Lightburn producing poor results vs XCS

[nickpan (Nick)]

Getting very poor results with Lightburn with
xtool D1 laser.

I get excellent quality when using XCS, but love the features lightburn has to offer. But I have yet to be able to get any decent results.

Attached is an image of the text I’ve tried burning on a metal business card. The clear and concise text is from XCS, and the blurry is from Lightburn. All same font, size and burn settings.

Any ideas?

[berainlb (PY)]

Did you create the laser device profile by using the .lbdev file provided xTool? If not, suggest you do that and retest. The .lbdev file provided by xTool includes offset scanning adjustments that should remedy what you’re seeing.

Configure LightBurn Software for xTool D1 – xTool

[nickpan (Nick)]

Yes, I followed all the instructions on xTool’s site and loaded the file it directed me to. I also deleted the file and reinstated with no luck.

[berainlb (PY)]

Can you provide the following?

1. full screenshot of LightBurn with your design loaded and Cut settings window showing.
2. screenshot of Edit->Device Settings

[nickpan (Nick)]

Here are several shots. Let me know if there is anything else. Another note, the picture of the bear will print excellent in XCS, but horrible in Lightburn.

[nickpan (Nick)]

[berainlb (PY)]

I’m not seeing anything fundamentally wrong in the screenshots. But now I’m questioning the original set of symptoms on whether or not I’ve understood it properly.

A few questions:

1. Are you using like for like settings in XCS vs LightBurn? One thing about the cut settings in LightBurn is that the speed is quite high although not absurdly so. The fill density is almost certainly higher than ideal at 500 lines per inch (I’d guess by close to 2x) but shouldn’t cause what I thought I saw in the initial photos.
2. Can you run a test burn with the following parameters:
   2a. .5 inch square or larger
   2b. fill mode
   2c. .04 inch line interval or higher
   2d. bidirectional
3. Run a test burn of a circle at least .5 inch in line mode

[nickpan (Nick)]

Yes I will run the tests and post up the results.

Question, is the Density number in XCS the same as the DPI number in lightburn?

[berainlb (PY)]

@nickpan

is the Density number in XCS the same as the DPI number in lightburn?

I’m not very familiar with XCS so couldn’t say.

[nickpan (Nick)]

Here are the results of the test

[berainlb (PY)]

The results reflect some of what I expected but are not exactly consistent to what I would expect.

Reviewing your settings I see a problem that could be skewing the results so could you run it again. However, in the Line test, can you disable “Tabs Bridges”? It’s potentially obscuring root cause.

[nickpan (Nick)]

[berainlb (PY)]

Very interesting. I was initially thinking this implied a mechanical issue but this looks like it’s just an issue with scanning offset.

Not sure why this is the case because the .lbdev file you used should have accounted for this.

Try disabling “Scanning Offset Adjust” and rerunning just the square. Does it improve the output or make it worse?

You can calculate new scanning offset values that better suit your specific machine.

Check here for more information on how this works:
Scanning Offset Adjustment - LightBurn Software Documentation

[nickpan (Nick)]

Turning it off produces this result. Actually looks much better, correct? Top result

[berainlb (PY)]

Indeed it does. In that case try running your design to see if that addresses the original quality gap.

[nickpan (Nick)]

Well for the lettering it looks like it fixed the issue. I dropped the DPI to 250.

I will have to try it on some images now. Thanks for the help!