Professional Engraving Systems

Viper Communication Suite - Advanced Feature Summary
April 2008

The engraving industry is filled with abbreviations and acronyms for "special" components and software packages. You have likely heard the term "Viper" over the last few years and have probably even heard the term VCS. VCS stands for "Viper Communication Suite." VCS is used in conjunction with both Xenetech Rotary systems and Laser Systems. so what we are about to show you will be available to you, no matter what Xenetech system you have.

VCS is more than just the upgrade from the Viperdriver and Jobserver software suites.
In previous articles, we have discussed Ethernet connection as the replacement for the Xenetech APU board as the interface to the PC. In this article the programmable and updateable touchpad was introduced as replacement for the pendant and toggle switches along with an introduction to job preview.

These are all part of a long list of standard VCS features, including:

• Microsoft® Vista™ compatibility
• Job Preview on touchpad
• Unlimited file buffer for job recall
• Call and run jobs from the touchpad
• Job Reporter for logging and analysis job and machine statistics
• Live communication with all machine connections

Let's take another step forward and examine a few of the advanced or lesser-known features of the Viper Communication Suite.

Braille is always a viable and timely subject for engravers and sign makers. Changes in standards and additional styles always keep us watching for changes and additions to implement, but sometimes changes come in the form of simple technological improvements. This time, the braille insertion tool which has become widely available to our industry has been made attachable to your Xenetech rotary engraver and VCS specifically considers this tool in the built-in braille-insertion mode. Run the first pass of the job and cut your braille. Turn on braille insertion mode and when the job replays, your braille rasters are inserted perfectly into their resting location. Since you can simply raise the attachment the supplied bracket, it does not even have to be removed, and this means that you do not have to determine a tool offset every time you would like to use it. Simply turn on inserter mode, lower the tool, and press play.

VCS also gives any Xenetech Rotary Engraver an additional option for job proofing. We have seen users take advantage of printable proofs, ink-writers, and even running the job with the cutter remaining in the "UP" position. Now, VCS will control a diode pointer which can be used by VCS for both proofing engraving location and positioning material with more accuracy and precision.

In addition to positioning by pointer, VCS has enhanced the touchpad jog controls.
While standard run mode allows for jogging the machine in horizontal, vertical, and diagonal moves along the table, a simple click on the micro-job button will lock out diagonal jog movements allowing an operator to more easily achieve exact head placement.

There is yet another touchpad-accessible feature including for proofing. Irrespective of job setup, an operator can simply select the "Bounding Box" mode from the touchpad and the machine will keep the spindle in the "up" position which moving out to the engraving area and showing the operator the engraving extents to ensure that everything is positioned properly to engrave on the target piece.

Use the Job Queue module to create a play list of jobs to engrave and the number of times to repeat each. This is a great tool for anyone that wants to achieve certain results but does not necessarily want to take the time to create or modify a job with engrave order and engrave-by color data, multi-pass options, or anything to combine many simple steps into a more complex job. Simply take your .jbs machine files, .cnc files, or HPGL .plt files, load them into the job queue and press START. The "pending jobs" queue can be found inside the Job Console application window under the "EXECUTION" menu.

Jobs can also be stacked in a queue from any application which creates the .jbs machine files. In XGW, you would simply need to edit the Xenetech.ini file and set the RandomFileNames= to a value of 1. If you are using CorelDraw! or another application to run your Xenetech engraver through the Rotary Driver, simply make sure that the .plt file you export is named uniquely. In both cases, names of saved jobs will be unique automatically, and unsaved jobs will be in increments of the default file name, such as "Graphic1.plt, Graphic2.plt, and so on.

Those shop owners and operators that are in charge of equipment maintenance can optionally lock the service menu on the touchpad control and prevent people from "accidentally" adjusting settings that are determined to be "unnecessarily accessible."

In direct response to customer requests, VCS includes 3 user-selectable speed modes available under the Settings | Speed menu on the touchpad:

• In STANDARD mode, you can adjust the engraving speed on-the-fly, even going beyond the maximum engraving speed that was sent over with the job from the computer. In this scenario, all changes occur and the next "Cutter Down." This means the adjustment will not happen in the middle of hatch-filling a single object, like an enclosed character.
• In the default FRO (Feed Rate Override) mode, the on-the-fly speed adjustments are immediate, allowing a user to slow engraving speed even during a single "Cutter Down" operation. In this mode, these speed changes are limited by the max speed sent over with the job from the computer.
• In MANUAL mode, any engraving speed set at the touchpad will be applied to the engraving job, and speeds entered into an engraving setup dialog will be overridden by the speed set at the touchpad. Any on-the-fly speed changes are immediate, just as they are in FRO mode.
  Customers using engrave-by-color would want to select another mode since all job speeds are ignored in this mode.
  

VCS also includes a program called Job Console. This program can be enabled to display on any networked computer screen set to monitor an engraver connection. From inside the console window you can load a job for preview, step-through a job and examine all of the move data, and even execute the job from the computer. For years, we have seen our customers set up multiple-plate jobs on their engravers and leave for lunch or the evening, and return to the office to see a completed job waiting for them. Now you can have an engraver on a shop floor and watch the real-time progress from the computer in a manager's office to really maximize user efficiency.

And if that is just not good enough, you can even tell VCS to send an email to your computer or cell phone when the engraving job is done!

 

 

 

 

Long-time Xenetech Graphic Workstation users should be familiar with the paradigm of "Engraver 1 and Engraver 2." VCS allows all defined machine connections to seamlessly integrate with the XGW "To Engraver" output dialog. Now, simply select the name of the machine you want to perform the engraving. Take it a step further by naming the connections something intuitive, like "Front Room Laser" and "Back Room Laser."

While there is still more to be discovered in the new Xenetech Viper Communication Suite, we are not sitting still in development. Next issue, we'll show you our new color touchpad!!!

 

 

 

 

(Click for larger image)

 

You can click here to download the VCS application.

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