I running a Flux Hexa. When running a project through there software Beam Studio it works fine. When I use lightburn projects stops. Lightburn just says busy. On laser control panel , there is no error message. Go back to Beam studio machine re homes and will do the same project to completion?
I’m not familiar with this machine. Did you setup the device using the steps on the Flux website?
LightBurn Bridge Cable - HEXA – FLUX Help Center
What are you doing when the project stops? Does this occur for every job?
Does the machine otherwise home properly? Do jogging controls work?
Have you contacted Flux Support?
Are you using the Flux special cable?
We had a couple reports where some specific configuration was required but couldn’t yet figure out what needs to be done on the machine side.
If you can report back what the Flux support says would be great
I setup up using the Flux website. So far it does it on every material test. If you jog or home, it works properly. I am using the Flux bridge cable. I install the machine using the parameter file supplied by Flux.
I have not contacted flux yet, i went through Lightburn and Flux support forums to see if anyone had a correction for problem first. I have there Lightburn bridge cable and installed machine using their parameter file. Ding simple engraves like boxes or text, it’s fine. When I’m doing material test it freezes in Lightburn. In Beam Studio it works with there material test.
Can you confirm that you’ve updated the firmware on the device?
Does anything show in Console window in LightBurn during the failure? If so, please take a screenshot.
Typically these types of things are a result of failed communication between the computer and the laser. However, if this works normally using the native software and you’ve used the .lbdev file supplied by Flux that shouldn’t be the case.
Confirmed firmware up to date. In console window when stopped, last command is Layer speed 200mm/s. It does not show a failure. When doing DPI test with images it says Stream completed in 16:52. I do not get that when doing material tests. Another thing I noticed when project not completed it is at it’s home screen no messages on machine and Lightburn says busy, but when it did not stop it has a message to disconnect the usb for another communication, then goes to home screen when finished and Lightburn says completed.
In device settings I’m looking to find if Enable GCode Clustering should be off or on?
This is firmware dependent but should have been pre-configured from the .lbdev file provided by Flux. Do not change the value from the pre-configuration. From reviewing the .lbdev file it looks like this should be off for your laser.
At this point, most lasers do not yet support GCode clustering as far as I’ve seen. In any case, disabling clustering is safe for all GRBL devices. Enabling is great if your laser supports.
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Everything is working. Not sure what happened. Installed Lightburn on laptop and worked fine. They had me remove and re-install software an did the same. Restored computer image to when fresh loaded, then it been working fine. Still installing all the updates but so far, with no freezes? . I have completed test engraves and cuts on five different woods no problem. For my first time I have completed five boxes, and they all cut through and engraved the same. Now on to batch runs. I wish there was a why now to make the camra work with LightBurn or a way to attach a re dot to do print and cut.
Does the camera on the machine not work with LightBurn? Not familiar with the machine but looks like it might be a head mounted unit.
Worst case you could add an external camera and use that.
If Flux do not offer a red dot solution it’s possible there are 3rd party solutions for this. For example, I know that there are beam combiner solutions for the Omtech Polar device which serves a similar market.
I used the omtech red dot on the gweike Pro I had. The Flux Hexa has no room to mount a similar arrangement. The camera on Flux Hexa is mounted right next to laser, it only works with the Beam stoudio software. I mounted the camera overhead on the flux, the problem is the bed moves to focus it, so I can calibrate it for 4mm but it won’t be the same for 6mm. Now I switch between the two software’s to accomplish print and cut. I have ordered red dot and cross hairs lasers. I’m waiting for them to come in so I can see if there is a way to make a holder on 3d printer to attach where it will not be in the way of travel.
Changing bed height for focus is typical for commodity Chinese CO2 lasers. This makes it so that camera alignment is only good at one focal distance. If you don’t change lenses this effectively means that the distance from focal height of material to camera is fixed even if the bed height changes since the material thickness itself will make up for the height differences.
Does the Hexa work differently than this?
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You are right that is how it works. When i use camera to point in 4mm then switch to 6mm re-focus, the move too points are not the same? I’m moving to a bullseye. I just tried again and just noticed something when i frame on a small pieces of wood it is within travel, when it goes to cut it is different putting right to edge of wood. Now i thinking i actual have to do a calibration for movent. I had this machine 3 weeks now. It is different then the gweike pro.
Nothing you do on the camera should affect the calibration of the motion of the axes. So if you’re not able to get repeatable positioning of the laser to a specific point that’s not likely to be related to the camera at all. The only thing the lens calibration and camera alignment processes do is relate the visual overlay with physical positions on the laser.
When you do a frame, what are you using to reference the perimeter? Have you added a red laser? If there’s a discrepancy between red laser and actual burn that’s more likely to be a misalignment between the two beams than an axis calibration issue.
I kept reading your post and looking at my laser. The flat surface is always brought up to 12mm from laser. The camera was never perfect. I mount the camera to the lid of the Flux Hexa like it was on the Gweike pro. This was wrong, the height to the lid was different on the two machines, I could not get the right focus on the larger bed. I know how to fix this. I’m making another camera mount I’ll post how I did it it if this works. Only the other point I could not attach a red dot with out it hitting the frame. I’m working on making a mount on the 3d printer. If i can’t make holder right then I’ll remake the laser cover plate “so i don’t mess up the original”…
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