*Good information as always Steve.* Most, if not all of the new 32 bit control boards do have reverse polarity protection, however, if you have a cheap laser or an older 8 or 16 bit version, you can and may cause serious damage to the control board. But even on the newer boards, you can corrupt the software on the control board by moving it by hand. Every feature in Lightburn is there for a reason by design. There wouldn't be a Move tab if it wasn't needed. xTool does an injustice to the newbie community by using the laser improperly in their demonstration videos.
Glad to hear it! I'm getting ready to drop a really good one designing in Lightburn. Using every tool you can think of and some you might not think of. It's in real time, designing a small box and lid from scratch. It's long. Over an hour. May have to be watched in shifts. The project itself may be useless, but the techniques demonstrated are great ones to learn. Plan to drop it tomorrow at 1 PM EST.
In reference to your statement about manually moving the laser module with the unit powered off, this is only partially correct. A stepper motor will act as a generator when you are spinning them by hand. The power generated is a function of how fast you spin them. The faster you move the laser head, the more power you are generating. When these control boards are built, they are built to a price point. So while the board could be built so that it will easily resist the back voltage produced by manually moving the laser head, that costs money and there goes your profit. So what they do is design in just enough protection so that warranty issues won't put them out of business. This applies to anything that uses stepper motors. In the years that I've worked with 3D printers and laser engravers, I have yet to burn up a board by manually rotating the stepper motors. I just don't move them fast enough to generate the back voltages that will cause problems.
You are obviously educated and know what you're talking about. How many videos from xTool have you watched? How many times does xTool demonstrate excessive movement and speed? How many first-time laser owners watching their videos know when too fast is too fast? It's better to simply not do it. I did it when I first started. But since learning better, I have never had a situation where I was forced to move it manually. Thanks for watching, and thanks for your comments.
I have not watched a lot of videos that were make by xTool. A lot of what I've watched from them seemed to be more sales pitches than instructional videos. So I don't watch them any more. And, yes, I cringed every time I saw them whip that laser head around. They are definitely setting a bad example. Manually moving the head is just something I started doing when I was learning to do 3D printing. Never thought much about it. Just a FYI - I try to keep the speed to less than 75 - 100 mm/sec. It hasn't bitten me yet.
I agree that moving the laser and gantry by hand can make the stepper motors act like generators and back feed voltages to the control board. But, at times, you may have no choice but to move the mechanisms by hand. You can reduce the possibility of a voltage spike damaging the controller by moving the pieces slowly. The faster you move things, the larger the voltage spike will be.
Here's the same reply I posted to Jim... You are obviously educated and know what you're talking about. How many videos from xTool have you watched? How many times does xTool demonstrate excessive movement and speed? How many first-time laser owners watching their videos know when too fast is too fast? It's better to simply not do it. I did it when I first started. But since learning better, I have never had a situation where I was forced to move it manually. Thanks for watching, and thanks for your comments.
@@HoboWithWood Perhaps you need to move the entire machine and you don’t have your computer connected. If the gantry in not already against the edge you need to move it safely, then move it by hand, slowly. Or perhaps you need to turn the machine over, same problem.
If you move it quickly enough the is absolutely true. But if you move it slow enough there is slim chance. I see videos of makers grabbing the laser and whipping it around the work area by hand and cringe.
The mechanical aspects of the lasers is an area that I have little knowledge. I hate assembling them and despise working on them. Sorry, I would if I could. But I'd would be useless at this.
Can't understand why it's not working for you. Limit switches would make a difference on the exact repeatability. But it should still work. What laser are you using?
