Abstract: A joystick apparatus has a housing and a printed circuit board in the housing. A shaft is pivotably connected to a U-joint assembly to allow movement of the shaft relative to the center position within a circle. A concentric reduced power zone circle is associated with the circle. Operation of the joystick within the reduced power zone circle uses less power than operation outside of the reduced power zone. A knob and a magnet are located on the shaft. A Hall effect integrated circuit detects movement of the magnet in response to corresponding movement of the shaft by a user and generates a corresponding proportional joystick output signal indicative of a direction and an extent of rotation of the shaft. A multifunction joystick control system has a joystick configured to provide multiple operational modalities on a joystick. An electrical interface connects the joystick apparatus and the host central processing unit.

Abstract: Variations in laser output power are compensated for by increasing the on time of weaker output lasers relative to the more powerful lasers. To avoid nonlinearities where the object to be marked is a moving substrate, the on time pulses which control the lasers are centered about a single time reference point. Additionally, for high printing rates a pre-ionization technique is disclosed which is utilized to enable a laser to fire more quickly than would otherwise be possible. Pre-ionization may be used for every dot to be printed or only when a laser has not been fired during the previous printing "stroke" depending upon the stroke rate.

Abstract: Variations in laser output power are compensated for by increasing the on time of weaker output lasers relative to the more powerful lasers. To avoid nonlinearities where the object to be marked is a moving substrate, the on time pulses which control the lasers are centered about a single time reference point. Additionally, for high printing rates a pre-ionization technique is disclosed which is utilized to enable a laser to fire more quickly than would otherwise be possible. Pre-ionization may be used for every dot to be printed or only when a laser has not been fired during the previous printing "stroke" depending upon the stroke rate.