.
@@retti9 These are all impurities in the glass. I don't think this increases the hazard though, since the thing that causes them is a larger than expected absorption.
Would this laser be able to deep engrave knives and firearms? Deep as in twice the depth of the engraving in coins?
No probably not because that’s not really the type of engraving UV lasers do. But a typical coming engraving can be a millimeter or more in depth, and engraving that deep on a knife would probably weaken it pretty severely.
This is the laser I have had my eye on
This is my favorite laser. It just engraves everything.
Hello great video!! Could you please share your lightburn settings for the metal card engraving photo ? I got myself the omni 1 also but the results are not as good as yours !!! Regards
Great vid!
Thanks for watching!
Steve thanks for the informative video. I have found video that show's UV marking on fired glazed ceramic, however never with anything with a range of greys using a dither. Only Text. It also seems to leave a light mark vs a black mark. Any chance you have plans to test a photo type image on a ceramic tile? I want to buy a UV for this process but can't find evidence it will do what I hope to accomplish.
I can do this when I have a bit of time. The color doesn't actually matter much, but the glaze might pose a bit of a barrier. But the laser does glass, so glaze shouldn't be much different.
@@SteveMakesEverything Appreciate that, its not well represented on RUclips so likely I'm not alone in knowing how it works. From what I can tell you can mark it without etching like glass, but more like the stamp you might see on the bottom of a mug. What I'm curious to know is if it can get dark blacks and therefor dither nicely before it blasts the glaze away and starts to etch. I believe today its mostly used to put markings on things like ceramic insulators and the like. I'm trying to find something less effort than TIO2 on my CO2 and not getting what I need from Cloudray or Haotian outreaches.
@@VacFink Well I'll give it a try, but there's not a lot of heat, the engraving is probably not going to be dark unless it can dig through the glaze to get the the clay/ceramic underneath.
That's very cool steve small package great laser I like it for glass that's pretty neat thanks for the video as always love ya bud
I’m going to at least do a couple of short videos for some additional materials like wine glasses and ceramics. This is my favorite way to engrave now
WOW. Okay, so I get this won't stack up to, say, the Muse UV, nor should it even try to, but to even have this capability so small and low-cost is a surprise. It doesn't seem like it will do "prism cubes" or the like, the right tool for the right job and all that, but this opens up avenues that other small businesses couldn't do yet.
That Hepburn card is crisp, just look at the hair and other small details.
The last time I checked, the Muse was more than twice this, so a great entry point.
Considering that the photos here are all done with Jarvis, the small beam size makes the output look amazing.
As far as a comparison to the Muse UV, I think for less than a 1/4 of the price, the Omni1 wins out. The base Muse UV is $18K for the same 5W of power but only a 4"x4" workspace, and vendor lock-in on their control software.
@@SteveMakesEverything I agree. I meant to compare it to another machine, I remember it was about 60K and looked like a small filing cabinet. One of the key features was the ability to diffuse and make portraits in prisms.
Dunno why muse popped into my mind, but it did. oh well.
@@RoseKindred Ah, that makes sense. I don't remember that FSL model, but in general, if you do a quick search of 5W UV lasers, you'll discover that many cost much more than the Omni1, and here's the thing - they all use the same 3rd laser module.
Have you had any issues using a rotary? I just can not seem to get it right but it works fine on my other lasers.
I have a cable that connects between the laser and a stepper motor. Note that there are two different stepper wiring configurations. If your isn’t working, most rotary attachment come with a short cable that you can insert onto your existing wiring to flip the stepper wiring. I have a couple of ComMarker rotaries, but I also hacked together a different rotary from a Wecreat Vision.
If the rotary stepper is powering on when you turn the laser on (e.g. the rotary is hard to turn by hand), then the wiring is probably fine. In this case go to Lightburn rotary settings and set the steps per rotation to 12800.
Thank you for such a detailed review! What is the smallest allowable pulse width? You mentioned 1 ns, but can it be set in picosecond range?
1ns is the minimum. To get to pico second the laser will cost a lot more money
Can this mark powder coated tumblers?? Thanks!!!
Yes, absolutely. The Omni1 can mark almost anything.
@@SteveMakesEverything Thanks Steve! I enjoy your videos!
@@VegasMadMikey Appreciated. RUclips takes a lot of work, but this makes it all worthwhile 😀
Steve, have you had an opportunity to engrave clear acrylics on the Omni1 ? I saw a video where the creator wasn't able to get anything engraved on clear acrylic.
?? There's no reason you can't engrave clear acrylic. I'll do a quick test and post a YT sort or a photo in the community tab.
@ I truly appreciate everything you do, Steve!!
@@jackjfb8439 Happy to help
Another informative video, Steve! Do you think this laser is capable of cutting through refrigerator magnet stock?
It can cut through some thin materials, so it might get through this. I have some of this material somewhere in my shop. If I can find it, I'll give this a try.
@SteveMakesEverything Thanks, Steve
@@jackjfb8439 Happy to help
Hello and thank you for the video, can we use this Omni1 to carve on brass coin as well, using 3d slice in lightburn? Thank you.
You should be able to do this. Marking the brass is easy enough, though getting a lot of depth is not really what this laser is for. I did a quick test on a cheap copper coin and I wasn't real happy but I haven't had good luck with those coins on a fiber laser either. I'll try brass at some point and publish a Short video
@ i mean if you do 100 or 150 pass, it should work tho! Im really interested in buying this machine, if you can confirm then i go for it!
@@mysitter4820 I'll see what I can do. I also want to do something quick on the rotary capability too.
@ do you need to purchase the rotary separatly? If so, do we need to buy one from the same brand?
@@mysitter4820 Commarker has several different roatary accessories. I have the one for the B4 Fiber laser that works just fine on this laser.
As far as using any other roatray, the answer is technically yes, though they use an aircraft connector on the end that plug into the laser, so you'd need to ask them if they sell the cable. However, it would be easy enough to make your own cable if you have the pinout (and I have that if you needed it 😀). The other end of the cable is just a standard stepper motor connector.
How deep can you engrave into plastic? I’m try to make cattle tags that are 3 layers. I need to remove the top layer so the middle layer is exposed. My diode lp4 does ok on some colors but I’m hoping this would work better on tags that are white over a black core. Thanks!
You should be able to do what you want. If I knew where to get a cattle tag I'd try it for you. Is this the same as lamacoid material? It's the stuff that gets used for engraved name signs in offices (see this: amzn.to/49DAetZ). If it's that material, then yes, you can easily engrave down to the center core
Ha, Amazon sells them, though I don't really need 50 of them😀
@@SteveMakesEverything I buy mine from Ritchey tags. I live in the land where cattle outnumber people over 4 to 1 so it’s a weird niche but highly sought after item locally. Unfortunately in the laser world at large there’s little to no info on recommended settings.
@ I think it’s similar only the tags are softer and more flexible, also more melty which is the biggest challenge for laser engraving them.
@@vandengaaskjolen1821 If you can find these on Amazon, email a link to me. There's farm supply place not too far from me, so I'll stop in and see if they have them and are willing to donate one to the cause.
THE Omni 1 Laser Engraver how deep can it engrave can I drill a 5 mm hole in stainless steel ? 👍
It would be tough to dig a 5mm hole in stainless with any laser that mere mortals could afford, and any 5W UV laser will struggle to achieve more than a millimeter or two of stainless steel. These are typically engraving lasers rather than one that can cut or drill into metal.
this helped
Excellent!
It seems great and all, but is this considered more like the Cricut of UV lasers or more of a higher end model? It's not locked into proprietary software or the cloud so that's good.
Seeing it come in a fancy box like that makes it look like it belongs on the shelf at Walmart instead of a crate. Things you buy at Walmart are okay for hobbies, I need something built to work for small business.
So far it seems like this will do it.
I’m not sure I understand the Walmart comment, but UV lasers are the pinnacle of laser engraving since they work with almost any material, and do what is referred to as cold engraving. This laser doesn’t heat the material, so engraving things like plastic or glass parts is trivial, and it’s the only way to engrave without any surface prep or clean-up after engraving. This makes it perfect for volume business work.
Most UV lasers are in the 3-10W range and the Omni1 sits in the middle of that range. This laser is far better for small laser engraving business work than any diode laser, though it isn’t designed for cutting.
Hey brother, liked and subscribed. I'm hoping to purchase a laser tonight for cyber monday deal weekend but can't decide between a UV or xTool F1 Ultra that has diode and Fiber dual lasers I believe. Can this Omni 1 UV laser do stone engraving and cut wood?
Welcome aboard. The Omni 1 is an Engraver and is better at it than pretty much anything else; however, it is not a cutting machine, so in your situation, the F1 Ultra might be a better choice.
@@SteveMakesEverything Thank you brother. Be blessed!
Thanks for your lastest video. I received my Omni 1 4 days ago. What a beast! Since I'm not good at installing software a friend is coming over to help me with it. A negative I found was the instruction manual. I cannot beieve that they could have found a smaller font to use if they tried. I had them send me their material settings which I'm sure will shorten the learning curve.
You mentioned the overall cost. Considering what it can do, it probably would replace other types of lasers except when you need one to cut. In my case, I'll be doing, tumblers, glassware, metal business cards, pens and wooden and metal key chains. Looking forward to seeing what it can do
Follow up question, Even though you use LB, did you install everything including EZcad?
Yes I should have mentioned the manual. I did suggest a few corrections so you got the good version of the documentation.😀. The font is very small indeed and my aging eyes couldn't read it, but I think you can get a PDF version on their site somewhere.
As I mentioned on the cost, I don't think this is over priced, but if you're coming from the sub-$1000 diode laser market this will be a bit shocking, though from an engraving perspective, UV lasers are the Roll Royce of laser engravers.
It is cheap if it does all they say. really a three in one. Tumblers using a C02 galvo, pens using a fiber and a UV for glassware. If one bought all three from Commarker it would have been $10,000. Also think that there is a better design to be able to move the head back and forth instead of having unscrew etc. I'm 84 and my eyes are bad. Having a techie coming over Tuesday install software including LB
@@TTC1940 As a dedicated engraver the Omni1 is pretty awesome. There are a couple more materials I want to try, but you could easily do glasses, pens and tumblers.
I was nearly going to buy one. However according to commarker the laser life is only 2,000 hours. Not much at all.
That doesn't sound right. I'm going to have to confirm this.
I got a quick answer back from ComMaker, and the estimated life of the Omni 1 is 10,000 hours. So it 5x longer than what you were told.
@@SteveMakesEverything That’s a more realistic number. Still worth for people to know considering the cost.
@@MrAtoulmin Yes for sure. It's a specification that I wish manufacturers would include with any product.
But this laser has hardly 10000 hrs instead of the 100000 lifetime hours(rated spec on any real fiber laser). Also DPSS lasers such as this 5W laser can have premature failure, due to degrading QSwitch, when operated at high output levels(close to 100% duty cycle).
Except for engraving on glass, cloth it does not have any benefit compared to other low cost NIR dpss machines such as 2W Atomstack M4. It is true that the dot size is small, but unless engraving on tiny items, it is not a big deal. For what its worth, the UV laser is overpriced, due to missing fiber modules such as Raycus or JPT. It is atleast 3X overpriced, and will come down in price with time, especially for an aesthetic engrave only function.
True, though I would defy you to find any laser that will last much more than 10000 hours,
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