Scanlab RTC 4 Installation And Operation Manual Download Page 12

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RTC

4 PC Interface Board

Rev. 1.3 e
4 Principle Of Operation

innovators for industry

Principle Of Operation

4.1 Software Concept

Figure 3

shows a simple laser marking sample

(1)

The image is made up of straight line segments or
vectors. The RTC

4 software driver provides a set of

jump commands and mark commands for drawing
such vector images. Each of these commands
describes one vector. The RTC

4 software driver

provides arc commands for producing circular arcs.
Additional software commands are available for
controlling the laser during the marking process.

The RTC

4 processes the commands it receives and

precisely transmits the required marking signals to
the scan head using a pre-defined 10

s time raster

and to the laser. The scan head’s galvanometer
scanners accurately position their deflection mirrors
in synchronization with the incoming control signals.
The control signals are transferred to the galva-
nometer scanners digitally in accordance with the
industry standard XY2-100 (or for optical data
transfer in accordance with the XY2-100-O protocol).

Current scan head status information can be queried
via the RTC

4, also in accordance with the XY2-100

(or XY2-100-O) protocol.

The RTC

4 provides various analog and digital signal

outputs freely available for tailoring laser control to
customer-specific requirements. The customer
assumes responsibility for use of these signals.

List Commands And
Control Commands

The RTC

4 command set consists of

control commands

and

list commands

Control commands

are executed immediately.

They are used for controlling execution of lists and for
setting some general parameters. Other control
commands are provided for direct laser and scan
head control.

Before a

list command

can be sent to the RTC

4, a

list must be opened via a control command. List
commands sent to the RTC

4 afterwards are not

executed immediately, but stored in a list buffer. Only
after the list is closed and started, the RTC

4 reads

the commands from the list buffer and processes
them in real time. The RTC

4 provides two list

buffers. Each list buffer can hold one list ("list 1" or
"list 2") with up to 4000 list commands. If an
application needs only one list, then the RTC

4’s

entire memory can be treated like a single list with a
capacity for 8000 commands. In this case, list 1 can
be loaded with up to 8000 commands (but list 2
must not be used). This also makes possible the use
of structured programming.

List commands include jump commands,
mark commands and arc commands, as well as
commands for setting various scanning parameters
such as laser power, jump speed and marking speed.

Some commands exist in two versions: as a list
command and as a control command. Among these
dual-version commands are the I/O commands.

All RTC

4 commands are described in detail

chapter 10 "Commands And Functions"

An overview is provided in

chapter 10.1, page 69

(1) In this manual, laser marking is mentioned only as an example

of the many possible laser materials processing applications.

A laser marking sample

Jump

Mark

ark