Hardware Comparison

Following tables give a quick overview about all hardware available from HALaser Systems. This includes an overview about all electronics and control boards:

The table below compares all controller cards that are available from HALaser Systems. To check out which other, 3rd party controller cards are supported by BeamConstruct laser marking software, please go to the overview-page which lists all supported hardware.

	E1803D	E1701A	HALdrive	E1701D	E1701M
Type	Compact Digital XY2/100(E) and XY2/200(E) Scanner and Laser Controller	Modular Analogue Scanner and Laser Controller	XY3-100 to analogue converter board	Modular Digital XY2/100(E) Scanner and Laser Controller	Motor Controller
Controllable Devices / Interfaces	XY2/100 Scanhead XY2/100E Scanhead XY2/200 Scanhead XY2/200E Scanhead Laser Stepper Motors (requires power driver) RS232/RS485	Analog Scanhead Laser (may require extensions) Stepper Motors (requires Digi I/O Extension Board and power driver)	Analog Scanhead	XY2/100 Scanhead XY2/100E Scanhead Laser (may require extensions) Stepper Motors (requires Digi I/O Extension Board and power driver)	Stepper Motors (requires power driver)
Production state	Active, can be used for new designs	Not recommended for new designs, use E1701D and HALdrive instead	Active, can be used for new designs	Active, can be used for new designs	Active, can be used for new designs
Interface to Scanhead	XY2/100 (digital) D-SUB25 and 26 pin	±2,5..10 V (analogue)	±5..10 V (analogue)	XY2/100 (digital) 26 pin
Interface to control-PC	Ethernet, Micro-USB	Ethernet, Micro-USB	depends on used scanner controller	Ethernet, Mini-USB	Ethernet, Mini-USB
Secondary Scanhead	One via Multi-IO Extension Board		depends on used scanner controller	Up to three via Secondary Head Extension Board
Interface to Laser		may require extension boards	depends on used scanner controller	may require extension boards
Motion Axes	up to four independent axes via integrated digital IOs	up to four independent axes via Digi I/O Extension Board		up to four independent axes via Digi I/O Extension Board	up to four independent axes
Expandable by Extension Boards
Supports stand-alone operation			depends on used scanner controller		manual jog-mode
Supports marking on-the-fly		requires Digi I/O Extension Board	depends on used scanner controller	requires Digi I/O Extension Board
BeamConstruct PRO License included			depends on used scanner controller
Power Supply	±12..24 V or USB	±15V	±15V	+5 V or USB	+5 V or USB
SLS/3D Printing (Rapid Prototyping)	Laser via scanhead	Laser via scanhead	depends on used scanner controller	Laser via scanhead
Detailled Information	Click here!	Click here!	Click here!	Click here!	Click here!

The table below gives an overview about the possibilities to drive (stepper) motors, their advantages and features. This list contains only these solutions which are made by HALaser Systems, for other motion controllers which are available from within BeamConstruct please refer the hardware support page.

	Software driver	E1701M	E1803D Intelli-IO Extension
Type	BeamConstruct plug-in, can be used with E1803D, E1701D, E1701C, E1701A and other scanner controller cards which provide real-time programmable digital IOs	Separate Motor Controller	Add-on board for E1803D scanner controller card in motion control mode
Acceleration modes	logarithmic	logarithmic linear s-shaped	linear
Acceleration	one acceleration value for all situations, no stop acceleration	separate values for acceleration, deceleration and stop	one acceleration value for all situations, no stop acceleration
Motion mode	sequential, only one axis at the same time	all axes parallel and independent from each other	combined, all axes parallel, starting and stopping at same time
Referencing modes	simplified: enter reference switch in one direction or enter and leave reference switch in different directions two separate referencing speeds for entering and leaving the reference switch positive or negative direction	complex: up to four referencing steps combineable out of direction, entering and leaving reference switch up to four separate referencing speeds for referencing steps positive or negative direction search for reference switch (automatic direction change)	predefined: enter and leave reference switch two different referencing speeds positive or negative direction
Stop of running motion	delayed, may be dropped in case of short movements	immediate reaction (realtime operation) using configured stop acceleration value	immediate reaction (realtime operation)
Hardware I/Os	uses digital-IOs of scanner controller card (of Digi I/O extension board of E1701A/C/D or on-board IOs of E1803D)	provides own, additional IOs	provides own, additional IOs
Axes	up to four	up to four	up to four
Maximum step frequency	100 kHz (jitter-free)	500 kHz (jitter-free)	38 kHz / 45 kHz (jitter-free/maximum)
Other		encoder inputs for two axes, motion controller is completely independent from any scanner controller cards	uses own microcontroller, movements can take place fully parallel to main controller operations

The table below gives an overview about the different ways to connect a scanner controller card with a scanhead. It compares the different interfaces, their possibilities, their advantages and features. ¹⁾

¹⁾ Information shown as far as they are available, errors expected
²⁾ As these are proprietary, non-open interfaces, specifications given here may be incomplete or inaccurate. Please let us know when you have additonal information!