Hi There I am a complete newbie and excited to learn! So I bought a cheap Chinese laser Universal engraver and immediately realized the Benbox software was not going to be sufficient so we purchased Lightburn flashed the board and did a quick test run. Just a simple word “Hello” with outlined letters. I know that I have many areas to work on but my first concern is the size. We had this set to be like 5.25" wide by 2.625" tall and it came out almost double the size. Yes we have it set to inches. My 1st question is where should I start to look to trouble shoot this issue? And second question is any ideas why it would not have done the horizontal line in the H and the E?
This looks out of focus and flipped / mirrored. Focus the beam for a crisper burn and slow down, folks have a tendency to try to run the job too fast. Have a review of these sections to get the device origin set correctly to help with the flipped / mirrored output. Common Grbl Setups - LightBurn Software Documentation
Hey @Rick thanks for the links. I have seen references in this forum on focusing the laser, however our did not come with any documentation. Is focusing done by turning the lens housing on the bottom of the unit? Also what should I look for to indicate to me that it is in or out of focus?
I do not have one of these units, but many of the diode laser modules provide a twisting focus ring, but you can check. If, on the other hand, your setup has a fixed focal length, you will need to raise and lower the material to get a tight focus. Google can provide diode focus procedures you can follow to find you best focus. When out, the lines produced will be wide and fuzzy looking. Think drawing with a crayon vs the look when drawing with a mechanical pencil. Sharp, crisp lines are what you are after. The result of an out of focus beam is less power deposited than when using a well focused beam.
