0:00today is going to be a nice quick
0:02session
0:03with no real thinking involved today i
0:06thought i’d take a few moments out
0:08and show you how to modify your machine
0:12to make it do exactly what you want with
0:16regard to
0:17z equals zero i’m lucky enough on this
0:20machine
0:21to have a controllable z-axis stepper
0:24controlled
0:25and that’s because originally this
0:27machine had an auto focus
0:29on it now those of you that go back far
0:31enough
0:33will remember that i’m not enamored with
0:36the autofocus system
0:37on this or any other machine the
0:41pen system that was on here
0:44was quickly removed a
0:47i found it to be fragile and it was very
0:50easily
0:50gummed up and got sticky and the
0:52autofocus system could only be accessed
0:56through the menu on the keypad so you
0:58had to hunt through the menu
1:00to find the autofocus function and then
1:02press it
1:03and then it would carry out the
1:04autofocus function and it may or may not
1:07complete the function
1:08correctly it really depends on how your
1:11table was set
1:12and what work you had on your table
1:14whenever you changed the lens
1:17you had to set the autofocus system up
1:20completely
1:21i got used to it and i was able to do it
1:22in two or three minutes but anybody
1:24that’s not used to it is frightened of
1:25it
1:26would do it in maybe 10 or 15 minutes
1:29it was a really tedious process and of
1:32course
1:33the final thing is
1:36there is no such thing as a focus
1:40there are lots of focuses depending on
1:42the speed that you’re running at
1:44i really couldn’t see the point of an
1:46autofocus system on this machine
1:49so it was ripped off but i love the fact
1:51that i can control
1:52the zed on this machine because there
1:55are times with some of the programs that
1:56i’ve invented since
1:58where i use the zed very conveniently
Transcript for Laser Cutter Z Axis: Setting the Home Position (Cont…)
2:00for controlling the position of the
2:02table
2:02the problem is the position that i want
2:05to control the table from
2:07is not always at the same zero position
2:11but one of the things i’ve been
2:12promising to do is to make myself a very
2:15quick fix that allows me
2:17to select exactly where i want zero to
2:19be
2:20on the table position right let’s start
2:23off at the beginning
2:24and show you all the different ways that
2:27zero
2:28can be set now if we go to the user
2:30settings
2:31you’ll see that by default
2:34in the auxiliary settings home
2:37position or home parameters it says auto
2:40home x
2:41yes auto home y yes auto home said
2:44no well that’s because i just switched
2:47this on and i’ve not actually read
2:49the machine parameters so i’m going to
2:51read my machine parameters now
2:55and you’ll see that my machine
2:56parameters say yes yes
2:58yes so i’ve selected auto home z
3:01equals yes and written it back into the
3:03machine that is one way that you can
3:05make your
3:06machine automatically home to zed to
3:09lower the table
3:11[Music]
3:14so i’ve manually forced the table down
3:16now but if i want to reset
3:19at any point in time without turning the
3:21machine off
3:22i can just press the reset button
3:28and that again will reset all three axes
3:31of the machine including zed there we
3:35are we’re back to zed
3:36zero
3:37[Music]
3:38[Applause]
3:41[Music]
3:43you wouldn’t normally have the auto home
3:45zero
3:47if you’ve got an autofocus system
3:50because you want the autofocus system
3:52to do your zero setting for you now
3:55hiding away in the machine here
3:56somewhere
3:57i remember throwing
Transcript for Laser Cutter Z Axis: Setting the Home Position (Cont…)
4:02the autofocus pin now i’ve not
4:04disconnected
4:05the autofocus system
4:08i’ve just removed the pen i’m not going
4:10to press
4:12autofocus i’m going to press reset
4:15again
4:17[Music]
4:24and you’ll notice i’ve pressed the
4:26button and i’ve stopped zed
4:28[Music]
4:31set that table to that position via the
4:33auto
4:34focus pen because something in that pen
4:36has caused this table
4:38to stop and reset zero at this position
4:41which is fantastic i could technically
4:44have a switch here and just press it and
4:47it sets my table where i want it
4:49so let’s just drop the table down and
4:52over in this corner of the machine here
4:54you’ll see that there is a microswitch
4:58[Music]
4:59now that microswitch is actually the
5:02thing
5:03that gives us zero on the table
5:07the bearing comes up hits this
5:11and tells the table i now want to set
5:14zero
5:14let me just do that manually i’m going
5:16to press the reset button
5:18and everything is going to start
5:19happening the table’s going to come up
5:22it’s going to stop and i’ve pressed the
5:24button twice
5:26but i’ll stop that table at that
5:28position there because i’ve performed
5:30a zeroing opposite operation on this
5:32switch
5:33just under here now that operation is a
5:35very simple procedure that the machine
5:37follows
5:38it comes up and makes this switch
5:42it then drops down and disconnects the
5:46switch
5:46once it’s disconnected the switch it
5:49then creeps
5:49up again very very slowly until it makes
5:53the switch again
5:55and then it drops down very very very
5:57slowly
5:58until it just disconnects from the
Transcript for Laser Cutter Z Axis: Setting the Home Position (Cont…)
6:00switch and as soon as it disconnects
6:02from the switch
6:03that is when it sets table zero
6:06z equals zero so there’s only that one
6:09function here that one operation
6:12that always sets zero this
6:16auto focus pen that you saw me messing
6:18with has really
6:19only interfering with this switch
6:21circuit
6:22when i switched that on and off i was
6:25doing the same
6:26as switching this on and off there’s
6:28nothing magical
6:29about this auto focus system up to now
6:33if i want to set this to a different
6:35position
6:36i normally do a bit of a budge there’s
6:38the bearing block there
6:40and the switch is up the top there i can
6:41make that switch
6:43by doing something silly like this
6:47i can just sit a block of material on
6:50there
6:51which is one inch thick and that will
6:53now stop the table
6:56one inch down and set the zero
6:59one inch lower than it was previously
7:01that’s a fairly quick way
7:03lazy way of changing the table zero
7:06position now there is
7:08another official way that you can change
7:10the table
7:11zero and that’s to go into vendor
7:13settings
7:14rd when we look at the z-axis
7:19you’ll find that we’ve got breadth 650
7:23millimeters
7:24it really doesn’t matter what what
7:26breadth you set because that’s basically
7:28the depth of the table
7:29but on this machine it doesn’t really
7:32matter
7:32because on the bottom of the stroke
7:35there is a limit switch
7:37which even if i tell that to go to two
7:39miles it will only go down as far as the
7:41limit switch
7:42and then it will stop so it really
7:43doesn’t matter what set what which you
7:45set the breadth to
7:47then you’ve got this thing here called
7:49home offset now what you’ve seen my
7:51table do
7:52is to come up to zero drop down
7:55come up very slowly drop down and at
7:58that point there
7:59it sets zero on the keypad
Transcript for Laser Cutter Z Axis: Setting the Home Position (Cont…)
8:03now if i change this
8:06to something else like maybe 25
8:10and let’s just do it
8:1325 and i’ll now write that back
8:17let’s go and look to see what effect
8:18i’ve had on my zero
8:20table position it’s coming up and it’s
8:23going to hit this
8:24switch down here and set first attempt
8:27at zero it says
8:28okay we’re nearly there but this is not
8:31accurate enough so we need to drop down
8:34and we’ll come up and we’ll drop down
8:36and we’ll find where real zero is
8:39there it is but hang on
8:43and down and down
8:47okay so now what it’s done it’s set
8:50machine
8:510 25 millimeters lower
8:55than the switch that sets zero
8:59so i’ve actually created a table setting
9:03zero which is what i want which is much
9:05lower
9:06but my goodness me what a faff just to
9:09get the new table
9:10zed position that’s why i don’t do it
9:13the vendor setting way
9:15and i use that rather cheap dirty and
9:18very quick
9:19method of resetting a table zero one
9:22inch lower than what i need
9:24i mean it could be four inches like that
9:26it doesn’t make any difference
9:28there are two other ways that you can
9:30set
9:32zero via the keyboard let’s turn the
9:34light off so we can see the keyboard
9:36nice and easily
9:37right down the bottom here we’ve got
9:39auto focus so when i want to perform an
9:41autofocus
9:43first of all i’ve got to come in here
9:44and press the zoo button
9:46then i’ve got to decide whether it’s
9:48quicker to come all the way down to the
9:49bottom
9:50here or whether it’s easier to go up
9:52from the bottom
9:54to autofocus either way around autofocus
9:57is right in the middle of a list
9:59okay so i haven’t got the autofocus pen
Transcript for Laser Cutter Z Axis: Setting the Home Position (Cont…)
10:00on the machine at the moment
10:02but is that going to make any difference
10:04the answer is
10:05no because look what’s going to happen
10:07when i press auto focus
10:09enter first of all it’s going to set
10:11zero against that switch in the corner
10:13there
10:13it’s not going to take and you notice
10:14the autofocus pen because the autofocus
10:16pen isn’t there
10:18and then what it’s going to do look it’s
10:19going to set the table
10:2125 millimeters lower because that’s what
10:23i asked it to do
10:24okay look i’m going to take that offset
10:27away
10:27because it’s nothing but a pain so there
10:30is one other way that you can access
10:32a zed reset and that’s to come into the
10:35zoo button again
10:37and you’ve got this menu and if you look
10:38at the last item in the menu it says
10:40access reset
10:42let’s go up one and we get to access
10:44reset enter
10:45so if we select zed
10:49and press enter and we’ve reset said
10:53at table position good as well i thought
10:55this is going to be a quick session
10:57now very conveniently that switch has
11:00got
11:02pull off connectors on it and it’s the
11:04middle one and the top one
11:05it doesn’t matter which is which because
11:07it’s just a circuit
11:08it’s as simple as that really all we’ve
11:10got to do is to put another switch
11:13in there and i have a very convenient
11:18little push button switch right so that
11:21job’s done
11:22we’ve just connected two wires
11:25onto that switch now we’ve got another
11:27switch
11:28out here and hopefully that switch out
11:30here is doing
11:31performing the same function as that one
11:33so let’s see what happens when we turn
11:35this machine on
11:36can we interrupt
11:41yes we can
11:45there we go it’s as simple as that now
11:49we can stop that zero and that is now z0
11:54there if i don’t like it
11:58i can press reset
Transcript for Laser Cutter Z Axis: Setting the Home Position (Cont…)
12:01have it a little bit higher
12:04stop watch it go down it’s pressed again
12:09and there we go it’s as simple as that
12:12now
12:13and hey perhaps you’re just as annoyed
12:15with your zero as i was
12:18and you can now attempt the same very
12:20simple fix
