Ok, I know LP4s are such a strange animal when it comes to Lightburn. But, its all I have and I am trying to make it work. I have done all the configurations of everything. I can get it to work with the slider module, rotary and just LP4 itself. I can make it change lasers, etc.
What I can’t get it to do is etch/burn where it is supposed to. Example. Simple LP4, no rotary, no slider. 160mm x 120mm space. I put a simple 80x40mm box in the very center of the space. Then I go to the LP4 and I place a business card in the very middle of the laser area. If I click preview, it draws the rectangle somewhere else, maybe 100mm to the right or down. If I click burn, it will burn the box somewhere completely different than the framing and def different than the preview. Ok, so everything is off… But is it?
If I turn on fire to see the laser point and I go and choose move laser to the center. It moves the laser point to the very center of the laser area. It also does it on the screen. If I say move to top right corner, it goes exactly there. It knows all 4 corners precisely and the center. But, framing and burn? Nope not a chance. I am completely frustrated.
I have it set to absolute coordinates. I have been etching stuff for a month now because I needed to get stuff done but I end up having to do it by placing the object wherever it decides to burn in the area. And then on top of that, If I try to burn a circle, it comes out as an oval. I have to squash the circle to an oval on LB and then it will print to a circle. This is all trial and error. And its absolutely dumb.
I have very little doubt that LB is doing everything correctly. So many people use it and love it. I love using it to design. But wow… trying too burn with the LP4…. Ugh.
Anyone have any suggestions? Troubleshooting? Is there a way I can tell LB to offset its work area to match the burn on LP4? I mean, I know that’s what the user coordinates are for but LP4 doesn’t work with that.
Did you change the height of the workspace in Edit->Device Settings?
I would expect the work area to be 160x160, with the effective working area to be the 120mm vertical space at the center of the 160mm tall workspace.
As I understand it, the LP4 relies on use of Absolute Coords. If the machine relies on the central 120mm of a 160mm tall workspace for proper function and you are using 120mm of a 120mm tall workspace then I can see this causing some potential issues.
It was originally 160mm x 160mm I did change it to 160 x 120 after a while of messing with it. But it was not working long before I changed it. The LP software uses 160 x 120 which is why I changed it.
Also read this post. Specifically about moving the laser to selection center. Seems an odd way to control a galvo but this may allow you to frame accurately.
The entire Topic is worth a read if you haven’t already.
I’ve read through that many times. I understand what they are talking about. I’ve moved it to center many times, referencing what I was saying in my initial post. The laser knows where the center is. If just doesn’t when you click burn or frame. Its strange.
Per the 160 x 160. I have done that many times. Its where I first started. IT performs identically. It knows center and the corners. IT just doesn’t when you frame or burn. It will be somewhere else.
Well, I swear I had tried that at that point. But, I went ahead and verified it and yea, it worked. That appears to have fixed it. Thank you so much for pushing through this with me. I truly appreciate it.
