Kinda new to lasercutting/engraving and having a lot of fun with it! I just purchased my second machine, Atomstack A70 Pro, (grbl) and it is set up and running. The thing I would like to do is change one of the macro buttons in the console to Autofocus so I don’t have to reach into the enclosure to hit the hardware Autofocus button. But, like I said - new and still learning the ins and outs! I know it has to do with coding it in, but I can’t find any documentation anywhere on how to do this. Any help out there?
It’s an Atomstack-individual command. You need to reach out to Atomstack or their community to get hold of the command that is used to trigger the autofocus. Then you can enter it into the macro button.
Here’s the command for Autofocus in Lightburn for the Atomstack A70 Pro
[ESP500]. Make sure you use the brackets [ ] or it wont work. Just open The Console, Right Click on the button you want to use. Enter a name and the command and save.
A few things i changed on my A70 Pro to make it more user friendly.
Its kind of awkward to manually adjust the Z axis because of the position of the adjustment screw behind the laser head. I found out the that a 18mm deep socket fits perfectly over the adjustment knob and makes it more convenient to adjust the Z Axis manually. The socket fits perfectly but is a little heavy so i 3D printed one. Works perfectly. I attached the stl file so you can print your own. Just remove the .txt from the extension. Extension should be .stl
Another change I made was to the small screws that mount the laser head to the carriage. Their very small screws and not convenient to remove and replace in case you ever need to reposition the laser head. So i replaced them with some M4 20mm screws with a knob on the end.
Last change i made was to the cable to the Y axis servo motor. When you use a Rotary Chuck you need to unplug the cable from the controller to the Y axis servo motor and plug it into the Rotary Chuck. The connector is on the bottom of the servo and not easy to access. Plus i didn’t think it was a good idea to keep plugging and unplugging the corrector and could cause it to fail. So i got 2 small 3 inch entension cable and plugged one into the servo and one into the cable from the controller. Now when i use my Rotary Chuck I just unplug the intersect of the two cables to install my Rotary. So im not putting any wear on the original cables.
One more tip. If you are going to use a Rotary Chuck with your machine you will need to use risers to lift the machine up. I didnt like the ones that came with the rotary and thought they were a pain to install. I found that 15oz vegetable cans are the perfect height. You dont even have to empty them and if you get hungry you have a healthy snack available. My wife got a kick out of the fact that i painted mine.
Here’s a fun little project to play with. Made from 3mm Baltic Birch Plywood. Run the file as is to engrave the guide lines and cut out the base. Then turn off layer 2 and change the power and speed on layer 1 to speed 400 power 90% and cut out the parts. Paint the parts and use the guide lines to glue them on the backing. Give it to your favorite to show that all the money you spent was worth it.
