Microlaze User Manual

• Microlaze Setup
• Laser Maintenance
• Microlaze Suite User Guide
• Source Code and Programmer's Guide

Microlaze Setup

Microlaze centers around a New Wave Quiklaze laser micromachining system attached to a Prior XYZ stage and monitor. The monitor is integrated with the stage controller to allow it to autofocus. There is also a manual joystick for moving the stage.

The laser and stage can be controlled via serial cable from a PC. We have the stage on COM1 and the laser on COM2. Note that the Prior stage serial cable requires a null modem whereas the Quiklaze does not.

While the microlaze program can fully control the Quiklaze, you can manually control it with the Windows PCLaze program (on the Start menu). You cannot
use the microlaze program and PCLaze at the same time since they cannot share the COM port.

Laser Maintenance

It is possible to control the Quiklaze system from a manual remote box. To use remote box, remove jumper on J14 which is closest to the edge. To allow operation without remote box, add the jumper and use the stub on the remote box connector on the back of the power supply unit.

When it is necessary to change the flashlamp, follow the instructions in the Quiklaze manual. After replacing the flashlamp, make sure connector next to the transformer going to the board which is under the red plastic sheet is connected well.

Microlaze Suite User Guide

• microlaze - the main application which reads a G-code file and controls the laser to cut and score the workpiece.
• microlazeconfig - creates or modifies the configuration file which controls laser power, cut rate, etc.
• microlazeoffset - creates the offset file which translates and rotates the coordinates in the G-code file to allow a different workpiece position.
• stagexy - displays the current X,Y coordinates of the stage or commands a new position
• resetstage - sets the current stage position to (0,0)

The following describes each command-line applications in the Microlaze Suite.

microlaze

microlaze [options] [cutfile]

The options are any oft the following:

• -s scorefile - the G-code file specifying the shape to score. If you specify both a score file and a cut file, microlaze runs the score file first.
• -c configfile - the file containing the configuration options for laser power, cut hold time, etc. For details on the config file, see microlazeconfig below.
• -o offsetfile - the file containing the X, Y and angle offsets which are added to the coordinates in the cut or score file. For details on the config file, see microlazeoffset below.
• -l startline - The first line of the G-code file to execute. If the score file is supplied, this applies to the first line of the score file (and every line of the cut file is executed). Otherwise, this applies to the cut file. This option is useful if you had to stop microlaze in the middle of a job. This way, you can specify the last line it was on and resume.
• -ox xOffset - the X offset in millimeters which is added to the coordinates in the cut or score file. If a -o offsetfile is provided, this is added to its X offset.
• -oy yOffset - the Y offset in millimeters which is added to the coordinates in the cut or score file. If a -o offsetfile is provided, this is added to its Y offset.
• -oa angleOffset - the angle offset in radians which is added to the coordinates in the cut or score file. If a -o offsetfile is provided, this is added to its angle offset.

microlazeconfig

microlazeconfig configfile

microlazeconfig will prompt you for each of the configuration parameters and allow you to type a new value, or accept the previous value in the config file. (If you are creating a new config file the "previous value" is the system default.) Following are all the config parameters, their default values and meaning. The defaults are for cutting 13 micron thick stainless steel at 50x magnification which makes a spot size 50 microns wide.
 

Parameter	Default	Meaning
wavelength (IR, Green of UV)	Green	Laser color. Note that a special lens is required for IR or UV.
energyrange (low or high)	high	High or low energy range.
energylevel	1000	Energy level from 0 to 1000. These are normalized units and don't reflect a specific number of Joules.
pulserate (Hz)	40	Firing rate from 0 to 40 Hz.
markersizeX (percent)	100	Width of the blast spot of the laser from 1 to 100.
markersizeY (percent)	100	Height of the blast spot of the laser from 1 to 100.
scoreStepSize (mm)	0.150	Distance between the center of each "dot" on the "dotted line" of a score line. Typically 3 times the spot size.
scoreHoldTime (sec)	2.000	Amount of time to blast at each spot. This should be enough to go through the material.
cutStepSize (mm)	0.025	Distance to move the spot for each "nibble" of the cut line. Typically one half the spot size.
cutHoldTime (sec)	1.000	Amount of time at blast at each spot. If the cutStepSize is only one half a spot size, this can be one half the time needed to cut though the material since each portion of the line gets blasted for two steps.
cutFeedSpeed (percent)	100	Percent of maximum speed to move the laser during cutting. If you set this to one, the Prior stage moves at about 1 mm per second. At 40 Hz blasting rate, this is 25 microns per blast, so with a 50 micron spot size you may get two blasts on each portion of the cut line. (See "endpoints" configuration below.) This may be enough to cut a thin mask.
distanceToRefocus (mm)	0.500	How far the stage can move before it should refocus. This depends on how uneven the surface is. Set to 0 to never refocus.
focusOffsetDistance (mm)	0.100	When microlaze refocusses, it stops firing the laser, moves away from the cut line, refocusses, moves back and starts firing again. This parameter tells how far off the cut line to move. Typically twice the spot size. (This parameter is ignored if distanceToRefocus is zero.)
minFocusScore	800	After each refocus, the Prior stage computes a "score" of how well the image is focussed. If the score falls below minFocusScore, microlaze will prompt the user to manually refocus. Set this to zero to keep cutting regardless of what score results from a refocus.

By choosing the right config file parameters, you can make microlaze perform some useful functions as follows:

• "endpoints" - Set scoreStepSize and cutStepSize and to a very large number, such as 1000. Since microlaze will always move to the endpoint of each line even if the line is smaller than the step size, this will make microlaze quickly visit each endpoint of your shape.
• "null" - Set energyRange to LOW, energyLevel to zero, and distanceToRefocus to zero (to not refocus). This will go through the motions of your job but not cut anything since the laser power is off.
• "endpoints and null" - Combine the parameters of "endpoints" and "null". This will make microlaze visit each endpoint without cutting anything. You may want to use this to make sure the spot will stay within the expected cut area.

microlazeoffset

microlazeoffset offsetfile

stagexy

stagexy [x y]

resetstage

resetstage

Source Code and Programmer's Guide

Compiling the Microlaze Suite

It is currently compiled under Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0. You can open the project workspace file microlaze.dsw and compile. If you must create the project file yourself, these are ordinary 32-bit console applications. The following are the source and header files needed to build each executable:

• microlaze.exe: microlaze.cpp, config.cpp, offset.cpp, prior.cpp, quiklaze.cpp, serial.cpp, config.h, offset.h, prior.h, quiklaze.h, serial.h, StdAfx.h
• microlazeconfig.exe: microlazeconfig.cpp, config.cpp, config.h, StdAfx.h
• microlazeoffset.exe: microlazeoffset.cpp, offset.cpp, prior.cpp, quiklaze.cpp, serial.cpp, offset.h, serial.h, StdAfx.h
• resetstage.exe: resetstage.cpp, prior.cpp, quiklaze.cpp, serial.cpp, prior.h, quiklaze.h, serial.h, StdAfx.h
• stagexy.exe: stagexy.cpp, prior.cpp, quiklaze.cpp, serial.cpp, prior.h, quiklaze.h, serial.h, StdAfx.h

Overview of Source Files

• StdAfx.h - This is a standard header file which is generated by the Visual C++ Application Wizard. It provides generic defines for the target platform.
• serial.cpp, serial.h - Defines functions to open a serial communications port and read/write to it. These used the non-overlapped version of CreateFile which is how Windows NT interfaces to the comm port.
• config.cpp, config.h - Defines the class MicrolazeConfig which has methods loadFromFile and saveToFile which read and write the config file. MicrolazeConfig keeps its own copy of all the configuration parameters. You must explicitly transfer these to the Quiklaze and Prior objects as explained below.
• offset.cpp, offset.h - Defines the class MicrolazeOffset which has methods loadFromFile and saveToFile which read and write the offset file. MicrolazeOffset keeps its own copy of all the configuration parameters. You must explicitly transfer these to the Prior object as explained below.
• quiklaze.cpp, quiklaze.h - Defines the class Quiklaze which is the interface to the Quiklaze laser. The most important methods are startFiring and stopFiring, and the method firing() which tells whether it is currently firing. The Quiklaze class keeps track of all the relevant configuration options such as energyLevel and pulseRate. When the Quiklaze object is created, these have initial default values, and must be explicitly changed in microlaze.cpp after reading in the config file.
• prior.cpp, prior.h - Defines the class Prior which is the interface to the Prior positioning stage. This class has internal (private) methods to  to move the stage directly and autofocus. The public methods are higher-level such as reposition and cutTo. These higher level methods keep track of whether the laser is firing and whether it has moved the distance to refocus and needs to refocus. Thus, the Prior class is provided with the instance of the Quiklaze class by calling setQuiklaze. (If you are just creating the Prior object to move the stage and not to cut, you don't need to set a Quiklaze object.) The Prior class keeps track of all the relevant configuration options such as distanceToRefocus and cutStepSize. When the Prior object is created, these have initial default values, and must be explicitly changed in microlaze.cpp after reading in the config file. (The same is true of setting the Prior x, y and angle offset values after reading the offset file.) Notice that the methods checkInterrupt and doInterrupt are virtual so that microlaze.cpp can override them to provide the keyboard interface (see below).
• microlaze.cpp - This defines the main function which reads the microlaze command line options, reads the config file and the offset file, creates the Quiklaze object and ConsolePrior objects and then calls the internal routine DoFile to run the score file and again to run the cut file. The ConsolePrior class extends the Prior class to override checkInterrupt and doInterrupt based on polling the keyboard with kbhit(). This is why you can pause microlaze by hitting the keyboard.
• microlazeconfig.cpp - This defines the main function which reads in the previous values of a config file if it exists, prompts the user to change the values, and writes the new config file.
• microlazeoffset.cpp - This defines the main function which prompts the user for the origin and point along the X axis and writes the offset file. To do this, microlazeoffset.cpp creates a Prior object and uses its getXY method.
• resetstage.cpp - This simply creates a Prior object and sends the command "Z" which resets the stage. This is an example of directly sending a command to the stage without using any higher-level utility methods in the Prior class.
• stagexy.cpp - This defines the main function which gets the x,y coordinates from the command line, creates a Prior object and calls reposition (or calls getXY if the user only wants the present position).