I have a brand new camera. I was able to run one successful project. Walked away from the machine and came back to try and run another project and the second project was about two inches low and two inches to the right from where I placed on the overlay. Updated the overlay, and there was no change. Tried re calibrating the camera, and re-running the alighment. Have tried on my Mac, which ran the first project fine, and then on two separate windows machines. Haven’t not been able to get any to run with the correct placement, IF I can get the camera to recognize the captures when I’m trying to calibrate. In addition, the overlay view that was clear on the initial run, is now hazy and terrible, while the live view is clearly in focus and looks good.
Can you show a picture of the view from your camera (the preview) and the overlay you see?
You can click the ‘Fade’ button on the Camera Control window to make the overlay clearer - it’d intentionally dimmed to make it easier to see & place artwork.
The only thing that affects camera alignment is physical movement of the camera, or the work area relative to the camera. If the camera is loose in the mount, the mount is not securely adhered to the machine, or the location of the camera can change because your hinges or lid struts are loose, any/all of those will affect the alignment.
Nothing changed between calibration, alignment and trying to run a second project. Nothing has been moved, or adjusted. I can’t for instance run one project, a knife to engrave, remove it and put in a plate to engrave without having to do the calibration and alignment all over again, so I am starting from the very beginning every single time. Is this how it is intended to work? The sheer time this takes, to fight to get images to calibrate and not to mention the amount of material that is wasted to continually run the alignment over and over is ridiculous. I have tried to re-run the alignment with the previous alignment board and it places the intended design in an incorrect spot.
Also, and I believe this is the key concern, since the first project ran successfully, all subsequent attempts to align and calibrate and run a new project result in the incorrect placement of the design with regard to where I’ve placed it on the overlay. I have never been able to get a second good result after several attempts and three different computers. The first project suggests that I am following the steps properly in order to get a design that is placed exactly where I expected it to be.
I can video the process so you can see exactly what’s happening, but I’ve followed the video provided step by step.
Where is the camera mounted? You said nothing has been moved, but if you are closing then opening the lid, you are moving the camera, so it would be good to double check that the lid opens to exactly the same place each time, and the camera is secure in the mount. I’ve had a few users attach a hard stop of some sort, like a steel cable with eyelets or a cabinet door brace to the lid so it opens to exactly the same place every time, and that helps.
To answer your question, you shouldn’t have to re-align before every run, no - you should have to do it exactly once, and only need to do it again if you move the camera. Lens calibration should only have to be done once, ever, and never again.
|### Julie Howe scrtsquirrel73@gmail.com|11:20 AM (1 minute ago)||
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I have the door lock safety bypassed so I don’t have to close the lid. The camera is mounted on the lid. So how can it be determined why things are running incorrectly? Is it in the software, or a hardware issue? I’ve had other folks in the OMTech laser group on Facebook having the same trouble.
If you touch the camera lens in the mount, does it wobble, or is it firm?
In about 99.99% of cases where a user swears that it’s the camera, it turns out that the camera was moving, or the machine itself wasn’t consistent. If you run the same job twice, does it land in exactly the same spot? (worth checking)
I will double check the lens tonight and let you know. I don’t think it is, because I was monkeying with it to try and figure out why my live view is crystal clear and in focus and my overlay, after the first successful run is blurry and hazy. I will document a run and let you determine what you’re seeing. Is there a way to attach a video?
If short, post a gif. If longer, post a link to your publicly hosted file, somewhere like Vimeo, YouTube or such.
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