Hi there - thank you for a wonderful software - I hope to make this my main go to tool for my woodworking channel. I am having a challenge with Z-axis control. My configuration is a Shapeoko XL and the J-Tech Photonics laser. Everything works fine - burning, XY axis setup (which was complicated to say the least - I will have a separate post with suggestions).
My biggest and only challenge is the Z-axis control: it seems LightBurn reverts to relative Z axis, completely ignoring the material thickness set for the layer. I enabled Z-axis control, disabled “only relative Z moves” and set the thickness. What I see in the Gcode control is that a G91 command proceeds the G0 Z-0.75 (my material thickness is set to 0.75"). As a result - the head always moves 3/4" down from whatever position it starts. Second time I run - it goes does another 3/4" - etc until it hits the material. At no point does it actually go to the right height above the board. Do you have a solution or need further info to debug this situation?
The LightBurn setup should prompt you if you have an XCarve or Shapeoko machine, and automatically set up the macros to switch the origin point for you and set laser mode. Did that not work? (I’m curious why you said the XY setup was complicated)
For the Z control, I will need to try this to see if I messed up something. Most users either don’t use the Z, or use it in relative mode, so it’s possible (likely) that I broke absolute moves, but I’ll check. Are you using Absolute Coords, or one of the other ‘Start From’ settings?
Hi there - I did select Shapeoko and even enhanced the macros - but since the gcode you send follows AFTER I send the macros - I can not affect the relative vs absolute. BTW - I tried toggling the “start from” setting - but it did not affect the Z axis behavior (but did mess up my carefully planned offsets in the macro…)
BTW - I am running on a Mac - not sure if you are using a common code base but thought I should point out.
I spent some time on this last night and think I have this sorted out. The code will now auto-return to the initial Z height when using Current Position or User Origin modes, both of which are relative positioning, so the Z doesn’t keep walking further away.