Lightburn camera compatibility question

I have one of those inexpensive Chinese 3018 where the gantry is fixed and the table moves . I watched the camera videos and setup instructions. My concern is I built an enclosure for my laser setup mainly to be able to exhaust the fumes . I checked the measurements
For camera and I have sufficient space to mount the camera .
But when laser is in home position most of the laser bed wouldn’t be visible to camera . I could move the bed so most is visible to camera .
Is this a good solution? Or should. Just stay away from camera with this type laser system??

You’ll likely have issues with it because:

  • You really need limit switches for the camera to work well - the camera uses absolute positioning.

  • The camera needs to be mounted at a fixed distance from the top of the material, or you need to calibrate for each new material height - this means having a Z table works best.

The camera system can handle mounting at weird angles just fine, as long as there is enough resolution, but the other two are quite important.

I have limit switches installed and this makes the system home . But I understand z table for focus. I typically use material 1/8" to 1.0".
How important is the thickness of material for the camera to help me position stock to be cut or engraved?? What happens if I set up camera say for 1/8" plywood and then switch to 1" stock without making any camera adjustments. I would only be adjusting the focus for my laser?

Here is a visual that might help answer your question.

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If you put 1" stock in the machine after calibrating for 1/8", it would make a decent difference, and it would be worse for cameras with a wider field of view, and the further off center you used:

image

If the black shape is 1" thick, and the red shape is 1/8", the blue line is a ‘line of sight’ from the camera to the material. This is exaggerated, but that’s the effect.

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