Mecpow x3 goes to wrong coordinates

[Manda (Amanda)]

Hello! Total newbie here so please be gentle. Thank you in advance for reading and helping!

Laser: Mecpow x3 pro
** Setup:** Using a honeycomb base that’s smaller than my workspace but aligned with the bottom left corner of my laser
**Problem: .**Lightburn thinks it’s at the right coordinates but the actual laser is in a different spot (both with job Frame and using Move to an absolute position).

I’ve tried setting an offset and tried some other random things that I can’t remember specifically but nothing seemed to work. It’s possible I skipped a config step along the way so if this has already been answered a million times, please feel free to redirect me.

I’ve run the commands I’ve seen requested on almost every “help me” post and the results are below. I should have home set to bottom left.

$H
ok

$I
[PRODUCER:MKS DLC32]
[V2.30(8M.H35.20231023)]
[VER:1.1h.2023102303:]
[OPT:VMPH,63,512]
Target buffer size found
[MSG:Using machine:MKS DLC32]
[MSG:Mode=AP:SSDI=MECPOW_31953:IP=192.168.4.1:MAC=D8-BC-38-57-D1-7D]
ok

$$
$0=10
$1=25
$2=0
$3=3
$4=0
$5=1
$6=0
$10=1
$11=0.010
$12=0.002
$13=0
$20=0
$21=1
$22=1
$23=3
$24=300.000
$25=1000.000
$26=250.000
$27=1.000
$28=1000.000
$30=1000.000
$31=0.000
$32=1
$50=0
$38=1
$40=1
$100=80.000
$101=80.000
$102=80.000
$103=100.000
$104=100.000
$105=100.000
$110=6000.000
$111=6000.000
$112=6000.000
$113=1000.000
$114=1000.000
$115=1000.000
$120=500.000
$121=500.000
$122=500.000
$123=200.000
$124=200.000
$125=200.000
$130=410.000
$131=410.000
$132=50.000
$133=300.000
$134=300.000
$135=300.000
ok

$#
[G54:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G55:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G56:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G57:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G58:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G59:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G28:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G30:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G92:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[TLO:0.000]
[PRB:0.000,0.000,0.000:0]
ok

?
<Idle|MPos:0.000,0.000,0.000|FS:0,0|Pn:P|WCO:0.000,0.000,0.000>
ok

And here are some photos of what I’m trying to do and where the laser is going. Eyeballing it, the laser seems to be physically at ~x:y 290:45 instead of 260:30 as directed.

[parsec (FerAS)]

Post a screenshot of your Lightburn with a job including laser window.
Don’t follow the laser rulers what maters is the positions “seen” by the controller.

First LightBurn Project - LightBurn Documentation

Coordinates and Job Origin - LightBurn Documentation

[Manda (Amanda)]

I’m currently disconnected from my laser so just let me know if you need to see something specific when it’s connected. My project is just a tiny 1"x1" logo. I don’t know what the round circle is - something with focus? I don’t know how to remove it yet.

The laser ends up in the same place when I do a square frame with this project as when I do a go to absolute point with Move.

[misken (Melvin)]

@Manda

Using a honeycomb base that’s smaller than my workspace but aligned with the bottom left corner of my laser

@Manda

Eyeballing it, the laser seems to be physically at ~x:y 290:45 instead of 260:30 as directed.

As @parsec already pointed out, I think your misunderstanding is that the honeycomb rulers should match the laser’s position. They only do if you carefully aligned the honeycomb to the workspace of the laser head, not the frame. Your picture shows that the honeycomb is not placed correctly because the laser will never reach 0 in Y direction. Remember that the laser beam is in the center of the head.
You need to home the laser, turn on the laser beam, and then align the bed such that the beam is pointing at the 0,0 position of the honeycomb.

I recently did some explanations for another machine on how to do such an alignment:

[Manda (Amanda)]

Ohhhhh okay that makes sense. The photos helped a lot! I’ll try that tomorrow and report back.

So random, kind of related question - what if I didn’t have a honeycomb with measurements? I’m assuming that’s what the offset fields are for but putting numbers there didn’t change anything for me in terms of where home is.

[misken (Melvin)]

@Manda

what if I didn’t have a honeycomb with measurements?

You are asking how to align work pieces then? Personally, I never use any external references, and I nearly never use absolute coordinates to start from. If move the laser head where I want it to be and use “current position” as start. Then I don’t have to care about any measurements.
Take a look here for some ideas:

Coordinate systems & workpiece alignment - Diode Laser Wiki

[Manda (Amanda)]

Huh! Thank you so much for the response and reference! This all makes sense and makes things way easier to understand. Since I’m working with such a small space I’m micro focused (haha) on precision so this really helps.

Sooo glad I found this community !

[Manda (Amanda)]

Success! @misken - I took your advice and gave up on the absolute positioning and changed my mindset to relative. Once I figured out how to turn my laser on while framing, the rest was easy.

Tomorrow I try glass and then on to actual bottles!