Notes

Material requirements

• Use flat materials without warping edges.
• xTool S1 automatic conveyor feeder can transport hard materials, flexible and thin materials(such as kraft paper), as well as soft and thick materials (such as cork board and EVA foam board).
  • To process a hard material, place it on the conveyor rails.
  • To process a flexible and thin material, use the material pressing rod instead of the conveyor rails.
• To process a soft and thick material, stick PET tape on its back before placing it on the conveyor rails.
• When a material is placed on the conveyor rails, ensure that the hanging part out of the rails is no longer than 30 cm.
  The conveyor feeder can support 8 pairs of conveyor rails in total. You can add at most 6 pairs of conveyor rails to the convey feeder (3 pairs on each side). With different numbers of conveyor rails installed, the supported material length varies.

Number of pairs of conveyor rails （An equal number of conveyor rails are installed on each side）	Conveyable width (W) and thickness (H)	Conveyable length (L) (including 30 cm of suspended length out of the rails)	Processing length (P)
2 pairs (original conveyor rails)	65 mm ≤ W ≤ 545 mm 0 mm ＜ H ≤ 14 mm	0 mm ＜ L ≤ 1070 mm	0 mm ＜ P ≤ 820 mm
4 pairs		0 mm ＜ L ≤ 1690 mm	0 mm ＜ P ≤ 1440 mm
6 pairs		0 mm ＜ L ≤ 2310 mm	0 mm ＜ P ≤ 2060 mm
8 pairs		0 mm ＜ L ≤ 2930 mm	0 mm ＜ P ≤ 2680 mm

Device requirement

To process materials that are too long for xTool S1, you need to use xTool S1 with the automatic conveyer feeder and the riser base that supports the conveyer feeder. 

Software requirement

Only XCS that runs on the computer supports the Conveyor feeder mode. XCS which runs on mobile phones or iPads does not support this mode.

1. Place the material

(1) Turn the upper knob counterclockwise to raise the pinch rollers.

(2) Place the material into the conveyor feeder. Ensure that the side edges of the material are parallel to the vertical grid lines and do not intersect with the pinch roller.

(3) Turn the upper knob clockwise to lower the pinch rollers to press the material in place.

You can use the lower knob to slightly adjust the position of the material if needed. Rotate the lower knob clockwise to move the material forward, and counterclockwise to move the material backward.

2. Open or create a project

You can open a project to start processing or create a new project. If you create a new project, you need to design patterns and set parameters from scratch.

• Open a project
  On the home screen of XCS, click Open from computer. In the pop-up window, select a file of the xTool Creative Space Project (. xcs) type and click Open.
  

• Create a new project
  On the home screen of XCS, click + New project.
  

3. Select the processing mode and material name

(1) On the top of XCS, click the name of the current processing mode, and then select Use conveyor feeder as the processing mode.

(2) In the top-right corner, click User-defined material, select the name of your material, and click Confirm.

(3) Turn on or off Laser module position based on your need.

4. Set the laser focus

xTool S1 has a distance sensor, which can measure the distance between the laser module and the material surface. You can also manually measure and calculate the distance between the laser module and the material surface, and input the obtained values into XCS. 

During processing, xTool S1 will perform auto-focus based on the Distance parameter.

• Auto meausre

(1) Move the laser module over the material. Ensure that the locating spot falls on the surface of the material.

(2) In the top-right corner of XCS, click the Auto-measure icon , and xTool S1 will automatically measure the distance from the laser module to the material surface.

• Manual measure

(1) Use a ruler to measure the distance from the surface of the material to the top of the laser module.

(2) Subtract 100 mm (3.937 inches) from the measured value from step (1), and input the calculated value as Distance in the top-right corner of XCS.

5. Design objects for processing

• About the canvas

The canvas is divided into two parts: the grey area and the editing area. The grey area corresponds to the area inside xTool S1 where the laser module does not go during processing. The laser module works only in the area above the short rails. Therefore, do not place elements in the grey area, or the elements will not be processed.

(1) Use the tools to the left side of the canvas to create objects. You can import images, insert shapes, enter text, or draw vector graphics.

(2) Select the objects to further edit them using the tools above the canvas.

6. Set parameters for processing

Select objects on the canvas first. On the right side of XCS, set parameters for the selected objects.

Note:
You need to set parameters for every object. A missed object may fail to be processed.
The parameters that can be set for bitmap objects and vector objects are different. You can select multiple objects of the same type and set parameters for them at once.

7. Preview the processing area

You can preview the processing area on the material by framing. Framing means laser dots walk along the border of the processing objects on the material. Take the following steps to start framing:

(1) In the bottom-right corner of the software, click the icon next to the Framing button to set the speed for framing.

Note: You can click the arrow buttons to control the movement of the laser module. The other three parameters allow you to configure how the laser module moves with every tap on an arrow button.
XY speed (mm/s): The moving speed of the laser module in X and Y directions.
XY distance (mm): The moving distance of the laser module with each tap on an XY arrow button.
Z distance (mm): The moving distance of the laser module with each tap on a Z arrow button.

(2) Depending on the laser module you use, wear a pair of safety goggles that can shield your eyes from the laser beams (blue light laser beams: 455 nm; infrared laser beams: 1064 nm).

(3) Click Framing in the software. Press the button on xTool S1 to start framing. The laser spot will move along the boundary of the processing pattern on the material so that you can preview the processing area.

(4) After you confirm that the processing area is proper, click Framing completed in XCS. If the area is not ideal, you can adjust the material position or adjust the element positions in the software, and then preview the processing area again.

8. Start processing

(1) In the bottom-right corner of the software, click Go to process.

(2) Preview the processing pattern and path.

On the bottom-left corner, click the button, and XCS will show you the processing path.

(3) In the upper-right corner of XCS, click Start. 

(4) Wear a pair of laser safety goggles. Then, close the lid of xTool S1 and press the button to start processing.