I’m at my wits end, I bought the wide angle camera for my extended xtool d1 pro soI could move it to the garage but every frickin time I turn everything off lightburn has to be recalibrated to the camera and the machine. Sometimes it sends my machine into the stops and of course I have to start all over again.
The camera was supposed to work with lightburn and lightburn is supposed to run xtool d1 pro 30W, BUT THEY WON"T ALL WORK TOGETHER… can someone please tell me what I’m doing wrong or if in fact this was a wild goose chase that will never work…
Can you provide some background as to what problem the camera was solving for you that enabled moving to the garage? Not clear from the context?
What is happening that necessitates you having to do this? What are you reacting to? Please provide screenshots to help illustrate.
If your machine is configured properly and you never ignore any messages, there should be no situations where you are crashing the machine.
Are you ever moving the laser head by hand rather than using the Move controls?
Have you enabled the extended frame in XCS and then extended the workspace in LightBurn?
There’s no reason a camera and xTool D1 Pro wouldn’t inherently work. Note that the camera is in no way tied to the motion of the machine. The camera only provides image data which LightBurn correlates to a position on the machine.
Additionally, can you provide some information on your history with the machine? Is this new to you? What is your history with LightBurn?
I have an xTool D1 Pro (30W from LaserTree) and the extensions from xTool for it. Laser runs great! Then I bought the 8MP-W-120 from Lightburn and mounted it so this is what I see.
This is now machine zero per Lightburn, now it’s hitting the left stops and I have to turn it off. shut down the program turn it on then move it back to zero shut the machine off then turn it back on and it says 0.00 across the board. I set origin and then try to calibrate the camera…
I want to make sure I understand the situation. You are saying that every time you restart LightBurn that you’re unable to do an “Update Overlay” because LightBurn indicates that you must first Calibrate the camera?
Does this require both the Lens calibration and Camera alignment?
In the short term, after calibrating, right click on the Camera window and Export your camera settings. This should allow you to Import again in the case that this occurs again rather than having to recalibrate.
However, in terms of why this is happening, make sure that your Prefs folder or file is not somehow write protected. Go to File->Preferences->Open Prefs Folder.
What is the “Date Modified” date and time for the prefs.ini file? Check the properties for the prefs.ini file. Does it indicate “Read-only”?
When does it do this? What precedes the motion?
Also, confirm that prior to adding the camera you’re saying that the machine worked predictably and reliably from LightBurn? If not, what else has changed?
Yes, for some reason when I go to calibrate camera lens I click on what I have hit next and it jumps to calibrate camera alignment…this is when it does all the weird stuff. I have to turn it on and off to get it back to zero.
I’m a disabled veteran do you mind calling me? I can explain it bet that way…???
Hello again,
Let me first apologize for my shortness. I get a little frustrated when things don’t work as advertised. So, I went through my computer and deleted everything to do with Lightburn, then reinstalled it. To my surprise everything is in there still. My license and the camera acting up…so let me break down each of my problems.
Lets start with the first problem in camera calibration - it skips the step where you put the paper down with the circles on it and run that test. It move right to the end and says great your done - align camera…
Then I go to align camera and when it goes to frame it does it perfectly and so I do it again to make sure. Then I hit the start button and it does the first through fourth circles and then rams into the left rail on the xTool D1 Pro and I have to stop it… this is a total mystery to me as too why this would happen unless the burn file in the program is corrupted, maybe?
I took the read-only off of the Lightburn folder under users and all files and folders under that as well. Should that be what I save in a backup once I have everything set?
You needn’t manually backup the files. LightBurn makes changes to prefs.ini and other files/folders in that directory. If those files were indeed set to read only then that’s likely the reason why you were forced to redo calibration after every restart. If LightBurn is unable to write to the file then the calibration information was not getting stored.
If you want to take a backup that can be done from LightBurn by going to File->Preferences->Export Prefs.
As indicated earlier, if you only want to save the camera configuration you can do that by right-clicking the Camera window.
Please answer these questions:
What is your experience with this laser and with LightBurn? Are either/both of these new to you?
Similarly, was the laser crashing prior to to the installation of the camera?
Have you configured the extended frame in XCS?
Do you ever move the laser head by hand or are you exclusively using the Move window controls?
Additionally:
How are you initiating the camera calibration process?
Please provide the following:
Screenshot of Edit->Device Settings
Screenshot of Camera Alignment process before you start the burn process
Hello, okay I got everything so far. My experience with the laser or GRBL machines in general go back about 20 years. I’ve had this D1 Pro for almost 2.5 Years. I’ve been using Lightburn with it almost since I go it.
#2 No, everything worked fine except I had to go back and forth to the garage, hehe.
#3 I haven’t done that but when I load Lightburn I make sure to tell it the area of the machine. I have since upgraded the machine to a 30W laser from lasertree. So, in order to update the firmware I have to put the old 10W back on it so the software will see and update it. I can search for the XCS instruction though, will that help with the homing problem?
#4 Some times with the camera working I have to go out and move it and reset everything with a power down. This might be because of the XCS issue because it doesn’t know where home is. I don’t mind working with the current position option but would prefer it to home on finish and use absolute coordinates.
I use the Laser Tools menu where it says - Calibrate Camera Lens. I put in the camera type hit next and it pops right to great job you’re done.
Once I do that then I can go to the Calibrate Camera Alignment in the same menu. When it get to the burn section, like I said before it does one through 4 circles then goes into the left side of the machine and keeps ramming until I stop it remotely.
I guess it might be because the machine wasn’t setup right after extensions were installed. I’ll work on that next.
Okay. Then we can focus primarily on potential novel components:
camera
extension
laser module
Can you confirm whether or not the laser was working correctly with the extension and upgraded laser module before adding the camera?
Okay. I’m hoping I’m not missing anything as it’s not clear to me how a camera changes that but at least at the moment it doesn’t seem critical to the issue at hand.
I may have missed it but I wasn’t aware as yet of a homing problem. Can you elaborate? What are you experiencing?
Under what circumstances would you have to move it by hand?
Okay. This is because you’re using the preset lens calibration and not redoing the lens calibration. A custom calibration could be theoretically better but the preset should work adequately as long as the designated preset indeed matches the camera that you have. You may want to confirm. I don’t recall if only valid options are made available to you.
Can you clarify what you consider the orientation of your machine? Is the left side the original top side of the laser before adding the extension? Meaning the left side according to the Camera window image. Or is the left side the original left side in the original orientation?
I suspect this is the correct answer but would only make sense if you’re considering the top of the machine as the left side.
Some general questions:
Has the issue of camera alignment being requested after restart now resolved?
Are you able to use the jogging controls in Move window to move the laser to all corners of the machine after homing?
That’s probably correct, you can also use a frying pan to hammer nails into the walls, if you’re a little creative
Joking aside, I have an efficiency increase in material consumption of at least 20%. Placing individual items on used materials is with sub mm accuracy like physically placing the item on the plate and done in a few seconds. No test tracing with the red laser beam and pushing the items back and forth until they fit in the available spaces… I definitely won’t work (as efficiently) without this tool.
can someone please tell me what I’m doing wrong or if in fact this was a wild goose chase that will never work…
