Help please for a suffering newbie. Thank you and please be patient...Tx

[spiritburner (Neil Scott)]

Not that new but suffice it to say that for a long time I have been too ill to be able to get into my laser and lightburn deeply, ( Oz knows about my issues ) I am asking some simple questions to get me going again as I am now hopefully on the road to recovery.

I did start about a year or more ago and then due to medication I was not able to continue, my concentration now has improved to a point where I think I can make a start, over the last few days I have been having a little play with Lightburn and importing images and with the help from some kind members have turned a png using trace into a vector file, Another member on here on Sunday kindly showed me his laser and how quickly it engraved and cut out the logo as a beer can/glass mat, It was brilliant to see it via video link from Spain to Wales in the UK.

Now I thought I could just go ahead but no, I straight away ran into problems.

The main thing is my laser is connecting to Lightburn and I am on the current build using Mojave on OSX: Communication all seems ok.

My laser is an Endurance 10 watt diode on a Eleksmaker A3 clone using a Laseraxe CNCC.Mini MCBoard from about 15 months ago, looks perfect and I have used it once or twice in windows but not much on a mac.

The X and Y steppers all seem to work ok but I have issues in finding myself with in the available engraving space.

I have imported a Lightburn file that I have now made and I do not understand how I can get this to engrave and why when its on one part of the page it seems to want to always start the cnc and the Z gantry moves to the far left ( from standing in front of the machine looking at the laser head)

as you press play it goes immediately to the left and tries to continue, I then have to quit the job as i think it could cause damage to the stepper as its making a knocking noise as its trying to exceed the X axis rail.

Once or twice I left it a little longer and the laser fired up.

It doesn’t matter wherever the image is in the workspace in Lightburn it just seems to default to this position.

I know the laser fires as I have used the “Fire” option in Lightburn and I have focused the beam using this option to a tiny point and within a second it burns through paper and wood.

So basically can I please ask for some help to try and guide me either with a tutorial or a simple explanation as to how to get to the right area.

When i press the play button it does come up with a message that it is out of bound sand do you want to continue, I choose yes and the latter happens.

It seems to me that my workspace is too large and the machine does not know where it is relative to the home.

I do not have X & Y limit switches on this machine. I do not know whether Lightburn has the ability to input software limit switches or not.

So pressing home just generates the 5 error message.

I have included some photos of my machine, (without air assist) and some basic lightburn settings and the file i am using. I would very much like please some help but please bear with me as I take very strong medication and towards the middle of the day I do not function very we,.

This for me is part of my medical recovery therapy after a 5 year illness both mental and physical and a lot of operations and rehabilitation in learning to walk all over again.I still have two more to go in the Fall/Autumn

Now I now seem to have woken up and I am eager to learn albeit baby steps so please treat me accordingly and I thank you in advance for any help. Neil

Sorry for the length of this post, just wanted to explain my stupidity!!

Hopefully the photos and lightburn file are correctly Uploaded. Tx

Church-Sketch.lbrn (116.5 KB)

[DavidF (David Fenton)]

H Neil,
Click on the background of the LB page and select CNTRL+ A key to select everything on the page. Mage sure only your image is selected. If the grey corner markers are bigger than that, there is something else on the page that needs to be deleted. Even if it is too small to see initially.
I would change the Start position to “Current position” instead of user origin.
I would change the job origin (the radio button array) to the centre. Then use the move commands to put the laser in the middle of the working area, and then click the frame button. Using current position generally removes the confusion of homing and origins etc. A good way to start to see what the problem is.

Hope that helps

David

[LightBurn (Oz)]

It doesn’t appear that your machine has limit switches, so “Absolute Coords” and “User Origin” modes are going to be hard to use. I would suggest changing the Start From setting to “Current Position”, as that will start the job from wherever the laser head happens to be. Read here for how the Current Position setting works: https://github.com/LightBurnSoftware/Documentation/blob/master/CoordinatesOrigin.md#current-position

[spiritburner (Neil Scott)]

Thank you for your kind suggestion, I just need things in my head to click that’s all and I am sure it will be ok. My medication is very strong and sometimes I just loose all concentration and can not figure out where I am…if that makes sense. At the moment I am ok. I have had the laser I think for about a year but basically less than a week of actual use simply as I became ill after getting it

I have spoken to a friend on here and I understand it will be possible to fit limit switches but i need to change the main board., I am also considering an external power unit for the laser to control the amps going through it and to stop it from overloading again needing a new board but on both points I am not sure what board to go for whether a straight Eleksmaker Mana or something better, open to suggestions? thanks again.

[spiritburner (Neil Scott)]

sorry Oz, hadnt realises it was you, thanks for your help, see the medication totally screws with my head,

If you have any ideas for a board and limit switches brilliant, happy to get one and use the software properly and to its ability, I already purchased a decent logitech webcam and that works with ( Mac user) . This is one hobby I am determined to get right as my wife wants me to make lots of things for her at school as she looks after 4 year olds and kids with special needs so a lot of input from me. I am medically retired at 58 so have to make myself useful or I am redundant…

I already have a program to make vector images from jpegs and .bmps and .pngs and that works really well, Vector Magic, was expensive but it does the job really well.

thanks again Neil

[spiritburner (Neil Scott)]

Hi David, thank you very much for your input, it helps explain things and at least I hope it will get me started until I can get the thing in my head clicked?

[JWT5428 (John Thrapp)]

I have a similar setup. so I will give you some advice.

1. if you want your 0,0 coordinate to always be bottom left make sure you bring the laser to that location before lightburn and laser are powered up. Meaning the the program without a reference home limit switches it assumes where you power up is 0,0
2. if your lining up the work piece with the laser somewhere other that 0,0 this means you’re going to use an origin. You need to line up the workpiece to the origin you have selected (center, top, bottom, left right) once that is done you need to select the set origin button on the move tab. Frame it out to verify its path. Then run.

[spiritburner (Neil Scott)]

Thank you very much John I will have a play as soon as i get time, that’s very kind of you. Thanks. Neil

[JWT5428 (John Thrapp)]

Here what mine looks like

[spiritburner (Neil Scott)]

that is amazing, what are you making, shingles for a house or bricks or a book cover? whatever to me the uninitiated it looks really good!

I cant wait to have a play, I see on my board that there appears to be sockets for limit switches but i dont know if the board actually supports them as there is no manual at all and i am waiting on endurance to confirm etc…If it does I think I will add them, I am also interested in putting in a rotary device for round items like dowels etc but I am not sure how that is achieved and whether you need an additional axis or not on the board. How long did that take to do? thanks Neil

[JWT5428 (John Thrapp)]

Top of a squirrel Feeder

[JWT5428 (John Thrapp)]

It will support it, these will work. Cylewet 25Pcs AC 1A 125V 3Pin SPDT Limit Micro Switch Long Hinge Lever for Arduino (Pack of 25) CYT1073 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073TYWX86/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_y2GCDbP91MDVE

[spiritburner (Neil Scott)]

serious luxury, for the garden or sale? , wall to wall carpeting i hope,

[spiritburner (Neil Scott)]

my board is very slightly different so i am not sure, i only noticed it yesterday, I thought until them it was the same but the blue board has a different arrangement of chips and the name on my board is in a Italic font, the manual i managed to get did say this was the 2019 board so its possible I have an earlier of a fake board I do not know, it certainly has the pins outs for the x, y & z but not sure if the board supports them, If it does i would like to add them… Trying to find a manual for na earlier board but Laseraxe do not reply to emails very ofter, 3 sent and only one reply! Not that impresses with them at the moment as the rest of the machine is certainly theirs by the look of it as I traced it to an old web page. thanks you very much for the information though, i may just well order the switches and give it a whirl and see. It will either work, wont or trash the board ion which case its only 35 euros for a new one that does support them. Not a big loss. thank you…