KSum
Posts: 23
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2014 10:25 pm

Re: Laser cutter on QU-BD Two-Up printer.

..and I was using the layers to make certain areas darker. I used a program called Photo2Mesh to make the 3D model. Darker areas get more height in the model.

Save as STL, load it up, flip it over and let it run 5-8 layers with the laser. Lighter areas get etched in the last few layers and the darkest areas get it the whole way through. It takes some trial and error to get it so the light areas still get a chance to show without burning the crap out of the dark areas. :)
Umpa
Posts: 89
Joined: Wed May 07, 2014 2:10 pm

Re: Laser cutter on QU-BD Two-Up printer.

Has anyone written a profile to print with the CTC Riverside ?
littlehous3
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu May 26, 2016 1:18 am

Re: Laser cutter on QU-BD Two-Up printer.

JoeJ wrote:I've done this before. It isn't hard. Just click "edit process settings", and then go to the G-Code tab. You will need to enable the "Include M101/M102/M103 commands" options. When you do this, the software will now place an M101 right before the printer would start extruding, an M102 before any retractions, and an M103 before the extruder turns off. You can use those commands to trigger the laser too. But since these M101/M102/M103 commands are based on retractions, I would also make sure that retraction is enabled on the Extruders tab, and then go to the Advanced tab and disable "only retract when crossing open spaces". This way you will always have a retraction (and thus the M101/M102/M103 commands) anytime the extruder is moving to a new location.

Now, we just need to convert the M101/M102/M103 commands into what your laser actually uses. So go to the Scripts tab and add the following commands to your "additional commands for post processing" section.

Code: Select all

{STRIP "M106"}
{STRIP "M107"}
{REPLACE "M101" "M106"}
{STRIP "M102"}
{REPLACE "M103" "M107"}
That will remove any fan commands that were in the file to begin with (since those also use M106/M107), and then it will replace each M101 with M106 to turn the laser on, and replace M103 with M107 to turn the laser off. All of the M102's are just removed because we don't care about the actual retractions.

Thankfully the software is very customizable, so I've been able to use it for a lot of different applications with only a few changes :D
my computer says "This machine does not support binary .x3g files." how do i fix this? am I doing something wrong? I followed all your suggestions above...HELP!
CompoundCarl
Posts: 2005
Joined: Wed Aug 05, 2015 7:23 am

Re: Laser cutter on QU-BD Two-Up printer.

That means your profile is setup to create an x3g file, which your printer doesn't use. Go to the Scripts tab and disable that option.

Also, you should probably make a new thread instead of digging this one up ;)
Wisar
Posts: 35
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2015 2:42 am

Re: Laser cutter on QU-BD Two-Up printer.

Good dialog here...any chance of getting a profile? Also, did anyone do multiple passes with the build platform going up? Or the extruder going up?
tomasro
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Sep 17, 2017 9:59 pm

Re: Laser cutter on QU-BD Two-Up printer.

@JoeJ Is there any way to invert the z-axis movement in software (start at 20mm and move up), instead of changing the hardware? I use 4 z motors for a very large bed, so this would be highly inconvenient and would ruin the z leveling scheme with my bltouch probe, which is the only z endstop.
billyd
Posts: 272
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2015 12:13 pm

Re: Laser cutter on QU-BD Two-Up printer.

Sorry for the off topic reply but isn't Quintessential Universal Building Devices out of business? I tried contacting them by email and phone and never get a response. I tried to register on their online store and can't I get an error. I've tried from work and home. Also if you click on the contact us tab at the top of their online store I get a 404.

Anyway, curious I started researching the company. They have an F rating on BBB's website. They apparently ripped a bunch of people off in a kickstarter campaign as well. Anyway that's what an internet search revealed. Apologies if this is untrue.

It's funny because I purchased some silicone heater beds from them several times over the years on Amazon and never had any problem. But now I see that I can't buy from them on Amazon either.

Lots of bad stuff on this little company. I don't think they're crooks necessarily, just do a bad job at running a business. Or maybe they are done as a going concern.

If anyone hear knows anything about them, please let me know. That silicone heater they sell is an important part for custom build beds that I sell. So I am currently looking for a replacement and it looks like my only option is China.
Consaka
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Oct 09, 2017 6:44 pm

Re: Laser cutter on QU-BD Two-Up printer.

billyd wrote:Sorry for the off topic reply but isn't Quintessential Universal Building Devices out of business? I tried contacting them by email and phone and never get a response. I tried to register on their online store and can't I get an error. I've tried from work and home. Also if you click on the contact us tab at the top of their online store I get a 404.

Anyway, curious I started researching the company. They have an F rating on BBB's website. They apparently ripped a bunch of people off in a kickstarter campaign as well. Anyway that's what an internet search revealed. Apologies if this is untrue.

If anyone hear knows anything about them, please let me know. That silicone heater they sell is an important part for custom build beds that I sell. So I am currently looking for a replacement and it looks like my only option is China.
I bought a 3up from them. It took forever and they never responded to any communications until I threatened to do a chargeback on them. Finally I got a ship notification and it arrived. I had my college age son put it together with me. The documentation was mostly links but did say if anything was broken to open a ticket with them. Well the circuit boards looked like they had been run over with a truck and one of the long base pieces was broken. It was all lazer cut press board type stuff which is pretty fragile. So I opened a ticket and go zero reply. Went ahead and straightened all the pins very carefully. trickier then you might think since it is two boards stacked together. After much time and hassle we did get it all put together but could get nothing to work. I figured the motherboards were toast from the damage(pre shipping damage by the way because the box was not damaged). So I opened another ticket. Never heard anything for over a month despite commenting on my tickets and opening others. So finally I just said screw it and called my bank and did a chargeback. Even that did not get their attention. Later I went back and fiddled with it and tried numerous other software and finally got it to respond to mattercontrol software. The reset button was hosed and you had to lean the board a certain way so it wouldnt trigger. I printed a bunch of stuff despite the bed being a piece of kitchen floor tile that was NOT even remotely flat. Finally it died putting chinese or ascii type characters in the comm channel. I replaced it with a smoothie board but the quality just isnt their. Everything rattles and flexes.
I think they are just obsessed with making the money and customers needs be damned. They will keep on that way till they get sued. By now they probably folded that company and start a new one due to their bad reputation.
Seamuselanie
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2019 2:30 am

Re: Laser cutter on QU-BD Two-Up printer.

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