RTC
®
5 PC Interface Board
Rev. 1.9 e
8 Advanced Functions for Scan Head and Laser Control
197
8.9 Microvector Commands
The microvector commands micro_vector_abs and
micro_vector_rel (and the corresponding 3D
commands micro_vector_abs_3d and
micro_vector_rel_3d) move the galvanometer
scanners directly to the specified position via a hard
jump. Here, the invoked vectors (unlike normal vector
commands such as jump_abs or mark_abs) do not
get subdivided by the RTC
®
5 into microvectors, but
instead execute within a single 10 µs clock period.
The microvector command parameters
LasOn
and
LasOff
let you individually switch the “laser active”
laser control signals on and off with the specified
delays. The laser delays defined via set_laser_delays
will not be overwritten. They remain valid for normal
jump and mark commands.
Thus, you can mark lines and arcs via microvector
commands to any desired degree of step fineness or
coarseness and even using variable speed, indepen-
dently of the currently defined jump or mark speeds.
You can also thereby vary the line width within a line
under steady laser power or implement a pixel output
mode within the 10 µs raster with variable speed
and/or a curvilinear path.
Notes
• Though microvector commands may pause for
preceding scanner delays (e.g. the scanner delay
of a preceding jump_abs command), they never
self-initiate new scanner delays.
• You are solely responsible for appropriately
parameterizing the microvectors: you must set
appropriately small microvectors for to-be-
marked lines, arcs or pixel images and you must
incorporate any needed scanner delays to
compensate for tracking error (e.g. by inserting
several microvector commands with identical
target coordinates). Avoid overlaps between
LaserOn and LaserOff. Furthermore, you
shouldn’t define new laser delays as long as the
previous one hasn’t yet expired (see page 107,
but new definition simultaneous to expiry is OK).
• Unlike normal vectors, microvector commands:
– do not microvectorize vectors, but rather exe-
cute the vectors with a single hard jump
– do not take into account wobbel motions
enabled via set_wobbel or set_wobbel_mode
(see page 167) (but also don’t deactivate them)
– do not take Sky Writing mode into account (see
page 113) (but also don’t deactivate it).
• In contrast (as with normal vectors), the following
corrections (in the listed order, if previously
configured) are taken into account for
microvector commands when calculating output
values from the specified coordinate values:
– If the command was called from within an
“AbsCall” subroutine, then the supplied coordi-
nate values will receive an offset (based on the
current coordinates at the time of the subrou-
tine call – also see page 77).
– If a Processing-on-the-fly correction was
enabled via set_fly_x, set_fly_y, set_fly_rot or
set_fly_x_pos, set_fly_y_pos,
set_fly_rot_pos, then it will be applied to the X
and Y coordinates (see page 177).
– If a coordinate transformation was defined for
aligning the scan system to the image field (see
set_matrix, set_offset, set_scale, set_angle
and corresponding list commands), then it will
be applied to the X and Y coordinates (see
page 161).
– The Z coordinates of set_offset_xyz or
set_offset_xyz_list and defocusing via
set_defocus or set_defocus_list will be taken
into account.
– Coordinate values exceeding the real image
field range (into the virtual image field range,
see page 120) will be clipped to the edge of the
20-bit real image field range.
– Correction tables assigned via select_cor_table
or select_cor_table_list will result in 2D or 3D
image field correction (see page 120).
– If automatic self-calibration was enabled via
auto_cal
(see page 199), then a compensating
“Gain” and “Offset” will be taken into account
when calculating output values (gain and offset
correction can also be specified via set_hi, see
page 201).
Overflowing output values will, if necessary, be
clipped to the edge of the maximum possible
range of values.