We have been using lightburn with our 6040 Chinese laser now for a few months. Program is great. Now finding more and more uses for the camera so decided to order one. Just not sure exactly which one.
So the bed cut is a 600 wide (640 max)
The height with the door open to the underside is around 750mm
Using the excel calculator I get lens factor of 0.86 so either a 80/90 degree lens. Would this be correct ?
I’m guessing the sizes wouldn’t be exact due to the camera mount etc
And would this same camera still be able to view live video when the lid is shut ?
Please use that and see if you get similar results. I’m also in the middle of writing a deeper doc that explains the finer details of selecting a camera, so if you have specific questions after using our selector, ask away.
Ensure that your measurement is to the focus plane of your bed. You’ll have plenty of leeway if you are a centimeter or so off, I believe, by picking a wider lens.
I had purchased a too-narrow lens, although it picked up the entire bed. When I re-purchased, I went with the 8 mp and found it easier to focus, which made a huge difference in calibration.
I think you’d want to go “higher” by using the 8mp-75, which lists for 500 mm minimum height, well within your scope. Of course, one can add a mount that drops the camera as needed, while it’s more challenging to make the camera work higher.
You would be able to view the camera while the lid is closed, but it’s going to be distorted, as the calibration takes place with the lid open and the compensation is adjusted for that set of light paths.
That appears to be correct. It appears as though all the numbers are falling into place for you.
Previously, I modded my laser with a pair of diode line lasers to replace the single dot. The 3D printed bracket failed from under-engineering and over-tightening. Shortly after, I purchased my camera and never looked back. The camera makes the workflow so much easier. I can get within a couple of mm on the first burn and even tighter if I perform a test and use the x/y adjustments on the fly.
About the only thing I think I’d want to have the laser dot/cross would be print and cut, but I haven’t run into a job that uses that (yet.)
In short, below are reasons why the 5mp-60 may not work well for you (your machine is big enough and you’re going to mount it pretty high up), so you should upgrade to 8mp. 8mp N - 75 has the least wasted space, but the N (narrow) models do not work on Mac. If you’re running Windows you’re fine.
More cameras are in transit to us and should be restocked within a week.
This info from what I’ve been working on writing may help explain the reasoning why:
We’ve found that the around 700-900mm of bed size (the larger of the 2 dimensions) is typically where the 8mp’s increased resolution becomes noticeable. In our camera intro video you can see that the 5mp, 140 degree works well on a common generic 700x500 red and black laser, but it depends on how much alignment accuracy you are looking for and whether you want to spend the little bit extra to get the 8mp. Above this size, we recommend the 8mp.
Lens angle sizes
The 60 and 90 degree lenses on the 5mp camera do not let a lot of light in. If you have a larger machine and the calculator is showing that the 60 or 90 can see your bed, but you would have to mount it pretty high, that can have a negative impact on resolution and the camera would not clearly see your bed. In this case, you might want to consider using a larger lens angle like a 120 or 140 degree, and mounting it lower so that it still sees your bed without too much wasted space around the edges.
Alternatively, you can get an 8mp camera - since it has a larger sensor, more light gets in, and there is no problem
8mp Wide vs Narrow.
Find the one with the least dead space. Narrow doesn’t work on Mac, etc.
The 75 is actually not autofocus like we thought it was. You focus it by manually turning the notched ring that surrounds the lens. It’s a bit of a pain to get traction on - if you have fingernails, try those, and if not, a pair of rounded needle-nose pliers or tweezers work well. Twist about 1/4 turn while holding the metal base. It’s easiest if you have an app like the Windows Camera app running full screen so you can see how clear it is.
Yes, aside from being blurry, the image looks fine. You could probably boost the scale by a bit - try to scale up as large as will comfortably fit in the machine, as that will help with the accuracy.
ideal. Yeah, I did try up to 200% I think to get a better image but I think with the focus still out it didn’t really help. Just had a quick look and it moves fairly easily. Going to do it tomorrow. Its midnight here and stormy outside
does the honeycomb bed need to be completely covered so it doesn’t get confused during the configuration?
It’s only necessary to cover it when doing the lens calibration process with the circles pattern, because the honeycomb looks like a lot of circles, and confuses the code that searches for them.
Good news managed to focus it better although not perfect however that’s probably down to the size and distance.
Managed to calibrate the lens and align it nicely. placed a few pieces of scrap in randomly and wrote curved text around circles etc and it worked pretty well. also etched a name onto a pencil. pretty pleased with it.
I think now my next step is going to update the lighting as I get shadows from the laser light and also the light in the room itself. I’m thinking LED strips either side of the camera so they face straight down when the lids open hopefully eliminating the shadows. probably re-calibrate everything again after.
Going to find out if you can add LED strips to the Ruida Controller.
