Fill issue when trying pen mode with Z-Axis

[Jibeer (Jean-Bruno Richard)]

Hello everybody !

I love using LB for laser engraving, but now, I’m facing an issue when trying to use LB on my modified system now equiped with a ZAxis.
The goal is to use LB in a “Pen/Brush mode”, like a kind of a drawing machine. Everything is Ok when I use line mode (pen is lifting or going down for each contour) but when I try the fill mode, my pen is not lifted as expected : it stays sometimes down during travel moves…I tried several modes (flood fill, optimsations…) but I can’t find the good combination…

Procedure : File/Import, Tools/Trace Image. Then drawing in line mode (nice) and then drawing in fill mode (issue)

Anybody facing the same issue ? Is this a limitation ? I just need my pen to have the same line mode lift up/down behaviour in fill mode…

Infos :

• Grbl 1.1f on Eleksmana v5.2 (3 axis), configured with switch limits on all axis.
• LB version 0.9.04
• System : modified Eleksmaker A3 with the ZAxis option

$$
$0=10
$1=25
$2=0
$3=5
$4=0
$5=0
$6=0
$10=1
$11=0.010
$12=0.002
$13=0
$20=1
$21=0
$22=1
$23=3
$24=200.000
$25=2000.000
$26=250
$27=3.000
$30=1000
$31=0
$32=0
$100=80.000
$101=80.000
$102=80.000
$110=6000.000
$111=6000.000
$112=6000.000
$120=200.000
$121=200.000
$122=100.000
$130=380.000
$131=200.000
$132=100.000
ok

Thx for your advices !

[LightBurn (Oz)]

For a laser, it would be incredibly slow to lift/lower the Z bed while moving laterally between scans, so the instructions for those just move in a straight line and change the power.

To get this to work properly with a pen you would need to tie the Z of the pen to the laser power parameter.

[Jibeer (Jean-Bruno Richard)]

Thx Oz for this quick reply. Sure for laser mode, this makes sense. Unfortunately, the proposed solution cannot be used as I’m using a stepper motor to move up and down the motor, not a servo motor !
Any other ideas ?
IMHO, this could be an easy feature to implement, accessible via a config button (pen mode).
Regards

[Jibeer (Jean-Bruno Richard)]

Hi there. As I want to be able to use LB in pen mode with fill mode, and as the feature is actually not supported by the software, I’m thinking about post editing the generated gcode and to replace all laser on/off séquences by pen up/down. Any ideas on how to do this in an efficient way? In order to automate this, I was thinking of using a kind of serial proxy (arduino based) changing on the fly some gcode according to some configuration.
Any ideas or suggestions?
Best regards