What's the difference between stepper motors and servo control? ANSWER What safety compliance is the CheckMate Lasers under? ANSWER What is the minimum precaution of operating the CheckMate Lasers? ANSWER What is the requirement of exhaustion system for air filter? ANSWER What is the operating temperature for CO2 glass laser tubes? ANSWER Can the CheckMate Lasers be used under Windows 3.x? ANSWER Can the CheckMate Lasers be used under the Windows 2000/XP? ANSWER Can the CheckMate Lasers be used under the Windows Vista? ANSWER Can the CheckMate Lasers be used under the Windows 7? ANSWER Can the CheckMate Lasers be used under the Macintosh? ANSWER What is the difference between Raster and Vector? ANSWER Can you clarify laser industry acronyms? ANSWER

What's the difference between stepper motors and servo control? NOTE: For a detailed non-biased article on Stepper vs. Servo motors GO HERE.

Stepper motors basically mean a motor that moves x amount of steps per inch. In other words assuming 400 steps equals an inch then the motor literally must produce 400 clicks to move an inch. So when a laser engraver that is stepper controlled is told to move down 1 inch and left 1 inch from home position it is basically going to click 400 times down and 400 times to the left from it's home location.

Servo control basically means a motor that moves to a specific coordinate. In other words when your computer tells a servo controlled laser systems to move 1 inch down and 1 inch over from home position the control unit goes exactly there based on a coordinate location, i.e., x=1000/y=1000, irregardless of where the laser engraver head is currently located.

What safety compliance approval does CheckMate Lasers fall under? CheckMate Laser systems are FDA (Food and Drug Administration), CDRH (Center for Devices and Radiological Health) and CE (Conformité Européenne [European health & safety product label]) approved.

What is the minimum precaution of operating the CheckMate Lasers? Our equipment is designed to be safe even with the lid open, the door open or the panel removed. Our equipment has safety switches that automatically prevent the laser tube from firing when these items are opened. In order to operate the machine with these items opened the customer must consciously defeat the switches themselves, hence preventing any type of accidents from occurring. Working glasses or goggles are recommended when maintaining the machine, but not necessary as you should never maintain the machine while on, especially while running.

What is the ventilation exhaust system requirement?

The small format CheckMate Lasers: Pawn, Knight & Bishop ship with a basic laser mounted fan for ventilation which is more than sufficient for these smaller sized engraving tables.

Mid-sized format CheckMate Lasers, such as Rook are better handled with an exhaust blower rated at least 650 CFM or higher. While the large format CheckMate Lasers; Queen & King are better handled with 850 CFM rating or higher due to to the massive interior these laser cabinets provide.

Large format open bed CheckMate Lasers, such as the GrandMaster series should have a top mounted hose or underneath very high volume CFM exhaust blower (GrandMaster Series typically have connections for two exhaust blowers) in the neighborhood of 1000 CFM or higher.

Because the laser beam only creates dust, fumes and smoke there is nearly zero weight of residue for the exhaust blower to ventilate outdoors, the higher CFM is simply to address the area of each sized laser. It is highly recommended to pipe the exhaust end of the exhaust blower out of the working room to outdoors.

What is the operating temperature for CO2 glass laser tubes?

• Temperature Range: 32°-113°F | 0°-45°C
• Operating Humidity Range: 35°-70°F | 95°-158°C

Can the CheckMate Lasers be used under Windows 3.x? NO! This operating system platform is no longer supported on the newer laser systems or even by Microsoft (the developer) itself.

Can the CheckMate Lasers be used under the Windows 2000/XP? YES! Windows 2k/XP is highly recommended and has received the most attention from our R&D department. Our software engineers produced a stable, powerful, feature-rich Windows 2000/XP compliant driver. This platform being a true 32-bit operating system with strict rules requires much programming, fine-tuning, and tweaking to get operational, stable and reliable.

Can the CheckMate Lasers be used under the Windows Vista? YES, but HIGHLY discouraged! The problem is in the operating system itself. Obviously if you have a computer that shipped with Windows Vista then CheckMate Lasers will indeed function under this operating system, unfortunately all the issues and compatibility problems that have plagued this operating system since its release will no doubt cause CheckMate Laser systems issues as well. So yes, although CheckMate Laser systems will operate under Windows Vista, we highly discourages its use (its simply a support nightmare).

Can the CheckMate Lasers be used under the Windows 7? YES! We have successfully been using Windows 7 since the beta release in Mid 2009 and have had absolutely no problems utilizing this operating system to operate CheckMate Laser systems. This is a HIGHLY recommended upgrade as this is essentially an OS with the compatibility of XP, the stability of NT, the features of Vista in a very fast, reliable, stable operating system. Microsoft finally got it right! You can be sure with multiple engineers we are continually adding new functions and features to make your laser experience simple, profitable and fun.

Can the CheckMate Lasers be used under the Macintosh? NO! As of yet we don't have enough demand to write a Macintosh version of our software driver. If the market changes and the demand increases then our software engineers will seriously reconsider adding a Macintosh compliant driver to our operating system support.

What is the difference between Raster and Vector? Raster images are composed of dots & Vector images are composes of lines.

• • Raster, or bitmap, graphics produce images as grids of individually defined pixels
  • Vector graphics produce images using mathematically generated points, lines, and shapes.

Raster: Working with digital camera photos, scanned images, and the like you will be working within a raster/bitmap format that is ideal for high detail, quality image output. These are best modified with Photoshop, Photopaint or similiar image manipulation software.

Vector: The clean lines and smooth curves of vector graphics make them an obvious choice for logos, drawings, and other artwork that will appear in print, particularly with lasers. Also, the use of mathematical equations enables vector graphics to be scaled and manipulated repeatedly to virtually any size without distortion.

Can you clarify some of the acronyms found in the laser industry? Although there are numerous acronyms you may encounter in your laser laser system research the following are the most common.

• • LECME ... Laser Engraving Cutting Marking Etching systems
  • XM8 ... CheckMate
  • Pass-Thru ... Ability to open front/back or sides to allow large material pass through
  • LASER ... Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
  • CO₂ ... Ideal for organic materials, not metal
  • YAG ... Ideal for metal marking, not organic materials
  • Fiber ... Ideal for metal marking, not organic materials
  • AC ... Alternating Current
  • DC ... Direct Current
  • LCD ... Liquid Crystal Display
  • lb ... Pound
  • kg ... Kilogram
  • LPT ... Line PrinTer
  • Comm ... Communications
  • USB ... Universal Serial Bus
  • AMP ... Ampere
  • V ... Volt
  • mm ... MilliMeter
  • SIMM ... Single In-Line Memory Modules
  • MB ... MegaByte
  • dpi ... Dots Per Inch
  • ppi ... Pulses Per Inch
  • 3D ... Three Dimensional
  • TM ... TradeMark
  • © ... Copyright
  • FOB ... i.e., "Shipping FOB Las Vegas, NV, USA" = Buyer pays shipping cost from Las Vegas, NV, USA, and takes responsibility for the goods when the goods leave the seller's premises.