FEDEX has been fibbing. Daily text & email shipment updates assured delivery today. A direct conversation with FEDEX international finds the stuff is still at the airport in China.
I’m now expediting this through FEDEX and the supplier. Will provide delivery updates when available.
There is still a lot of work to do. Any assistance is appreciated.
Friday 7/13 starting around 11:00 am, I’ll be in to work in power and grounding.
Saturday 7/14 Starting around 11:000 am I’ll be in to work on down the project list.
Laser Optic Overhaul - Project Steps
We should probably not clean or tear into the small laser until the big laser is on-line. As of the day we moved the small laser into the Fab Annex, it was working.
There is a lot to do between now and the annual meeting. If all goes well, the big laser should be back on line sometime on the weekend of the 21st or 22nd.
The get the big laser back on-line to do list:
old exhaust blower ducted to the lasers. strap, duct tape - Done
Ethernet drop in the Annex - Done
Set up the computer for the lasers.
Make and install a separate chassis ground wire for both lasers. Remove chassis paint on ground lug, add star washer, verify chassis ground.
Make longer 14Ga power cable for the big laser 220V connection. It’s rated at 220V 5A / 1000W
Hook up the Chiller. It has enough capacity for both lasers in series.
Fill Chiller with distilled water. Need 2 to 3 gallons. Dave
Add tank/closed bucket to hold water drained from tubes when loop is disconnected from the laser.
Hook up the air pump. Run only one laser at a time until second pump installed
At this point, possibly Sunday 7/14, the small laser can be brought on line with the old tube. Small laser optical overhaul will wait until the Big laser is on line.
Big Laser Optical Overhaul.
Check the electronics on the big laser to assure there are no GFI trips. Lorin
HV testing & calibration with load resistor. Adjust current <28mA on large laser, and <26mA on small. Lorin
Add current xformer (ferrite with 4-5 wraps of wire) to big laser. Lorin
Install big laser tube, mirrors and lens Lorin Dave
Align big laser Lorin Dave
Future
Make sign for the chiller. Distilled water only - Chiller capacity is 6 liters, Plus Two Tubes and all the tubing.
Investigate ideal water conditioning for the chiller; surfactants and biocides + distilled water.
Order second air pump. For now with only one pump the lasers are in use one at a time. DONE
Clean small laser
Add current ammeter to small laser
Add current xformer (ferrite with 4-5 wraps of wire) to sm laser.
Install small laser tube, mirror and lens
Align small laser
Add a “heads-up” traffic light signal to indicate normal and abnormal conditions. (Andon)
Create a central control loop. Assure chiller, water flow, air pump and exhaust fan are operational when either laser is under power.
I ordered a 2nd air pump and in line air filters so both lasers have dedicated air assist — no need to switch. This will be in place by the time big laser is online.
Filter on air assist makes sense since this air blows directly into lens, and these compressors don’t filter the air. A humid day could also affect cutting and etching quality without this. So:
connect air pump to small laser.
connect in line air filters to tubing. Fasten to lasers so they remain vertical at all times.
Lorin
From: Dave Velzy Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2018 9:53 PM To: Hive13 Hackerspace Reply To:cincihackerspace@googlegroups.com Subject: [CHP] Laser Optic Overhaul - Status Update
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FEDEX has been fibbing. Daily text & email shipment updates assured delivery today. A direct conversation with FEDEX international finds the stuff is still at the airport in China.
I’m now expediting this through FEDEX and the supplier. Will provide delivery updates when available.
There is still a lot of work to do. Any assistance is appreciated.
Friday 7/13 starting around 11:00 am, I’ll be in to work in power and grounding.
Saturday 7/14 Starting around 11:000 am I’ll be in to work on down the project list.
Laser Optic Overhaul - Project Steps
We should probably not clean or tear into the small laser until the big laser is on-line. As of the day we moved the small laser into the Fab Annex, it was working.
There is a lot to do between now and the annual meeting. If all goes well, the big laser should be back on line sometime on the weekend of the 21st or 22nd.
The get the big laser back on-line to do list:
old exhaust blower ducted to the lasers. strap, duct tape - Done
Ethernet drop in the Annex - Done
Set up the computer for the lasers.
Make and install a separate chassis ground wire for both lasers. Remove chassis paint on ground lug, add star washer, verify chassis ground.
Make longer 14Ga power cable for the big laser 220V connection. It’s rated at 220V 5A / 1000W
Hook up the Chiller. It has enough capacity for both lasers in series.
Fill Chiller with distilled water. Need 2 to 3 gallons. Dave
Add tank/closed bucket to hold water drained from tubes when loop is disconnected from the laser.
Hook up the air pump. Run only one laser at a time until second pump installed
At this point, possibly Sunday 7/14, the small laser can be brought on line with the old tube. Small laser optical overhaul will wait until the Big laser is on line.
Big Laser Optical Overhaul.
Check the electronics on the big laser to assure there are no GFI trips. Lorin
HV testing & calibration with load resistor. Adjust current <28mA on large laser, and <26mA on small. Lorin
Add current xformer (ferrite with 4-5 wraps of wire) to big laser. Lorin
Install big laser tube, mirrors and lens Lorin Dave
Align big laser Lorin Dave
Future
Make sign for the chiller. Distilled water only - Chiller capacity is 6 liters, Plus Two Tubes and all the tubing.
Investigate ideal water conditioning for the chiller; surfactants and biocides + distilled water.
Order second air pump. For now with only one pump the lasers are in use one at a time. DONE
Clean small laser
Add current ammeter to small laser
Add current xformer (ferrite with 4-5 wraps of wire) to sm laser.
Install small laser tube, mirror and lens
Align small laser
Add a “heads-up” traffic light signal to indicate normal and abnormal conditions. (Andon)
Create a central control loop. Assure chiller, water flow, air pump and exhaust fan are operational when either laser is under power.
We’re going to need an additional computer. Do we have something available? If needed, there is remaining budget that could be used for a hard drive, software, etc if needed.
What was the computer consensus? Were we planning to run lasers on dedicated windows machines? VM’s? Combination of the two? Not sure what is best from computer angle. That discussion was ages ago…
The air pump and some other items are arriving at my place tomorrow. I’ll bring them in tomorrow and install them. I’ll also bring the needed test gear & probes to check for current leakage, impedance, etc.
I was referring to having a computer for each laser so that two people can laze simultaneously. Ryan has mentioned using VM’s, which I don’t really understand and just assume is like “clippy” popping up and saying “looks like your firing a laser…”. To me, it seems that the most sensible solution is to have two workstations. Each workstation would have image editors, cad/cam, laser cutting software – basically, what’s needed for laser workflow. There have already been cases where a member is doing a long series of jobs on the big laser and another member needs to laze as well but cannot use the available small laser due to the computer being tied up.
Easy solution, obvious solution - 2nd computer. Could be whatever. If we stay with “laser cut”, must be windows.
Whatever Ryan and Ian are talking about with the tubes of information goings and comings.
Replace controller with an open source controller & then could use a Pi or old linux computer.
I think one thing is key here – folks need graphics editing, conversion, rendering software, etc. The majority of help I give to people using the laser involves formatting and editing images, whether in inkscape, autocad, photoshop (krita, gimp), etc. Most users need the software to tweak their images, re-format files, and edit on the machine in addition to “laser cut”.