Hello everyone, i’m moving over to the mini grbl from Paul degrout on my K40, currently i’ve been using K40 Whisperer which has performed without fault, so as you know black is raster blue vector engrave and red is cut,
But on lightburn if i want to raster something like text do i assign the task as line and fill, to engrave the text which would kind of achieve the same as whisperer would,
as i dont seem to have the option of scan, currently i’m awaiting for the grbl being delivered so a couple of weeks away but wanted to familiarise myself with lightburn while i wait, sorry about the trivial question but i would think this will be one of many,
Cheers in advance,
To engrave the text without outlining it choose “fill”.
Excellent cheers for that.
Have a look at the documentation at:
As well there are some Youtube videos that are helpful at:
That should get you well on your way to being able to use LightBurn
If you’re seeing ‘Scan’ and ‘Cut’ in older videos, those names were changed to ‘Fill’ and ‘Line’, but the functions are the same. LightBurn works a fair bit differently than Whisperer, though it can be used very much the same way - You could easily set up the black, blue, and red layers to do engraving, marking, and cutting, and use existing files from there.
You’ll gain more from LightBurn by learning how to use more layers to set up more options, and learn how the various line & fill settings work. The YouTube videos are a great way to learn, especially the ‘LightBurn Basics’ and the project walkthrough videos.
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Yeah cheers i do research something well, once i start using it i normally design in fusion 360, for my 3d stuff but trouble is conflicting video’s on youtube, some say scan etc, sometimes asking a simple question can save hrs even days of watching the wrong stuff,
Cheers for the help.
We all ask a question along the knowledge path at some point.
We have no trouble at all answering questions - I might send links if they’ve been answered before, but that’s just to save me typing. 
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So far wasted 18 days of my free trial. Trying to get this mini gerbil of awesome tech’s to work. Mini and lightburn just won’t work with each other. Old nano will have to go back in i think.
I don’t see any posts here asking for help, saying what errors or problems you’re having, or anything other than “won’t work” - I know the Mini Gerbil does work with LightBurn, but we can’t help without more information.
Hi sorry i was at work with no glasses so was a bit hard to see my phone, so mini powers up, and lightburn finds it on com 3, but gantry is not locked and if i try to move via LB arrows there is no response from laser, then when i put a picture into LB to see if it would work on a command, it says there is a problem communicating with laser it may be busy or paused, i run some stuff that Paul from mini gave me to check, eg, $x $27=4, etc but that brings in alarm 8, error 9, etc, which is all above my head i have listed below what it reads if that make’s any sense to you guys, i did post on Awesome-Tech’s forum to see if anyone had a full list of settings that run on a k40 with LB and mini, so i could copy and paste into my own, but no reply as yet. just a bit frustrating when you dont really know much about code or firmware stuff, so trial and error, paul said run a g-code through it for the x-y to move but, totally do not have a clue how to go about that, when i hit run gcode on LB, it directs me to my folders as if i should have one there.
Any help is massively appreciated.
Sorry forgot to add this.
Grbl 1.1f [’$’ for help]
ok
ok
Homing
ALARM:8
ok
Grbl 1.1f [’$’ for help]
[MSG:’$H’|’$X’ to unlock
$x
[MSG:Caution: Unlocked
ok
?
<Idle|MPos:6.000,6.000,-6.000,0.000,0.000|Bf:15,254|FS:0,0|Pn:XYZAB|WCO:0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000,0.000>
ok
<Idle|MPos:6.000,6.000,-6.000,0.000,0.000|Bf:15,254|FS:0,0|Pn:XYZAB|Ov:100,100,100|A:S>
ok
Starting stream
Stream completed in 0:00
<Idle|MPos:6.000,16.000,-6.000,0.000,0.000|Bf:15,253|FS:0,0|Pn:XYZAB>
ok
Starting stream
Stream completed in 0:00
<Idle|MPos:6.000,26.000,-6.000,0.000,0.000|Bf:15,254|FS:0,0|Pn:XYZAB>
ok
Starting stream
Stream completed in 0:00
<Idle|MPos:6.000,16.000,-6.000,0.000,0.000|Bf:15,254|FS:0,0|Pn:XYZAB>
ok
Starting stream
Stream completed in 0:00
<Idle|MPos:6.000,6.000,-6.000,0.000,0.000|Bf:15,253|FS:0,0|Pn:XYZAB>
ok
Starting stream
Stream completed in 0:00
<Idle|MPos:6.000,-4.000,-6.000,0.000,0.000|Bf:15,254|FS:0,0|Pn:XYZAB>
ok
Starting stream
Stream completed in 0:00
$$
$0=10
$1=255
$2=0
$3=1
$4=0
$5=1
$6=0
$7=0
(ATC M6, pulse/ff)
$8=100
(ATC Tool Td, milliseconds)
$9=100
(ATC M6 Td, milliseconds)
$10=31
$11=0.010
$12=0.002
$13=0
$19=0
(Softstart, milliseconds)
$20=0
$21=0
$22=1
$23=3
$24=2000.000
$25=2000.000
$26=250
$27=6.000
$28=5
(Spindle freq. 0 to 15)
$30=1000
$31=1
$32=1
$100=157.000
(x:stp/mm)
$101=157.000
(y:stp/mm)
$102=160.000
(z:stp/mm)
$103=160.000
(a:stp/mm)
$104=160.000
(b:stp/mm)
$110=12000.000
(x:mm/min)
$111=5000.000
(y:mm/min)
$112=5000.000
(z:mm/min)
$113=5000.000
(a:mm/min)
$114=5000.000
(b:mm/min)
$120=8000.000
(x:mm/s^2)
$121=3000.000
(y:mm/s^2)
$122=3000.000
(z:mm/s^2)
$123=3000.000
(a:mm/s^2)
$124=3000.000
(b:mm/s^2)
$130=320.000
(x:mm max)
$131=230.000
(y:mm max)
$132=200.000
(z:mm max)
$133=200.000
(a:mm max)
$134=200.000
(b:mm max)
ok
Video of loading
That is what it seems to do 32 minutes it done that for then just stopped doing anything.
I’d watched these already cheers
Googling “GRBL alarm:8” gives this result:
“ALARM:8” : _(“Homing fail. Cycle failed to clear limit switch when pulling off. Try increasing pull-off setting or check wiring.”),
It’s likely that one of your limit switches isn’t properly wired.
To much hassle to get this awesome-tech gerbil going after countless hours trying, and taking out putting back in i’ve reverted to old board and whisperer, have ordered c3d, so awaiting arrival, Lightburn free trial runs out in few days so never got chance to try it, shame it looked decent, thanks for any help but coding etc to get this board through its faults ( and it shows many ), is just not worth the time and effort for something that’s plug and play.
Send your trial key to support at lightburnsoftware dot com, include reference to this post and ask nicely. I bet some more time can be added to help you evaluate LightBurn with your new controller. 
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