Color Touchscreen Users Manual

Transcription

1 PROFESSIONAL ENGRAVING SYSTEMS Color Touchscreen Users Manual For all laser engraving systems equipped with the color touchscreen For use with VCS release version 134

2 GENERAL INFORMATION The touch screen is what you will use to control your Xenetech Laser Engraver. The screen is controlled by the touch of your fingertips. If preferred, a stylus or the eraser end of a pencil may be used. Refrain from using sharp pointed objects on the touch screen as it could easily damage the screen. Looking at the touch screen you will see a wide variety of menu choices as well as menus. This section will cover all aspects of the touch screen Menu Bar There are four menu bars along the top of the touchscreen. Each has their own specific menu options. To access any menu from the menu bar, simply touch the desired menu choice. 2. Last Job Repeat As long as the Xenetech Laser is actively connected to VCS, the last job that was ran on the engraving machine will remain in memory and can be recalled with this button. 3. Return to Mechanical Home This will move the X and Y-axis back to its known mechanical home location. Note: This will not mechanical home the system and should not be used as such. 4. Return to Temp Home This will move the X and Y-axis back to its known temp home position, providing one exists in memory. If there is none, then this button will be grayed out. 5. VCS Connection Status The small computer icon indicates whether you have an active VCS connection. The blue computer icon indicates that the VCS connection is active. Loss of connection will be indicated by a red computer with a small red circle with a line drawn through it. 6. Micro Jog When activated, the jogging speed will be reduced by ½ and diagonal direction will be suspended, making it easier to fine-tune a position. 7. Blower Status When the blower is turned off, you will see the icon. When the blower is turned on, you will see the icon. 8. Cylindrical Attachment Engaged/Disengaged This will indicate whether or not your cylindrical attachment is plugged in and ready for use. A grey icon indicates that the cylindrical attachment is not attached. A red icon indicates that the cylindrical attachment is attached and ready for use. 9. Z Axis UP/DOWN Directional This directional indicator will move the Z-axis up and down. Using the center as a marker, pressing above center will move the table up and pressing below the center point will 1

3 move the table down. Not only that, but the farther you move your finger from center, the faster the Z- axis will travel. 10. X and Y Axis Directional This directional indicator will move the motion system left, right, forward and backward. Using the center as a center point, pressing the directional indicator in any direction (diagonals included) will move the motion system in that direction. Not only that, but the farther you move your finger from center, the faster the motion system will travel. 11. Status Bar During a job, this will display information such as the name of the job, the time that has elapsed and the current power and speed. 12. Menu Options Under each file menu there are various menu options. Each option will open up a new screen with choices and options of their own. At the top right hand corner of each menu there is a Return button. Touching this button will confirm a given menu choice and return you to the main menu. WHEN CONFIRMING CERTAIN MENU OPTIONS, IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THE SYSTEM WILL NEED TO MOVE TO PERFORM THE REQUESTED OPERATION. IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT BEFORE YOU CONFIRM THESE CHOICES TO MAKE CERTAIN THAT YOU REMOVE ANY MATERIALS THAT MIGHT OBSTRUCT THE MOVEMENT OF THE MOTION SYSTEM UNLESS OTHERWISE DIRECTED. ALWAYS BE AWARE OF THE WHEREABOUTS OF THE PLUNGER AND/OR THE DIAMOND TIP WHEN THE MOTION SYSTEM AND/OR WORK TABLE IS IN MOTION. Player Screen The following screen is what you will see when you send a job from the computer to the engraver Preview Screen A preview of the layout that is in queue will be displayed in this window. Touch anywhere in the preview screen and you can zoom in on specific parts of the layout. (See Zoom Screen for more information) 2. Draw Extents This feature will draw a box around the extents of the layout in queue. A box around the text means that the feature is turned on. If you have a Gift Engraver or another one of our systems fitted with a diode attachment, you can use this button to run through the job. The cutter will not drop down to the material; instead, the diode will trace out the job. This will give you a preview of where exactly everything will mark on the material. 2

4 Text alone without the box means that the feature is turned off. 3. Dry Run Activating this feature will send the job to the engraver, but with no laser power. This is helpful if you want to do a dry run and see where the system will engrave. A filled in box means that the feature is turned ON. An empty box means the feature is turned OFF. 4. Controller Buttons These buttons control the movement of the engraver once you have set the engraving system to move by character, line, plate or batch. will start the layout that is loaded in queue. will cancel the layout in queue and return to the home screen. 5. Z Axis Control The Z axis adjustment has been disabled in this menu. 6. Power Speed Display Once the job has been started, the systems current power and speed will be displayed here. 7. Job Timer This is a job timer that will start once the play button has been pressed. RUN SCREEN While the engraver is running a job, the touchscreen will display the run screen. Below is an explanation of the functionality of the run screen Preview Screen A preview of the layout that is in queue will be displayed in this window. Touch anywhere in the preview screen and you can zoom in on specific parts of the layout. (See Zoom Screen for more information) 2. Draw Extents This feature is turned off while the system is engraving. 3. Dry Run This feature is turned off while the system is engraving. 4. Controller Buttons These buttons control the movement of the engraver once you have set the engraving system to move by character, line, plate or batch. 3

5 Touching this button will automatically pause the engraver and send it to the home position. 5. Z Axis Control - The Z axis adjustment has been disabled in this menu. 6. Power Speed Display Once the job has been started, the systems current power and speed will be displayed here (the top value is the speed and the other is the current tube power). If you touch either power or speed, you will have the option of raising or lowering the touched value. Press this button to raise the value. Press this button to lower the value. 7. Job Timer This is a timer that keeps track of the run time for the current layout being engraved. ZOOM SCREEN Touch the layout preview while in the player screen and you can zoom in on parts of the layout in queue. Below is an explanation of the controls available in the zoom screen. 1 While in zoom mode, touch the screen anywhere and that point will become the new center point for the view. 1. These are the zoom control buttons. will zoom out from center. will zoom in from center. will zoom out from center. will cancel this screen and move back to the player screen. 4

6 ONE FINAL NOTE A few of the menus you will encounter look like the one below. Let s take a moment to go over the three different types of positions to help familiarize you with each. Current Offset For whichever menu option you are in, if you have an offset already in memory it will be displayed here. Pressing under Current Offset, will move the X, Y-axis to that position. Absolute Position This is the current position of the X, Y and Z-axis. You will note as you move any of the three axis these values will change to represent the current position. Pressing under Absolute Position will move the X and Y-axis to the mechanical home position. Relative Position This value is the difference between the Absolute Position and the Current Offset. 5

7 THE MAIN MENU JOBS When your Xenetech Laser is connected to VCS, you will be able to view jobs that are in the outbox folder on the computer. The up and down arrows will scroll one page at a time in that arrows direction. To open a folder, select it and press. To run any job, select it and press If there is no active connection with VCS, this option will not be available. Press to return to the main menu. MECHANICAL HOME Mechanical Home will send the motion system back to its set mechanical limits. There, it will test each limit switch by physically contacting them before moving out to its home position. When pressing Mechanical Home from the main screen, you will be presented with a confirmation screen. Upon confirmation, you will have the option to cancel as the system moves toward the home position. TEMP HOME A temporary home position will allow you to set a position out on the table that will be reported to be a position for the X and the Y-axis. This home position will remain constant until you either mechanical home or restart the system. To set a temp home position, use the directional indicators to move the motion system to its desired position then press. Press to return to the main menu. JOB OFFSETS Your Xenetech Laser has six programmable offsets. Three of the more common offsets are already named for you. Keep in mind that these are only named and there are no offsets programmed, that will be up to you to set, as you should so wish. To set or change an offset: 1. Press the Job Offsets button on the touch screen 2. Select the offset which you want to set 3. Move the motion system as well as the work table to the desired position 4. Press 5. When finished press to return to the main screen 6

8 To move to a predetermined offset: 1. Press the Job Offsets button on the touch screen 2. Select the offset which you want to move to 3. Press the under Current Offset 4. Press to return to the main screen MOVE X/Y You can use Move X/Y to move either axis to a specific distance from your current position. 1. Press either Goto X or Goto Y depending on which axis you wish to move. The decimal does not move so when setting the location you will need to keep that in mind as you enter in values. 2. Use the number pad to type in the distance that you wish to travel in that axis. For example, if you want to move.5 inches you would need to type Once you type in the distance, press the to move the motion system to that location. 4. Press to return to the main screen. FOCUS The lens on the laser system must be properly focused to the material in order to achieve the best engraving quality. The large box on the screen represents the entire work table. Pressing anywhere inside the box will move the lens carriage to that location. When the lens carriage is in the desired position, press focus on the touch screen. This will bring the table upward until the work table contacts the plunger. Then drop the proper distance. To focus to a more exact location, position the diode pointer on the desired point of focus. Press the button on the touchscreen. The Focus button will change to Pointer Focus. Now by pressing Pointer Focus, the plunger will move to the position of the diode pointer and the laser will then perform the focusing procedure. REPORT POSITION If you would like to retain offsets for future layouts, you can use report position. This works by moving the motion system as well as the table to the desired location. Next simply press on the touch screen. When you choose File To Engraver in the XGW software, you will notice that the X and Y coordinates will be listed under the X and Y offsets. 7

9 THE SETTINGS MENU AIR ASSIST This option will only work if you purchased the air assist option with your system. With the air assist, there are four possible settings. Off will turn the air assist off and will not run regardless whether the system is raster or vector engraving Always on will run the air assist constantly whether the system is engraving or not Vector only will only run the air assist when the system is vector cutting Raster/Vector will run the air assist whether the system is raster or vector engraving BLOWER DELAY This delay refers to the amount of time that elapses between the job finishing and the blower shutting off. A longer delay will let the blower continue to run which can aid in removing more smoke and/or particles from the system. In order to use the delay, Auto must be selected. Use the and buttons to adjust the delay time. To run the blower constantly, regardless if the system is engraving or not, select On. BUZZER Your Xenetech Laser is equipped with an end of job buzzer that will alert the operator that the job has completed. This timer is set to one second by default, but can be set to a longer time if so desired. To change the time, simply press the and buttons to set the seconds as so desired. POINTER This menu only controls the diode module that points to the work table; this does not affect the second module that runs the auto focus. Off will turn off the diode module completely. Auto will only run the diode module each time the laser tube fires On will turn on the diode module so that it runs all the time. 8

10 UNITS The measurements on the touch screen can be changed from standard measurement (inches) to metric (meters). Simply touch the unit of measure that you wish to use on the touch screen and press when finished. MOTTLE When engraving acrylic, mottle will help achieve a nice smooth surface. Mottle was designed for rastering acrylic only. This will not have any affect if vector cutting. Frac is the fraction of power that will fire on the space pixels Space is the number of pixels that will be off or fractional power Width is the number of pixels that will fire at full/download power For example, if you set the following values: Frac 50 Space 14 Width 3 The laser tube will fire 3 pixels at the full downloaded power. For the next 14 pixels, the laser tube will drop the power by 50%. After this, the process repeats. HPGL Using HPGL, you can run plotter files directly to the laser without the Xenetech software. For each pin you can select between: Raster or vector Speed Power VPPI Once all the pins are set correctly, drop the PLT file into the lasers inbox and the laser will do the rest. 9

11 PREHEAT Preheat is a factor that is preset at the factory and is based on the type of laser tube and wattage of that tube. The higher wattage tubes can leave an outline on certain materials. In these cases, lowering the factor will reduce and eliminate that outline. FOCAL LENGTH This is another setting that is preset at the factory. The only time that you would need to make any adjustments here is if you purchased another lens that had a different focal length. When using a lens that has a different focal length, you will need to change the setting in this menu so that the laser will focus properly. Notice that there are preset focal lengths already in the menu. If yours is not available, you can use the Comp to set any further distance if needed. CONTINUOUS PATH By default this option is already activated in the system. When lasering sharp angles, this option will cause the laser to slightly round the edge. Doing so will keep a constant power throughout the corner which will make for an even cut. If this setting is turned off, then corners will cut deeper than the remainder of the layout. This is because the beam will turn off at the end of a line and then turn on again at the start of the next, causing burning in the corners. The closeness and/or Min Angle should only be adjusted by a Distributor or under the advice of a Xenetech Customer Service Representative. SPEED/POWER There are several places where the speed and/or power can be adjusted. This is one of them. This option is primarily for the use of PLT files that are being dropped into the inbox directly. When doing so, come here first and set the power and/or speed. 10

12 INDEXER Indexing is used in conjunction with a cylindrical attachment. For example, to engrave a box with 4 sides, you would enable the indexer. Next, you would set the angle to 90. This is because at every 90 degrees the next face of the box would be facing upward. Now when the laser is engraving and finishes one side, it will go home, the cylindrical will turn 90 degrees and then the lens carriage will move back out and laser the next side. This will repeat for each of the four sides. DUAL HEAD If your Xenetech Laser is a dual head system, then this will turn the option on and off. Remember that when turning the option off, you will need to remove the additional head and bracket from the system. RUBBER STAMP Suggested settings for rubber stamps on gray laserable rubber are listed below: Split Pixel = 2 Split Power = 60% Base Width = 6 Adjust the Split Pixel, Base Width, and Split Power to change the shape of the stamp shoulder. Increasing the Split Power while decreasing the Split Pixel will yield a steep shoulder. Decreasing the Split Power while increasing the base width will yield a wide shoulder. When creating a job in Corel Draw, the text will be set to white and placed on a black background. This same process can be used in XGW, but the user can also set Laser Routes Background on Raster Images to Yes in the F1, Engraver Setup. Air Assist is necessary when laser engraving rubber stamps. A 30 Watt laser will need to make 2 passes to get enough depth for rubber stamps. (100% Power, ips) We recommend a 60 Watt laser or higher for rubber stamp production. DIAMOND DRAG (XENETECH DUO LASER ONLY) When in diamond drag mode for the Xenetech Duo, make all changes to Z stroke, float, speed as well as the X and Y offsets here. The changes made will remain in effect for any diamond drag jobs that are sent to the laser until they are modified. Press any of the values to select them. Use the keys to raise and lower the selected value. and 11

13 . Color Touchscreen Users Guide SERVICE BEAM ALIGNMENT When in beam alignment mode, you can adjust the power and the time in which the tube will fire. Use the and keys to raise and lower the values. When you are ready to fire the laser tube, press the. Pressing the will turn on the blower. TABLE HOME Return to Home will send the work table back to its position. You can view the work table s current position from the main screen. When selecting this option, make certain that there is not material on the work table that could obstruct the table from its upward travel. Set New Zero will set the current work table position as the new offset for the work table. Reset Table will reset the work tables by first raising the table until it contacts the plunger. Then it will drop to preset distance which is based on the values in the Focal Length menu. WHEN USING THE RESET TABLE OPTION, BE SURE THAT THERE IS NO MATERIAL ON THE WORK TABLE. EDGE/TICKLE THE ITEMS IN THIS MENU SHOULD ONLY BE ADJUSTED UNDER THE ADVICE OF A XENETECH REPRESENTATIVE OR YOUR DISTRIBUTOR. Edge refers to the edge quality on rastered text. Tickle period and width refer to adjustments that can be made to the laser tube if it is shadowing at the ends of lines of text. Z POSITION Z position is used as a method of defeating the upper limit on the worktable should the need arise. This should only be used under supervision of a Xenetech Representative as damage to the system could occur should this is used improperly. 12

14 PERMANENT XY Making changes to this setting will change your permanent XY offset. This should only be done under the advice of a Xenetech representative or your distributor. To change the offset: 1. Jog the motion system to the desired location 2. Press Set Origin to set the permanent XY offset The permanent XY position is set at the factory and should never need to be altered. CHECK LIMITS Here you can check to make sure that all of the limit switches are working properly. These include: X axis limit switch Y axis limit switch Z Limit Door and Lid SELF TEST The self test feature is useful to run the system after preventive maintenance. Burn In will run the X and they Y axis at different intervals 2X2 Test Job is designed to test the different aspects of the motion system. Some kind of coated brass or anodized aluminum is required for these tests as the tube will fire. Use the + to raise the repetitions and/or speed and the - to lower the repetitions and/or speed. Press the to start either of the two options. MOTOR PHASE TEST This feature will test all of the motors on the system and then give information about temperatures and ratios as well as the controllers buss voltage. 13

15 IP ADDRESS By default the Use DHCP box is checked. With this, your laser will automatically pull an open IP address and the computer s NetMask. This is the standard method in which the laser and VCS uses IP addresses to communicate. If VCS has problems detecting your laser due to things such as a firewall etc, for testing purposes you can specify an IP address and NetMask. To do this: 1. Touch each of the boxes for IP Address and NetMask and use the and keys to raise and lower the values. 2. Once you have the desired IP address and the correct NetMask press Exit Menu. 3. Open Connection Manager in VCS, right click on your connection and select Change Address. 4. Type in the same address that you gave the laser and click OK. 5. On the laser touch Service Reset Machine RESET MACHINE As implied, this option will restart the laser system. CHECK HOME This feature is one that is primarily used as a testing tool by Xenetech representatives. When utilized, it checks the position of the motors with the controller. Any differences in readouts are displayed. REGISTRATION Registration is test that will check the edge quality on the laser system. This test should only be performed under instruction of a Xenetech Representative. 14

16 CONTACT INFORMATION MAILING ADDRESS Xenetech Global Inc Airline Highway Baton Rouge, Louisiana TELEPHONE XENETEC Fax: Support - tech@xenetech.com Sales - sales@xenetech.com WEBSITE ONLINE KNOWLEDGE BASE DISTRIBUTOR INFORMATION Name: Address: Phone: 15