I just recently purchased a used JTech 7W PRO laser and am getting it setup. I have verified that the laser will fire by using the switch on the controller, but haven’t run anything yet as the connector for the fan power needs to be replaced. I have purchased the laser module from Vectric and installed it, along with the Onefinity laser pp. I have set up a test file in VCarve to play with the laser tools, but when I try to do a simulation, nothing appears on the preview screen. I’ve discovered, by increasing the number of passes, that it does eventually appear, but is very light even after 5 or six passes with 80% power and 20ipm. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get the preview to reflect what the laser will actually do when I run it? I’ve looked through all the laser files on the forum and haven’t found anything so far! TIA for any assistance!
Yeah. VCarve is not very good at displaying the results of the laser module. It works as intended when you do the burn, but unless you have a real high setting or multiple passes in the simulation it wont display correctly. Once you get your connector, try it on a scrap piece of wood “assuming” that it will work. It probably will come out ok
Hey Bill, thanks for your response. I did hear back from Shane at JTech after I sent the question to them, and he explained the problem and the fix!
From Shane: "Thanks for the email, Vcarve can be tough the struggle is real! The maximum burn rate setting in your Tool Database is what determines the visibility of the laser kerf on the simulation. The following is straight from the Vectric forum.
“So all of the Tool Database fields for the laser will have some impact on the toolpath generated, with the exception of the “Maximum Burn Rate” which we just use to impact the intensity of the toolpath preview example we show. This allows a user to run a burn on their laser, then return to that project and increase/decrease the Max burn Rate value until the preview matches the result they got on their machine.
This allows you to customize how your preview appears with each material you set it up for, so that future projects you can see a more accurate preview result in the software right away.”
I adjusted the Maximum Burn Rate to 80, and all my previews show up now. Once I get my connector issue fixed and try some actual burns and then I can adjust it to reflect what the laser is actually doing!