I have come upon a strange problem which I can’t seem to solve. My laser, which is driven by RepRap via a duet3, works from LightBurn as GRBL-M3 with the device setup set to output an S value for every G1. I have been trying for a couple of days now to do an engraving and fill it with contrasting wood using adhesive backed aluminium foil as in a couple of YouTube videos. This requires the design to be engraved into the substrate and the design to then be mirrored and it’s colour to be inverted so that it can be used to cut away parts of a veneer stuck to the aluminium foil. The first part of the engraving works fine but, when I try to generate a gcode file from the reversed image, it will not attach the S values to the G1 moves. I have tried the generation process on 3 different installations of LightBurn on both Windows and Mac machines and got the same problem each time. LightBurn is up-to-date and paid for. Any ideas, please help while I still have a few hairs left….
This is the video I am trying to recreate https://youtu.be/O9dBHfOY0wQ?feature=shared
Before you get too far down the rabbit hole, you do know he used a Bolt RF laser, right?
Yes, there’s also another chap doing it with a different machine. I don’t think the actual machine matters. My problem is the inconsistency of LightBurn in not doing what is set in the device settings.
Yes, I saw that. I recommend you send an email to support@LightburnSoftware.com and attach:
- A link to this thread
- Full details about your home-made laser
- The Lightburn version you are currently using
- The Lightburn project (.lbrn2) file that fails
- Any other information that you think may or may not be relevant
I have included @JohnJohn in case I did not cover it all.
If it did not matter, we would all have the cheaper diode machines.
If both are scanned, then both should produce the same gcode.
I don’t know your controller or how much power your laser has, as I it isn’t in your profile. The machine will matter as a low power led, may not be able to produce a deep enough engrave on either piece.
Just because you invert the image, the controller doesn’t know or care.
I have no idea what you’re using the S code for anyway… As far as I knew it was the spindle speed (pwm for the laser)?
Might watch this video about inlays from Trotek, basically the same idea, but, I think, is more simple.
Thanks Jack. My laser has 10w output power and easily engraves deep enough for 0.5 mm veneer at 1500mm and 70% power. I think I may have resolved the problem by moving the inverted image to a new layer, I’ll test it later today. Files produced on LightBurn work fine on my RepRap duet3 controller but it does complain about a couple of spurious codes it doesn’t understand in laser mode, specifically G40, M4 and M9, however, it just brings up a complaint message and ignores them. For files I use repeatedly, I open the gcode in a text editor and use a macro to strip out these codes.
I have kept both the negative and positive on separate layers. I can then turn the output of each layer on/off.
Have you submitted these error/warning messages to Lightburn?
In my view, anytime I get errors or warnings, the operation is questionable.
I hope the Trotec video was of help, I think it’s quicker and doesn’t use any foil.
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