Setting Up Your OMTech Polar
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 พ.ย. 2022
- 5% Discount Code: LASERGUYS5OFF
Follow this video to quickly set up your OMTech Polar with a direct USB connection using Lightburn Software
Check out the Polar at
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OMTech Polar Users Group
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Thanks for the video and the discount code. What version of Lightburn does the Polar use?
Thanks for the cool run down! Looks like a fun unit.
No prob!
I can't thank you enough for this video! It helped me a lot!
Thank you. Can’t wait to own this
Hope you find it helpful
Thanks for the informative video! It helped me with the Polar's cousin - the G machine! Very similar machines.
Glad it helped!
Thank you, only had my laser for 2 days and struggling. I am ready to tackle it again.
Your videos are great! Thank you.
Glad you like them!
I been waiting on this video 😊
Sorry it took so long.
@@EdmondsWoodshop it’s okay . I know your business too🙂. Ordered mines yesterday I can’t wait to get it.
Thanks for the video, it was an incredible help and extremely well done! QUESTION: In performing two tasks for the same design (ex. a cut and an engrave), when I set the correct Z-axis for both tasks, it performs the engrave correctly, but once it starts the cut the Z-axis reverts all the way up. Any clue what I'm doing wrong?
So I've been researching lasers for quite some time! It's very overwhelming! Thank you for these videos because I was led to the Polar the other day, then found you today! I'm really leaning towards this one! Would you say it's a pretty good "starter" type machine for a newbie? Mostly hobby crafter, but would eventually like to maybe do some markets or craft shows with the items I make! Thanks for your insightful videos! (Side note, we're in Michigan too!)
Yes, it would make an excellent starter since it comes completely ready out of the box. No alignment needed, no additional accessories with the exception of lightburn software and a thermometer. I have a few complaints. The noise. It's labeled as being under 70 dB, but my phone clocked it at 75 -78 dB. That's loud. I plan on removing the internal fan and using solely the inline fan. Next, there is no thermometer. I wont be able to monitor the temperature of the coolant. Most co2 lasers function between 15-25 degrees Celsius with an ideal temperature range around 21 degrees Celsius. If I'm running the laser for hours on end, I believe I would be raising the temperature considerable and I'd like to know where I stand. I plan on installing a digital thermometer.
@@EdmondsWoodshop will you be filming and posting this?
Can you turn off the internal fan through Lightburn, like you would if you attached the vent to an air filter, like in Glowforge, to minimize noise and just use the inline fan? I'm looking to buy the Polar, I'll be venting through a window and I have a very small room. Thanks for any feedback.
Can you go over how to set up ethernet connection via router/switch and configuring IP address with this OMtech Polar laser out of the box (before adding the hand held controller)?
Hi nice video would love one of these but I don’t think they’re available here in the uk 🙄. Just a note, I think the remote interlock connector is there so that you can add extra E-stops remotely. It provides somewhere you can break into the stop circuit, you mentioned they included another e-stop in the kit, run a cable mount the stop in a convenient place.
Oh no! OMTech collaborated with Gweike so the Gweike Cloud is virtually the same thing. Perhaps another option?
As far as the e-stop, I actually installed one in place of the key control in the front
Here’s the video:
Adding Emergency Stop Switch to the OMTech Polar
th-cam.com/video/7jtdieZti3g/w-d-xo.html
Thank you so much for making this video. Itvreally helped me get the first part set up however, I’m trying to get lightburn to recognize the Controller part of the setup. Nothing is working. 😮
Glad it helped. Did you happen to have a diode laser before using lightburn? If you did, you must buy the upgrade from gcode to DSP.
If you didn’t have a diode before, make sure you checked the box to download the drivers with lightburn. If you’re unsure, the fastest way is to uninstall and reinstall
Thanks for the video. I have OmTech K40. I changed the controller so I can use the lightburn. I also added the camera. I love the machine. I've been using it for two years. My machine still uses the same tube. I never change it. I can't believe it lasts that long. The one thing I don't like about my laser is the work area is too small. I'm thinking to buy this one. Can you make a video using the camera? Thanks in advance!
Absolutely. Totally plan on it
hey thanks for the really helpful info. Question - are you finding that the unit fully vents the smoke out the ducting or is smoke leaking out into the room? Did you remove the stock fan yet and what was the outcome ? Thanks very kindly!
I chose to remove my stock fan. When the in-line fan produces 352 cfm of airflow and the stock fan produces only 99 cfm then there’s going to be a bottleneck.
Effective ventilation will also be determined by length of duct run, how many turns you have (versus a straight run), and the use of rigid versus flexible ducting.
@@EdmondsWoodshop Hey thanks so much for the replay - so after removing the stock fan there is no smoke at all coming out of the unit and into the room?
You’ll always have some residual smell when cutting/engraving wood. But I don’t get a build up of smoke in my room
Bonjour, j'ai une question quand je fait mon calculs 17-3=14jai ma piece qui est fort proche de ma buse , jaimerais savoir si cest plus precis d'utiliser la règle de hauteur ou de faire le calculs ? Sachant que parfois ca touche la piece ?
Davance je vous remercie .
Cordialement
Stevens
Do you have some more information on how to focus the laser? I am looking to buy this for my wife and that is the one major unknown I have. Great video!
So I understand, which part in the video where I talk about setting your focal distance didnt make sense so I can clarify? The laser doesn’t have true autofocus in the sense that it automatically adjusts its height based off the thickness of the material. It’s up to you to set that distance. At the 6:26 mark I talk about setting the focal distance using the simple equation 17 minus the thickness of your material and entering that number in to the distance offset box. So for example, 17-3mm=14mm offset. You put 14 in the box and your laser is focused.
@@EdmondsWoodshop I was really just curious about the aspect of “autofocus” since that is mentioned about this machine. I went back and watched what you said at the time stamp and I fully understand now. I will just have to help my better half with some of the set up. Again, great work and I look forward to seeing more content like this. Thank you for the quick response.
Did everything you did and using the 3 mm sheet that came with and it didn’t cut all the way through. Engraved beautifully though
I found the basswood cuts nice and smooth speed 30/ max power 45%
Just wondering you have had your Polar for a bit, have you considered upgrading the air assist? Seems like it would improve cutting????
They’ve recently changed the air assist to be mounted underneath the dust shroud so it’s not circulating dirty air. If you use the American Photonics magnetic lens then you won’t be able to use higher than 15 psi air pressure because the lens will pop off.
I get clean cuts as it is. It’s the engraving that needs some help. Overall I’m not mad at my stock air assist setup. Not sure if it’s quite worth the upgrade. I may end up doing it if people want to see it
Thanks, I have the compressor and was really thinking I could improve cutting depth. I have not changed out the nozzle yet, looking at it though, seems like they have reduced the price slightly $103 there abouts AP
Great video. I only have a diode laser, and in Lightburn I can set the power to 2-3% and then fire / frame with the laser and I see the laser dot move around, is this possible with the Polar?
Unfortunately not. This is something only available with the diode lightburn license (gcode). Keep in mine, if you move up to a co2 laser with ruida controller you'll have to upgrade your gcode license to the DSP license.
thank you!@@EdmondsWoodshop
If the tray is removed can you increase your work area? That pass through slot looks rather small and seemingly impossible to pass anything over 1/4” which makes me skeptical picking one up. Thanks
The tray can be removed to use the passthrough, however be mindful that there is a pressure switch that will disable the laser once the tray is out. There is a toggle switch next to the rotary switch that will disable to the tray's pressure switch. The rear passthrough definitely wont take anything over 6mm (1/4 inch). It is a thin opening. Hope that answers your question.
@@EdmondsWoodshop that’s what that second switch is for, got it. Thanks for the quick response and for the video
Thank you for the wonderful and informative videos. I did this test and I am concerned because my numbers are quite a bit different. I max out at 22 and that is at 75%. I have only had this machine for a week but I feel worried about this.
This is why it important to do a power line test. You never know how your laser is calibrated against others. 22 mA is actually pretty common amongst 50w tubes. It probably actually recommended not to go over that amount.
Thank you
Hi, Are there mirrors to be aligned?
Mirrors are pre-aligned. They even include little test piece to show that its hitting perfectly.
I watched you polar set video and it was very helpful but do I need to calibrate and hook up ethernet because it looked like you were able to go straight to doing projects. I'm new to lasers and am having a hard time. it's been a bit frustrating getting started
I didn’t cover everything in the video. Just enough to get you started with the USB connection. You don’t need an Ethernet connection unless you wanted to.
OMTech’s TH-cam channel has other videos to get you started with the Ethernet. The problem is that the polar is it’s own network so when you connect to it wirelessly you’l lose the ability to access the internet. A member in my polar users group posted how to get around that.
facebook.com/groups/573428424122143/?ref=share&mibextid=S66gvF
@@EdmondsWoodshop thank you
I see you have this laser in a garage type of room. I'm in Ohio so it gets pretty cold in the winter here. Is a garage a bad place to keep/use your laser because of the high temperature fluctuations? Thanks!
This was actually temporary while I made room in my laser shop inside. The polar comes with a propylene glycol coolant which prevents freezing (I don’t know the freezing point). I’m in Michigan and we had a few freezing nights so far and I’ve been good to go everyday. With any other co2 laser, if you want to store in the garage, you’ll need to introduce preventative measures against freezing such as rv antifreeze (main ingredient is propylene glycol) in the chiller and/or adding an in-line heater. You can use an aquarium in line heater or buy a heater specifically for lasers called an Afterburner from LightObject.
If you join our Facebook group we cover things like this every day.
@@EdmondsWoodshop Cool, thanks! What is the name of the FB group?
I installed a split mini system for my garage to stabilize the temps. That was a pretty big effort, but well worth it.
@@oldNavyJZ Thanks! I'll look into that.
Hi! How do I change my focal to work without the black honeycomb? My perfume bottles are 1.1in tall, so 17mm does not cut it. Please help!
Do you have the acrylic ruler that comes in the tool kit? There should be a notch with a 50.8mm mark on there. You rest that notch on the black laser head plate next to the lens and low the laser head until the bottom of the ruler touches the top of the work piece. That's how you know youre in focus.
Great video!
I'm new here, I bought my own polar and want to try it for the first time doing your paw print file but my air assist doesn't come on when I turn the my laser and I read the manual and it says it should be on, what can I do?
You have to make sure the AIR ASSIST is toggle green in your cut/layer setttings
@EdmondsWoodshop it is on on lightburn, I thought it was supposed to come on automatically when turning on the machine, also the exhaust fan doesn't come on, it only spins when I turn the duck fan on. I was thinking maybe it comes on when I start the job but the manual says otherwise, maybe it's just not working and need to contact omtech
What type of license of light burn you need?
The DSP license
Just watched this and tried that power line test because I need higher power settings to cut 6mm and all my numbers are all lower then yours. I hit 25ma at 90% ,16ma at 60% and, 40% is 8ma. Working on videos about it now. Did you have a hard time with the camera recognizing the dot pattern in the corners leaving them fish eyed. Thanks for the video.
The good news is that yours is not that far off from mine in regard to the powerline test. Is you beam attenuator knob turned fully clockwise?
With the camera, its a pain in the butt. If you tape the dot pattern to card stock, and use white board stock to lay on your honeycomb bed, it'll give you a better score. I plan on doing a video in it soon. There were a couple people in our OMTech polar group on facebook that have done it successfully and posted video about it.
Link is in the description.
@@EdmondsWoodshop Thanks. I have it turned up. I had to go with a 5 x 7 cardstock to get it half right. Trying to get an answer from China if a config file exists so buyers don't have to waste 3 hours trying to make the feature usable.
Yo bro, would you mind maybe making a video with cast acrylic. Cutting it, scoring, and engraving. I'll buy the acrylic...
I’ll put it on the list. I currently want to go over WiFi setup, rotary, and then testing materials
@@EdmondsWoodshop dope. Looking forward to all the vids
Can I adjust the attenuator knob so that 100% in lightburn is 69% of the tubes max mA output?
Absolutely. You’re just going to have to do a couple test runs until you get it right.
I'm thinking of getting one. How loud is it with the fan? It says less than 70db on the info, but is that with the fan going, too?
Its annoyingly loud in my opinion. My first thought was, I have to remove the internal fan. The internal fan is about 4 inches (like a computer fan). Since there's an inline fan included with the laser you should need the internal fan. The inline fan produced 350 CFM of airflow on its high setting. If the stock fan doesnt produce that much (which it isn't) then it will actually bottle neck the airflow.
I downloaded a dB app on my phone and record the sound with the lid open and phone inside the laser. It was 74 dB. Outside with the lid shut it was under 70 dB, but still very loud in my opinion. My next video will show the removal of the fan. Its actually pretty easy.
Yep, I agree with Edmonds Woodshop, these Polar 350's are annoyingly loud with both fans going, and the stepper motors, while cutting/engraving add to that loudness. Aside from that, seems to be the only negative I have to say about them. They're amazing machines!
My inline fan kit came with a "control box'-looking thing...mostly black face with 5 white buttons across the bottom (fast, slow, timing +/-, off), place for 2 AAA batteries, but no apparent way to connect it to anything. Anybody know what this is for & how to install it?
@@carlwood846 that's actually the inline fan controller. Put batteries in it and that's it. Button on the far left is high to the right of it, is low.. Button on far right turns it off. It also has timer buttons. In the middle. There's nothing to install, some people use the double sided tape to stick it on the machine, but I just have mine by the computer.
Are there any videos for setting up the polar 350 for dummies.. How to install the rotary axis, lens, the water, how to open parts of the machine to do the things that needs to be done????? This video is only shows how to do the air duct and software..
I have a maintenance video that shows how to remove the cover and care for the lens. I also have a laser nozzle video to help you pick an upgraded nozzle. I don’t have a rotary setup video at this moment.
Take a look at my channel
Hey Ed! I just want to ask about Omtech and how their affiliate program works. I just joined a couple of days ago and still haven't heard from them, do I need to make a sale first? Please I need some information if you can provide any!
Thanks in Advance!
My name isn’t Ed. It’s Cam.
OMTech would be who you’d need to reach out to regarding their program.
Hello, I have a question. So do we need to do a ramp test on the polar? Because I was trying to do a test on the material. But it's not engraving. But will cut, so I was told to do a ramp test😢. I was so going on and on.
Technically you dont need to do a ramp test on these machines are they're "Supposed" to be ready out of the box. According the omtech, their magic formula is 17 minus the thickness of you material (in millimeters). So if you're working with 1/8 inch material, that's the same as 3mm. So 17-3 = 14mm. You'd enter that 14 number in the offset distance box and hit the down arrow in lightburn. It should automatically adjust after that. I highly recommend joining our FB group with 20k members. Its linked in the description. You can always tag me in your posts and I help many people there.
@@EdmondsWoodshop Thank you ! I appreciate you responding back to me. I also appreciate you videos😊
How does the passthrough work?
It has a 1/4 inch or 6 mm slot in the back. Lightburn has the capability to create registration marks to line up any design once you finish with the first part of the design and move onto the second part
Search Lightburn passthrough.....and it works the same way, just with thinner pieces of material
On Omtechs Polar page, one of its features is AUTOFOCUS LASER HEAD. I noticed in your video here you basically did it manually. Is this something you can demonstrate in a future video?
from their site, "OMTECH POLAR does not need to adjust the focal length by hand, saving much time and has higher accuracy."
Traditional autofocus uses a plunger/probe to touch down on the surface of the material and automatically adjust the focal distance. The polar doesn’t do that. It’s not true autofocus where it manipulates it’s height automatically based off where the material surface is. It requires you to know the thickness of the material where you must calculate the offset using the simple equation 17- material thickness. In my video I use 3 mm material so I enter a 14 mm offset. This isn’t saying my focal distance is 14 mm but rather my offset when the z is in the top position is 14 mm. So I’m not manually adjusting the head like I do on my 80w but merely entering an offset in lightburn and it automatically adjusts
@@EdmondsWoodshop In my copy of lightburn, the distance field is greyed out. I can move the head up and down but I cant enter the value. So I assumed it was because of autofocus.
My problem is when I push the Focuz Z it goes up then immediatly back down so I can never get a distance, even set to distance 0
Do you have continuous selected? I’ve also found a better way to focus using the focus ruler in your tool kit. I recommend joining our FB users group (link is in the description) to see what I mean
This is not in their European stores. How can I get it in Hungary?
Unfortunately you might have to go with another brand. Gweike is the manufacturer for the polar and they ship worldwide
I just got mine in yesterday. I have everything hooked up but it still doesn't work. I can get it to frame but once I hit the start button, I get a red ring on the polar. Any ideas?
There’s a pressure switch behind the tray that needs to be depressed as the tray is pushed in. Sometimes it doesn’t depress it all the way, but you can slide the metal bracket over the switch to keep it depressed. Usually this is for when you’re using the rotary. I just keep it on all the time. Let me know if that works for you.
@@EdmondsWoodshop That was the first thing I checked. I saw your other video on that. I can hear the limit switch depress so I know it isn’t that. I also have the front key in and back “key” as well. I can get it to move, frame, etc but once I hit start it goes red. Do you know if there is a way to find what the error is?
No that’s the problem with these. It doesn’t tell you the error. Try unplugging the interlock connector in the back and replugging it. Also try toggling the the pressure switch a few times open and closed. I’ve seen them get sticky.
@@EdmondsWoodshop I tried all that multiple times. Even tried RDworks instead of lightburn, just to make sure that wasn't the issue. I took off the side panels to make sure that nothing was disconnected during shipping but everything looked good. I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I have a call in to Omtech, hopefully they can get it fixed. Thanks, Andrew
@@EdmondsWoodshop I figured it out after I sent that last message. It is a bad limit switch for the drawer. I went into lightburn and disabled it and now it works.
Does it cut acrilic
Absolutely!
@@EdmondsWoodshop thank you .
isn't 26 milliamps kinda low for a 50 watt laser ?
No. That’s actually considerably high. In fact, I’m actually thinking my laser tube power supply may be overdriving it. I reached out to YL and they stated that the recommended working mA range should be 20-21 mA
@@EdmondsWoodshop My 130w laser hits about 20 MA at 80% power, my 75W hits 20 MA at about 80%, my 50W hits 20 MA at about 80%. I guess the same current produces more photonic excitement just with the bigger volume of gas?
I did this, but my polar still wont engrave or cut, the laser just moves over where its supposed to go.