Lighting, too much / too litte

LightBurn Hardware Compatibility Cameras
1

Finally got my lightburn camera installed and configured. I have the 140 deg lightburn camera on my 700x500 laser.
Having the layout on the lightburn software screen is very nice!
However, something I have noticed, is that the camera calibration is very finicky about the amount of light. If have have the overhead fluorescent light on, the camera can’t find the circles image at all, tho it is perfectly visible in camera control. If the overhead light is off, with only the light strip in the laser on, then the image is dark, but the camera can “see” it. Is there an adjustment for this?

I have also noticed that while the camera image in the camera control tab is pretty detailed, the layout snap is washed out and very grainy. Is there an adjustment for this, as well?

/T

2

One solution to try cheap ND filters.

This post is where I found the information at first. I simply tape the filter on the outside of the camera case I had already made.

Helped with me as I had overhead Led and a steel plate that reflects a lot of the light.

3

nconroy,

I bought the filter set from amazon. My camera mount is the one from lightburn. Any suggestion on how to apply the filter to this setup? Do I just use the ND8 one as in the other forum article?
Thanks for posting the info!

/T

4

I did not think of it, but yes the washed out and grainy overlay would make it difficult to trace a captured image from the bed!
/T

5

I just placed the filter over the hole for lens and tape it to exterior of mount

6

There is a switch called “Fade” in the camera control window. If you turn that off it makes the camera background much clearer. The next release of LightBurn adds exposure and brightness controls (for the Windows version at least)\ and should help with this.

3 Likes
7

Awesome! thanks for the info, sir! I will try the fade button.
Do you have a recommendation for the filters?
/T

8

I don’t, sorry - I haven’t had to use one.

9

The fade slider makes some difference. It darkens the overlay quite a bit. Still very blurry tho’
Is there a difference between what the camera control window shows and the still pic for the overlay?
Perhaps the next update to lightburn will help. Thanks!
/T

10

Have you focused the camera? You say “very blurry” - can you post a screen shot of what you’re seeing?

11

How to post a pic?

12

I turned the focus a bit, and the overlay seems a bit better. When I said it was very blurry, i was zoomed in some as well. Maybe that was the issue?

13

It could easily be - 700mm of bed with 2592 pixels of image stretched across it means you get, at most, 4 image pixels across each mm of area on the bed, less if the camera sees more than just the work area. For accurate placement of work, it’s plenty.

14

Would a lower angle camera be better. Since I have a similar laser to the one mentioned in the doc (700x500) on the camera page, I went with 140 deg. plus that is all Cohesion 3d had in stock :wink:
/T

15

If you have a red/black type ebay machine, I think the 120 is a slightly better fit. You can likely move the camera mount down along the lid so it’s closer to the bed, which would help too.

16

I’ll move down some and see how it goes. Thanks for the info!
/T

17

I moved the camera down to just above the minimum distance. It does help the focus of the overlay some. Still blurry when I zoom in, but, yes more than adequate for design placement, but not good enough for tracing… =( Had to stick the holder to the plexiglass window, but, it works better now.
Thanks for all the info and help!
The filters should be in today from Amazon. I’ll try that and see if it helps with the exposure.

Cheers,
/T

1 Like
18

Mr. OZ, If I purchased the 8MP 110 deg camera, would that be better for my 700mmX500mm laser bed?
Please advise. Thanks!

19

It would give you a better picture, but it’s overkill for a bed that small, and the image doesn’t have to be fantastic to get good placement, as long as you can see details. It might be more usable for tracing.

20

That is what I was thinking. I thought I would be able to do tracing with the current 5MP camera.
But the image is blown out and blurry if I turn any overhead lights on, and way too dark if I turn them off.
I have the exposure filters that someone mentioned earlier in this thread, but have not tried them yet.
Thanks.