I’m finding the camera calibration in Lightburn 2.1.01 really confusing. I can’t figure out how to calibrate the camera for different thicknesses of material. My laser (Roly Mk2 XW) has a fisheye camera in the lid. In previous versions of Lightburn I could switch from 3mm plywood to 1/2" cedar simply by selecting the appropriate profile and voila … my Roly’s camera was dead on. Can’t figure out how to do that with 2.1.01.
How would the thickness of the material change the camera calibration? The laser focus is based on a specific distance from the nozzle. With thicker material, one lowers the bed, but the surface of the material is in the same plane as thinner material. The camera should be “examining” that plane for any adjustments/movements.
I may not be using the correct terminology, but it is critical to the camera’s operation because thicker material is closer to the lens. The Roly camera is fixed in the lid, and there is no wau to raise or lower the bed. 3mm material is further from the lens than 12mm, hence there is what I would call a parallax problem.
How is the laser focused if the bed can’t be raised or lowered? Does the lens assembly have a Z control? I suspect your answer is yes, based on the difficulty you are experiencing.
Obviously, I’m not familiar enough with that model laser to be of value.
The Roly Lasermatic is an X-Y diode device … no Z axis. You focus the laser by raising/lowering the laser head. Focus on these machines has nothing to do with the camera.
@fred_dot_u, this is a manual focus machine. Each level gets its own focus.
As to his problem, I think (not a camera user) there was a substantial improvement in the camera section of Lightburn. I am pretty sure you have to go very slowly and not rush the calibration. I got the impression the process is different from the past, especially the markers.
Thanks for the clarification. I have an Emblaser 1 which works in a similar manner, but have not used it since I got the CO2 and Lightburn. I’m sure I would have recognized it more easily, had the Emblaser 1 been in use.
I suppose that one would have to perform a separate calibration and tag each one with the material thickness, which sounds like a lot of work.
I’ve not calibrated my camera since the latest upgrade. I was getting 0.5 mm precision with my current setup, a far cry from the early versions.
Another reason I do not use a camera. Most of my work is one-off type projects. I get by pretty well with placement guides.
Hello
This may help, I have put a youtube out on working with differnt material thickenesses:
Instead of having to create a lot of Material Thickness calibrations:
https://youtu.be/I2LsJ_JoroM?si=auiqaXR1XArULGRW
Here is another:Lightburn 2.1 thru 2.1x Laser Engraver Camera Calibrations step by Step:
https://youtu.be/TyiUbjUR3mk?si=dKbQTC04MzAq-s5Z
Brian
In previous versions of Lightburn, you could, for example, do a calibration using 3mm material, and export those settings to a file (e.g. 3mm.lbcm). You could then do a calibration using 12mm material and export those settings to another file (e.g. 12mm.lbcm).
I did this with a dozen different thickness materials. When you switch materials during jobs, it was simply a matter of importing the .lbcm that corresponds to the material you would be using. Easy-peasy. If 2.1.01 supports such a process, I can’t find it!
I show you how to export your settings just like the older version of lightburn. (This is towards the end of the video) - within the Lightrbuern 2.1 thru 2.1x camera calibratiions video. .
Brian
Thanks Brian … problem solved!
You are very welcome…
Regards,
Brian