It was a rocky start, but things are improving greatly.
Here’s the latest laser burn:
Looks great, how big is that and about how long did it
It’s 100mmx100mm (roughly).
It took right about 40 minutes, though that’s a problem with the gcode that I’m generating from Easel.
It seems there are no rapids in the exported code. So every movement is at the 200mm/m feed rate that I planned for cutting. Easel is known to give some wonky paths sometimes…in this instance, it will cut one of the little circles on the outside, then traverse the entire 100mm to the other side and cut another circle, then go BACK to the first area and create that triangle around it.
At 200mm/m and 100mm width, the travels alone each take something close to 30 seconds. And there’s dozens of them.
This could be done (with some rapids) in under 10 minutes I’m sure.
Nice. I have not started playing with my laser yet so you need to start sharing all your secrets so I can avoid the rocky start.
Curt
Have you tried estlcam?
Any cam program I have used always seem to do something weird with the pathing. I was messing with estlcam and I’m pretty sure you can tell it what order to do it in.
I loaded the SVG into Estlcam to start playing with it, but…that program is certainly not for noobs. 
Having to click each object and start a path, select every depth by hand…yuck.
For a file without 100 individual objects, might be worth a go. Will have to do more testing.
I’m also looking at a tool called Visicut. It has a Marlin control system option (though I think originally centered around epilog machines) so it can generate code and potentially send it as well.
Will test them all out as time comes and goes. Now that the machine is running pretty smooth and making accurate movements, I can play with the software chain a little bit and see what works best.
If you used engrave, it would “cut” each path in the order you selected it. As for the depth, if you don’t set a depth it will ask at the end and “cut” them all the same. This is how I use the drag knife for stickers.
Or you can drag the selection box around them all to do a “select all”, that will give you random paths moves though.
If you thing estlcam is hard you should see the industry standard programs, That is why there are people just to run CAM that have years of training.
With a little creative regex find/replace with Notepad++ I was able to quickly edit the G0 lines of my gcode to add a speed of 2000mm/m, which Repetier-host now says is 16 minutes instead of the original 40.
I don’t know that I’m going to retry again at this size…but it’s good to know a little creative work and can easily cut times in half.
Ordered my laser last night (the 2.8w kit from J Tech Photonics). How do I get started generating code to drive the laser? Ryan mentioned using ESTLCAM, which I use for carving already. Do I need to modify the resulting gcode to make it work with the laser? Also, do I need to make changes to Marlin to incorporate the laser? Does the laser come with a wiring diagram of how to connect it to the ramps for control? So many questions!
I’m working on modifying the laser mount on thingiverse to fit my DW660 mount.
With at least two folks with new lasers, this might end up becoming The Big Laser Thread!
Karl
I received my 2.8W laser last week and made a simple mount to attach to my DW660 mount. I used a flat piece of plastic and drilled it to match the 4 DW660 holes and added two holes for the laser.
I have fired up my laser and made some smoke focusing it but I have not tried to run any gcode yet. I am hoping to get to it this weekend.
Now there are three! I think we need to start a J Tech Laser thread!
Curt
I’m so jealous I want one!
I want to go all crazy with it and hook up one of those 50W CO2 tubes though. Once you guys work out all the software kinks, maybe I’ll tap into the savings.
Keep up the good work
once you get that laser tube and start aligning the mirrors, that is really pain in the ass.
i have a 40w co2 laser cutter and it took long time to get it perfect