Hey There, I installed my new LightBurn camera and went through the calibrate lens and alignment steps. I noticed that the zoom in and out buttons don’t function. I am wondering what is causing this? Also, I seem to be getting it calibrated correctly because after I run the calibration tools, I test it by making marks on the material in different locations and it is very accurate. However, I don’t know what is happening to it later on because it seems to stop being accurate over time. I have a few thoughts but would like your additional input.
May not be saving the camera setting when I hit the setting save button, since I get no dialog or anything saying that it saved.
It may be losing its calibration after I raise or lower my cut bed.
The laser could be vibrating enough to shift the camera in its mount. (I do have the LightBurn camera mount)
Maybe I am not selecting which mode to calibrate correctly, Fisheye or standard. Did both didn’t really see a difference.
I don’t think the laser vibrates to the point that it would be a problem though.
Info to help
Running windows 10 on laptop
Lightburn version 0.9.14
Camera 120 deg
500 mm x 700 mm work area
Camera is mounted to the lid and calibrated while open
Laser is Orion 60 watt with Ruida controller
I am happy that it works well but don’t want to have to calibrate it every time that I raise and lower the cut bed or start a new project in the software. I made a default project with all my settings and open it every time I start a new design.
They do, but only on the last page when you are selecting the markers. They aren’t supposed to be shown before that, so I’ll fix that.
The only thing that will slowly drift the camera alignment is physical movement of the camera. Make sure that the camera mount is solid and that your lid opens to the same place each time.
Well, I did some things this morning to the mount because I noticed that it slips and slides around in the mount. So, I put some cushions in between the cap and the camera board put the cap back on and then rapped it in electrical tape. It is pretty solid now. Also, the focus lens is very loose when adjusting the focus so I put some electrical tape around that too. Then I ran the calibrations again. I tested it several different ways after, to see if it was true and had great results. I used the calibration piece for my tests by marking a square around each # on the piece. 1st, I left the bed height the same and it was perfect, raised it about 1/8" and again perfect, and then lowered it 1/2" and perfect.I thought it was fixed.Ran multiple things over the course of about 2 hours and then it lost is calibration.
During this time I did not lower the lid. It stayed up the whole time. Also, when calibrating there is a setting to enter the material thickness. It does not state if that’s mm or inches so I can only guess mm? I attached a couple photos to show the test looked good. Any other thoughts?
The material thickness is only used on machines that have an actively controlled Z, like the Emblaser 2, where the system has to position the Z during cutting.
You mention raising and lowering the bed - an important part of using the camera is that the top of your material has to be at the same height as the markers were when you ran the marker job. Since most CO2 lasers have a fixed focal length, and you adjust focus by raising and lowering the bed, the top of the material should always be at the same height, so this isn’t an issue. If you’re changing where the top of the material is, you’ll lose calibration.
Ok, I gotcha, I was doing some experimenting with engraving acrylic and someone had suggested that I try increasing the distance between the laser head and the material to get a cleaner looking engraving, which was about the time I notice the difference. I think that was the problem today. I will see how it does tomorrow, Thanks for your help!
The material surface only has to be at the lens focal point when you take a camera capture. Once you have your capture, you can adjust as you like, but if you need to take another one, you’d have to put the focus back to the correct height.
