I did a software update yesterday and now it has affected my over scanning. V1.4.01 ( I think that is what is happening)
Yesterday I was burning 15" x 15" images. Everything was fine.
Today the burn is going about 1" longer in both directions in X and hitting my magnets.
I’m using a Ruida on an Omtech 100 watt laser.
Did the new update change anything?
Thanks
Ruida controllers compute the overscan internally, so most likely the engraving speed has increased, which then increases the overscan. Reducing the axis acceleration would have the same effect, but that’s a controller setting and seems unreachable by a program update.
Because the engraving speed is set on a layer-by-layer basis within the *.lbrn2 file, it also seems unlikely the update changed it.
However, if the layer is linked to a Material Library entry and that entry changed, then you’d get a different speed for a layer in an unchanged *.lbrn2 file.
If you have daily file backups, perusing the history of all the files might reveal what’s going on. Absent that record, it’s pretty much guesswork.
Thanks for getting back to me.
It must be coincidental then.
This afternoon I cut out a 15" square and it measure correct. When I laser the image at 400 mm / sec left-to-right it goes past the image edge almost 1" and still burns. Like the X is being scaled up by a percentage. It wasn’t doing it yesterday and I did 3 similar images all with the same settings.
@ednisley is right, the Ruida handles overscan.
Does the preview indicate a large overscan?
The scanning offset is in the device settings which is associated to the device.
You description does not sound like any of this…
During overscan, it is not lasing.
Can you give us a better description of the opeation?
What version were you using earlier?
Correctly showing the overscan in Preview is a fairly new add. I believe it was added in 1.3.0. However, note that this only affects what you see in Preview. The actual overscan itself should remain the same.
Are you certain you are getting more physical overscan with the exact same settings or are you basing the increase in overscan on the Preview image?
Indeed, but with the known performance values it is pretty accurate to the actual machine operation… Which was it’s intent, as far as I know.
It’s also very clear that the laser should not lase during this overscan.
I didn’t pick up on that. Yeah. That’s a different problem. But I suspect the lasing is tangential to the overscan portion.
Possibly a failing power supply.
I kept up with the versions. Last one was 1.4.00
If I zoom up on the red / no cut overscan there are black cut lines in there.
I actually did not do a preview the other day when it was working. I noticed it today when the head knocked my magnets off the wood.
Were you working with the same image yesterday? Could it be that the image itself just has some noise that’s coming up as pixels to burn. Try masking it to be sure.
Exact same image. I did 3 different ones all the same settings and they were all good. I turned on the laser today and went to run the same one and this is when it started. So I opened another image that I ran yesterday and same thing.
Then I uploaded the Lightburn file from my office computer and tried to run it and same thing.
Interesting. In any case, if the artifacts are visible in Preview that suggests it’s not a hardware issue. I’m not aware of anything that changed with image rendering in 1.4.01 that would have affected this but it’s not out of the question.
I’d suggest you try 2 things:
I reverted back to V 14.0.00 and same thing. I then masked the image as you suggested and same thing.
@ berainlb suggested it could be a failing power supply?
Can you upload the .lbrn file that you’re using? Can check to see if there’s any issue with the design itself.
To be clear, my concern is not in the overscan itself as that seems normal based on what you’ve shown. It’s that you’re saying that the laser is firing at the fringes of the overscan. That is definitely not right.
If the firing is based on instructions being sent from LightBurn that indicates one potential problem. If however, LightBurn is not instructing the laser to fire at those times then that points to a hardware problem. If hardware, I would suspect LPS but I’m not familiar enough with all failure conditions to say with certainty.
When I did the images the other day it was going 14" only and no further. My material is 15" x 15" and I have a long strip magnet on the left and right holding the material down. The head wasn’t going anywhere close to the magnets. Now the head its them both.
That’s curious. The image itself is 14" square. If the laser head was only travelling across a 14" distance that would mean there was no overscan at all which would be unexpected.
Did you potentially change acceleration settings on your controller? That’s the only thing I can think of that would potentially account for what you observed.
One other thing to look at. Do you have an Scanning Offset Adjustment set in Edit->Device Settings? I could see that potentially changing travel distances.
I’m looking at the .lbrn file. I don’t see anything specifically wrong with it. The artifacts at the edges of preview are a non-issue. It’s just the overscan reflecting the rough edge of the white true white are of the image.
I also took a look at the RD file which didn’t show any artifacts.
Bottom line, I don’t think the firing at the edges is being instructed from LightBurn. This is either a problem at the controller or downstream.
I didn’t change anything at all in settings.
The only other thing that might have caused an issue. It’s a long shot but we had a lot of lightning last night where I live in Arizona. Maybe my laser got a jolt and affected the power supply.
I used to be a service technician and worked on cnc mills and lathes and we would have the customer unplug the RS232 cable when not in use. We got a lot of calls about communications issues. Power spikes had a path to the comm boards and took them out.
I’m looking at ordering a new power supply tonight. That’s the cheapest route for now.
That might account for a bad LPS but can’t make sense of the difference in overscan. Very curious.
Let us know how it goes with the power supply.
I was thinking the 24/5v power supply. I guess I read wrong and could be the Laser Power Supply. A little more expensive for a shotgun attempt of troubleshooting.
I also looked at my factory backup settings and they are the same as what’s in there now.
Also forgot to mention at the end of each pass there doesn’t seem to be a smooth ramp. It’s more of a clunk / hard change in direction. maybe overshooting the end point.
