I think I want to try one of the lightburn cameras maybe a beagle one. But I have 2 different machines side-by-side. So I thought I would build a mount to move it between the 2. I had a spare stepper some left over hardware from 14 and 35 yr. old material. I have a couple spar MakerBlock Orions, which are ardruino programmed.
I figured out what all materials I had for the actual movement rig. I decided to try using a rod and sleeve design with a looped belt. I spliced 2 belts together, I had to attach 2 rods together with a long screw that i cut the head off of. I had some different brackets and just figured it out. I had a left over support arm from a Travel trailer awning that we scrapped 35 yrs ago LOL.
I wanted it so hang the camera from above and be able to be stopped by 2 limit switches or even timed by the steps to stop in exactly the same spot every time.
Using the old controller was hard, with the brain issues I can not remember a lot of it and some of it I cant seem to understand. So I came up with this using a block system that had some limitations. It runs off the buttons and stops at the limit switches but I cant hit a button and it run again unless I power it off and on.
I don’t know if I gonna explain well, you have to program when the mount hits a switch and stop the only possible movement is the reverse (opposite) one.
I don’t want to be the one to turn off the light, but I’m reasonably sure that with such a large construction you are not able to achieve consistent positions. LB’s camera system is extremely dependent on a static location of the camera. (if you want to use for sub millimeter accuracy)
I fully agree here. The setup looks nice, a cool tinkering project, but just from looking at it I really doubt this will work in practice. The camera needs to positioned with sub-mm-accuracy at such a height. A change of 0.1 mm at the top can lead to multiple mm misalignment at the bottom plane. Cool thing, but won’t work reliably.
You would need a fixed frame around all lasers with four posts holding the camera frame and use a linear rail to fix it.
I concur that at the height. it won’t be close to accurate. I plan on lowering it when i pick out the camera. it is on a linear rail already and it is pretty accurate now. I can fix the limit switches more firmly to get more accuracy but i believe it might just be able to run on just a step count between the 2 locations as a higher accuracy. I did a test on step count and it was identical in every movement running it that way.
Believe it or not as a gantry it is quite sturdy as the movement is quite smooth. once I know height then ill build an h brace for the far end to help if necessary but I am excited to see it perform with an actual lightburn based camera. I believe i am more interested in using it exclusively for the laser and just a monitor for the cnc.
