3018 Laser not turning off between letters in text - in 'line' mode, but not in 'fill'

[JimDel (Jim DeLaney)]

New User here.
When burning text, the laser leaves a trace line between letters when in ‘line’ mode. It’s a GRBL laser, and I followed the advice in the forum’s FAQ to enter $32=1 in the console and now it doesn’t burn at all.
The laser settings in config are 6000mm/min at 20% power.

1. How do I 'undo the $32 setting? and
2. How do I solve the ‘trace line’ problem?

Thanks for any help. I’m a true novice here.

[jkwilborn (Jack Wilborn)]

Sounds like your laser isn’t set up properly…

Did you follow the Lightburn grbl setup?

You should also check out the Coordinate and Job Origin documentation.

When you enter a command in the console such as $32=1, it’s always good practice to know what it was before you changed it. Since it was probably 0 you can enter $32=0.

You can go to “Edit → Machine settings”, save to a file for safe keeping and modify these values in a gui that is in your language instead of a bunch of numbers.

I would assume that you didn’t modify $30 or ‘S-Value’ in Lightburn.

When you get to these machines, most are not ‘plug and play’…

Good luck, have fun

[JohnJohn (John Johnson)]

@JimDel

The laser settings in config are 6000mm/min at 20% power.

I had a similar problem with my 3018.
6000mm/min might be a little fast for a lead-screw machine.

I haven’t measured with a stopwatch but I haven’t created useful work on it much past 1200mm/min

The engraver will reduce laser power if the engraver won’t travel at the commanded speed - unless told otherwise.

What engrave speed are you selecting in the Cuts/Layers window for your project?

My hunch is that the $32 is right and you’re looking at an overspeed problem. (That’s the problem I had.)