Grayscale not engraving

Hi everyone,
Pretty new here and i have been reading through some posts. I tried using the laser to engrave a picture and it came out alright. Since that first test, my laser will not engrave any other grayscale picture. I can still use the laser with the vector function, but that is it. Any help would be great. I have checked and changed the settings a few times, but nothing seems to work.

Can you show a screenshot of your luban process window?

I will when I return home in a few minutesimage

The first time it actually worked, this is what was done

I know it’s not straight lol

previous one is done in line mode, i think standard settings. Dot mode will work too, click on dot mode drop down to reselect dot mode, select density, choose quality from 1 to 10, try setting dwell to 1.

Could you show me the workspace area after this?

I haven’t gotten like mode to work either. But here are some pictures

Here are my settings

still nothing power set to 100

Last comment for today on my part, I don’t know about the focal length on the snapmaker OG but it looks like your laser is too close to the material. Set the power as low as possible and calibrate manually by moving the z up or down till you get the smallest possible dot.
Make note of z height for future reference.
Start engraving.

BTW, if it’s 1600mW laser, don’t start out with 100% power… try 30 first.

I will try that suggestion when I get home. I have the standard 600 watt laser that came with it. And i thought the laser has to be close to the material lol

it’s closer for sm 2.0

Alot even. If it’s the 200W laser, stay on 100 maybe.

So I need to back the laser up higher. Im attempt it. Can I buy I different laser for the og

There is a 1600mW laser which is class 4 and 445nm in frequency. Try moving the module around 34mm from the surface of your workpiece. Turn the lens aperture ring as tightly closed as possible and jog the module up and down in 0.1mm steps once you are at 34mm in Z height above the workpiece. As you are jogging the laser module, the laser will illuminate but at low power. Wear your safety goggles when doing this… even the low power light can be harmful. You are aiming to get the beam to its minimum spread, which is around .5mm so think full stop/period on a printed page.

The laser beam should look like this when focussed…

Once focussed it is very capable of producing nice results.

this is the size of my laser… Nothing seems to work

Hi Francis; I cannot speak to the 200mW module but my own 1600mW module requires a distance of 38.4mm from the front of the lens case to the workpiece to be exactly in focus. As the 200mW module fits the Z axis in the same manner, it may be possible that your laser will not be too far from 38.4mm for good focus. You can do something about focusing the laser beam by running the fine tuning part of Luban.

When the laser module is connected via USB, load up any image you want to. Once the image you wish to engrave is loaded, click on the connect button and a new medu will appear on the left which is fine tuning. There are a series of boxes that are drawn at different settings of the Z axis. Select the clearest image of a box, select the box and save it.

The laser module will now be at the correct Z height to get you the very best engraving. Next step is slightly awkward but it will save you having to do this again. Go to jog mode on the controller and started to lower the module until the front of the lens housing just touches the workpiece. You can use a piece of paper under the lens to work out when it is just touching.

Lower the module housing in 10mm steps no more than 3 times ( = 30mm ) next estimate roughly how many mm space before the lens touches the workpiece. In my case it was 8.4mm so I lowered the head in 1mm steps by 8mm and then changed to 0.1mm steps and lowered the head by 4 steps. The piece of paper would just slide out from under the lens but it could be felt in contact with the housing. that is my 38.4mm focal length distance for maximum sharpness.

It is worth knowing that you should have turn the knurled lens cover until it is fully closed. This will get you as tightly focussed as is possible. The beam width is 0.5mm when in focus correctly. The fine tuning test permits you to adjust the power settings and you should try the fine tuning test at 100% power so that you can see what is the best focus point.

When you connect your computer to the module and you jog the module head, the laser beam should illuminate at low power. Are you seeing that?

The image below is an unretouched image from an .svg file and it was made this evening after ideal focus was confirmed. I had to reinstall my OS so I had lost all of my software settings.

The things to note are no burning or scorch marks and no smoke stains. The image was etched onto 2mm thick plywood and took about 17 minutes to engrave at 100% power and 120mm/min

I am not sure about this topic where to start and help with.- at your shown picture, the laser spot is too big, you have to manually focus the laser by decreasing z-height till the spot is the tiniest possible.

Your laser spot is out of focus.- it should be as or less big than the point on the calibration card (i guess it is about or less than 0.1mm).
You could calibrate with low laser power.

I work all day but I’ll try this again. Which boxes are you referring too on the menu?

I can’t get the focus any better, I’ve turned the knob both directions and it doesn’t seem to change much. How do I focus it

You have to offset your Z-work origin.

So basically lower it until it is tiny? I’ve lowered and raised it several times…

Yes. Same stands in the quickstart guide I guess.
I didn’t have my original anymore, so…