Since getting my SM2, with the laser, I’ve only ever had my jog speed set to 3000mm/min. Coming from an SMO, this is obviously faster but it did make me wonder, if this only affects the toolhead speed when it’s NOT in use, is there any advantage to reducing the jog speed to a slower speed?
Equally, is there a faster speed the SM2 is capable of running it at?
Do you have the upgraded faster rails?
Even if not I think you can go higher. I don’t think it can hurt much, but you might start to lose accuracy depending on what you’re engraving. Speed is a tradeoff between missing steps and backlash or inertia outright losing them on direction changes. (Acceleration matters more than absolute top velocity / speed, but if it’s trying to reach a higher speed on short travels it might be doing more accelarate - decelerate at either ‘end’ of and therefore more of the path. Can that add up into step losses? Mebbe…)
3000mm/min is 50mm/sec (about 2 inches) so not really THAT fast when you look at the jog speeds in 3D printing for example (isn’t it like 80mm/sec “travel speed” when not on the bottom layer by default?). But really unless you’re cutting thru thicker material and dialing down to like 100mm/min, in general laser seems faster than printing if only because it’s at most 2-4 “layers” usually.
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Thanks for the quick reply!
I’ve got the A250T which I believe comes with the upgraded faster rails anyway.
That’s a good point you make about the speed when 3D printing. Right now I’m just doing a lot of engraving on wood but it’s taking SOOOO long and the travel speed seems to remain constant regardless of whether or not the laser is actually active (so I’m not sure if increasing the jog speed will actually impact that speed much).
However, I may try upping it to 3900 and seeing if that has any effect.
You do have the faster rails. I have the old A350 and engrave at 3000mm/min with the 10W laser with minimal loss in accuracy. For jog/non-work speeds, I usually run 6000mm/min, or if it’s a really large project, 9000mm/min, or 150mm/sec. The new rails should be able to with no problem. I’ve yet to lose any steps either.
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Did you say you engrave at 3000mm/min, as in, that speed when the laser is running?
Yes, that’s the speed when the laser is on.
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Wow! I’m guessing you only engrave in lines then. Any tips for faster engraving with dot fill?
I’m using a modified firmware version right now testing inline power changes for true grayscale instead of dithering dots. The dot method stops for each single dot, whereas grayscale varies the power as it goes. For most of my projects, in dot mode takes 16-20 hours, in grayscale? 2.5 hours. Time doesn’t vary if it’s darker either, since there’s no stopping more for darker areas from more dots.
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Wow that sounds great! Is the firmware a SM beta or is it open source? Or is it your own creation?
The firmware is open source, another user invited me to test it. However, it’s been merged on the github, so it should be available in the next firmware update.
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Hi @Skreelink, came across this thread and since its from this year was curious if, to your knowledge, this was ever incorporated. If so, do you know how this would be set up in Luban settings wise? If it still requires a mod do you have a link to the github source to employ it?
Being able to engrave true grayscale as you described would be a beyond literal game changer.
Salutations @liquidmettle, while there’s no way to do it in Luban or on official firmware, I’ve actually compiled a guide on this! Well… the guide is how to get full control of the Snapmaker with Lightburn and not need Luban. However, it contains a firmware build I compiled (and currently use) with the inline feature active, and if you use Lightburn, you can do the full grayscale.
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