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thenexxuz-zz / cups-epilog

CUPS driver for the Epilog Laser engraver
GNU General Public License v3.0
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Laser Engraver Bed Size #7

Open Shmacked opened 3 years ago

Shmacked commented 3 years ago

So I have a few questions (if I am posting this in the wrong forum, please redirect me to the proper place):

  1. After digging through your code, I just wanted to confirm that this is for a 24x18 bed epilog helix laser engraver. I've been google-ing and couldn't find how the distinction was made between a "Epilog Mini Laser 18" (of which I would've assumed would be an 18x12, 18x14, or 18x16) versus an "Epilog Helix Laser Engraver" (with a 24x18 bed). Very likely that I am just searching for the wrong terms?
  2. Whilst digging through your code, I noticed that the length is defined as "BED_WIDTH" and the z-axis is defined as "BED_HEIGHT". I just wanted to know why it wasn't necessary to define the bed length, if you will (meaning if the bed is 24x18, the 18 inch portion).
  3. Are all the dependencies listed somewhere? I noticed as well that you have "execute_ghostscript", which is something that doesn't come on a few linux systems (whilst reading some SO articles), but is trivial to install on linux.

Sorry for the noobish questions.

thenexxuz-zz commented 3 years ago

Hello Shmacked

1) I have only ever tried this with the "Epilog Mini 18" and the "Epilog Legend32" (like 15-20 years old at this point) with a bed size of 18x12 for the Mini. I have never tried with a 24 or Helix.

2) BED_WIDTH is the x-axis and BED_HEIGHT is the y-axis. The z-axis is not defined because that is for the focus of the laser, auto or manual. If auto then the engraver uses internal hardware to determine the focal depth, otherwise the focus is set before the job is started.

3) It has been about 7 years since I had daily access to any of these lasers and therefore do not quite remember any dependency issues I might of had. Feel free to add to the README.md file via a pull request and dependencies on modern distributions! That is why I have this project open sourced, to make sure people have this information!

4) no need to apologize for anything ☺ we all have to learn from somewhere and if someone is a jerk then knowledge is not gained and nobody is better for it. Never stop asking questions!

Shmacked commented 3 years ago
  1. Okay, nice to know. Thing is, the code has "BED_WIDTH (1728)", "BED_HEIGHT (864)", and "POINTS_PER_INCH (72)" all defined, which mathematically comes out to be 24x12. So a little confusing?
  2. True, totally overlooked the plunger, but seeing that BED_HEIGHT is 12 inches I figured you meant z axis, because I couldn't make sense of a bed that was 24x12, given that the bed is 24x18 for mine. Not to mention that the bed drops to about 12 inches.
  3. Sweet.
  4. Since they are both "Helix" surely it should be as easy as changing the BED_HEIGHT to 18 instead of 12... But I have to beg the question, why does the code suggest that the engraver is 24 inches wide already ("BED_WIDTH(1728)")? And great. I appreciate the help and encouragement :) .
thenexxuz-zz commented 3 years ago

The 24in must be for the Legend32, it has a larger bed size. I never got around writing separate code for each engraver. I wasn't as good of a developer then. =P I've grown a lot since, but if you would like to make it better feel free to!