To start, I don’t have a laser machine but a 6040 CNC machine on which I’ll be adding a laser module.
I want to use Lightburn to generate the G-code.
I downloaded the trial version.
My rotary setup is along the Y axis, not the X.
If I select A in the rotary setup then the gcode uses X and A.
Any way to change the orientation of the rotary?
There is no option to switch cables around, or attach the the Y to the rotary. My machine is setup perfectly for milling, I’m not tinkering with that
If a plain GRBL device doesn´t work for you, maybe if you set a Custom GCode Device has the editable settings you need.
Here is the official doc on the subject:
No that just assumes you connect your motor for the rotary to that axis. Not what I’m looking for.
I’m looking into the custom gcode thing but I don’ fully understand it yet.
My laser hasn’t arrived yet either so I can’t test it anyway, but the simplest method I found now is to rotate my drawing 90° and simply replace all the X with Y in the gcode file
That will give me time to test the laser, I’ll get into the custom gcode if I decide to buy Lightburn.
No. You said you wanted to have Y and A instead of X and A. That’s what you said in the beginning. Then this option will do that for you.
Custom gcode doesn’t let you swap the axis.
I will double check but I looked at the Gcode. If you select either X or Y then the program asumes your rotary is either X or Y and maps the rotary to that axis still using X and Y in the Gcode. I did not find any option to have Y and A in the gcode.
Correct. But that’s not what I was talking about. I meant you should select A as the rotary axis as desired. But you said, you wanted to use Y and A instead of X and A.
So, you can use this option:
Which will change the workspace orientation for you, which will actually change the x and y axis in the back.
I have to add that I don’t know how calculations in the backend are done, if X and Y are just flipped or if it does something different. If it just changes X and Y, this would replace your workflow of manually changing X to Y in the gcode.
Put some round stock in your Rotary, like the inner of a kitchen paper roll and attach a pencil marker to your router head. Align the pencil tip with the center of the roll.
and Enable when sending (Start) the project to the CNC (laser).
Also check if your CNC has the Origin at back-right.
Maybe the CNC controller don´t have Laser Dynamic Mode and we have to change the Device to GRBL-M3.
As his the mark shoul start from near to far from the front of the machine.
This does seem to work for the rotarty, but then X and Y are flipped without rotary
So I have to remember to flip the workspace if I’m working for rotary or not.
Anyway, I’ll play around with it a bit when the laser is on the machine.
Thx for the effort but That wont work. My machine has 0 point left bottom. And as you mentioned my controller (UCCNC) does not have a laser function so I need to GRBL-M3 to rutn off the laser before every G0 rapid move.
I’ll repost if I can’t figure it out!
Thank you.
