Feedback post doing way too many camera alignments.
Lenz calibration i fully understand the process.
Camera alignment is another matter.
If it is your first or a new mount / position: you may wish to follow the standard method.
HOWEVER.
I would like to see the option to use a previously etched board ( yes the right orentation) be able to be used. This is about paralex errors and distortion etc etc. Thus one should be able to use a pre existing alignment sheet: rather than performing yet another burn and more material.
A nice value added functionality. Skip a few steps and save on materials and Time.
As I understand it, burning that four-cross alignment pattern puts the targets at precisely known coordinates on the platform. Matching those points in the video image with the known physical coordinates makes the whole alignment process work.
When you drop a pre-burned pattern on the platform, those targets don’t land at any particular coordinates, so matching the video image to them doesn’t provide the exact physical coordinates required for the alignment.
I use sheets of heavy paper, which aren’t all that expensive in the grand scheme of laser operations.
You could potentially reuse the targets if you could precisely relocate them at their initial position when the camera alignment was first done. If that can’t be guaranteed then you’d have to reburn the markers based on what @ednisley has already described about dependency on knowledge of precise location.
And always try to do any calibrations with the main board in the same spot re: the targets.
The other alignment is always hit and miss unless you have the target dots on a piece of board and locating pins, so that you always do it in the same position. but this is not so critical as I understand it is about a focus rather than grid accuracy.
The targets and zooming in to select the target center is the key re grid and bed alignment.
