How to use Laser System 5.3?

[joem]

Hi,

Could anyone give me a few pointers on how to use the Laser System software?

I mean seriously basic stuff, like when you click the download button in the right hand side bar, what does 'Download current' and 'Download CFG' mean?
Or maybe someone could point me to some instructions, the set that came with it were just confusing >.<

Appreciated,
Joe

[Daven]

Hi Joe,

If you search for "Lasercut 5.3 manual" there are a few out there, just dont change any machine specific configurations.

Download CFG loads machine specific settings so you should not need to use it (best not to unless you know what you are doing). Download current sends the data file on screen to the machine.

Is the machine set up to run? Is the water cooling and extraction set up and running? Have you used a laser cutter before? If not I would seriously ask for the HPC manual and basic training from whoever owns it before playing - or book some training from HPC

Best

Dave

[PhillyDee]

Awesome site:

http://www.rabbitlaserusa.com/

[Matrix]

Something not mentioned in the manual (not even in its particularly, erm, 'poetic' Chinglish translation!)...
When you "Download Current" to put your latest design onto the machine, by default it will get the name "LASER" - and will overwrite any other programs on the machine (because they will also be called "LASER"). If you want to keep several designs in the machine's memory, or just have a name that lets you know you loaded the right job, you need to save the file to your hard drive first - and the file name will then get used as the program name on the machine. However, there is a small catch!...
Most of use these days are used to Windows XP/Vista/7 where we can call our files nice descriptive names, like "This is my lovely document wa-hey.txt". LaserCut is a little more old-fashioned, and only properly recognises the old 'DOS' naming convention. This means that you are only allowed eight characters in the name (just letters and numbers, no fancy stuff), and must not have any spaces in the name.
This caught me out for ages - I though the machine had a bug in its software until I worked out what was going on!

[PhillyDee]

Same for me matrix! It is a PITA as it HAS to be in the 8.3 format.

[joem]

Thanks guys, really helpful, everything is now up and running!