In the Calibrate Camera Wizard, I have selected ‘Fixed Position’ for the camera’s fixed position. On this screen, I checked the print area using the frame and then moved the Z position to about 30mm above the work bed. After that, when I pressed the Start button, the laser head descended and collided with the work bed.
When I press the Start button, where does the Z-axis move to? Or is it due to some other settings? I’m afraid of damaging the machine, so I can’t proceed with the adjustment. By the way, I haven’t set anything in the GCODE of the Device Settings.
Can you elaborate on this? If the camera is mounted to the laser head then normally this would be a laser head mounted camera rather than fixed position.
This is a console application. When the Enter key is pressed on the console screen, the head moves to the coordinates set in the Config file and takes a photo. In Lightburn, photos are captured using DirectShow Softcam.
I was advised to keep the camera in a fixed position when using this software for adjustment.
I’m reading that thread as well.
I would like to know what Camera Alignment does and how it operates.
I’m afraid to proceed with the adjustment because I’m worried about the laser head colliding with the work bed and getting damaged.
The alignment process allows LightBurn to precisely associate location on captured image to physical coordinates on your laser. By having this LightBurn can scale, align, and position the image precisely on the workspace to closely match absolute coordinates from workspace to corresponding position on laser.
This is only relevant if you change material thickness and if you are using absolute Z coordinates.
If you do not need that then simply focus the laser to the material that you will burn to and keep material thickness at 0. Note that calibration is only valid at a single distance from camera to plane of motion. Any deviation from that will compromise alignment precision. This is not to be underestimated. From what I’ve seen of Snapmaker designs the entire gantry moves up and down over the bed which is impractical. Always taking the snapshot from a predetermined position will alleviate some of this but that only really works if you only use a single material type of a given thickness. Any variance from that will skew the resulting capture.
Since I only use MDF boards of about 2.7mm thickness, I don’t have any issues with material thickness. What I want to know is the cause of the Z-axis lowering when I press the Start button.
I believe examining the GCODE executed when pressing the Start button would provide some clues.
The material thickness is set to 0, but “Relative Z Moves” was turned off. I saw a post on the SM forum and unchecked it. I will try the adjustment again.
