How to operate A1 Pro properly - Focus / Laserchange / Calibrate

Creality Falcon Creality Falcon
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Hi Folks,

at first, I am a Newbie to this Pro-Laser-Thing. I operated a Neje Master 2 before and I feel quite confident with Computers and Engraving at all, but I know I still have to learn a lot to operate my brand new Falcon A1 Pro properly.

Here are my Problems and my Steps I already did.

  1. Stats with Calibration of the Laser and the Camera.
    To adjust the laser head (20W blue) on the wooden board, I used the supplied three-stage metal piece before.

At daytime i put the Calibrationcard (the white paper with the dots) in my A1 Pro and got most of my Numbers up to 70+ something. So far so good.

I used the piece of wood provided to laser mark the centers of the circles. It worked well. I thought.

  1. Now I replaced the laser head with a 2W IR laser because I wanted to engrave stainless steel shopping cart release buttons. I adjusted the Laser again with the metal piece.

  2. I placed my shopping cart key on the wooden board from which I had cut out a piece. It fit perfectly on the wood. I took a photo and placed my text and graphic appropriately on the shopping cart key. But when I let the laser trace the outline of the planned engraving, it deviated by about 5 to 8 millimeters from the photographed position.
    Then I changed the engraving height to 5 millimeters, which I had measured beforehand. I took a new photo and placed my text and graphic again. However, the border deviated again by about 5 millimeters.

After recalibrating the 2W IR laser head with the metal piece, I tried to laser engrave the shopping cart release. Even at 100% power, nothing was visible on the shopping cart release—not even a scratch. In the videos, engraving is done quite easily on a comparable metal piece at 100% power and 200 mm feed rate.

I also used the autofocus repeatedly in between. I also reset the Z-axis and used the autofocus over and over. None of these steps helped. I watched many YouTube Reviews before purchasing. No one mentioned any problems with focusing or deviation during laser cutting.

Therefore, I am sure that I am making a mistake in the operation.

Now my specific questions (so far):

  1. How is the laser head mounted correctly? Do I have to lock the laser head into place at the bottom of the z-axis, or can I secure it somewhere in the middle?
  2. Do I have to recalibrate with the 3-step metal piece after every material change or is this an “emergency-Calibration-Tool”.
  3. Do I have to calibrate separately for IR lasers and 20W blue lasers?

I would like to apologize in advance for any questions I may ask that seem silly. I hope I haven’t forgotten any important information. Thank you in advance for all your helpful information and support.

Best regards

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  1. The module is flush on top with the carriage when inserted, fastened and fully moved up. If it’s like that it should be ok.
  2. The autofocus should do it just fine, but some pieces might not be suitable or if you’re using a rotary roller you can use the manual focusing gauge. Or just to check if the autofocus got it right. Indeed the 2W IR module is way more sensitive to the correct focus height.
  3. Regarding the X/Y position? I guess your problem with the alignment mainly comes from the height and the way the camera sees it (parallax effect), you have to calibrate for each height in Falcon Design Space.