Hello I have a question I have a very nice laser an Opt Lasers 6 watt with Uspot lens.
Now i have it running on my Stepcraft D 840 LPT Uccnc. I read that more then year ago Lightburn say that the would look to put a universal gcode generator in Lightburn.
This would be really great for me because now I can only control my Opt Laser with Uccnc laser plugin.
I would like to know more because I would really like to use Lightburn to make even more beautiful loadings.
kind regards Andre
Based on this link the controller on the D480 is a very standard Arduino based board running GRBL. In that case, LightBurn should work with your CNC laser today.
STEPCRAFT D840 CNC Review[2022]: Solid Choice? - MellowPine
Had you ever tried connecting LightBurn to the machine?
Do you have access to any console messages that tell you what version of GRBL you are running today? Ideally it would be something 1.1f or newer. Itâs likely that you could update your firmware even if that werenât the case.
LightBurn has a 30 day free trial if you want to try to get this working.
Hello,
I have a Stepcraft D 840 with a Uc-100 controller that runs to a cable to my board on my Stepcraft to LPT and the other side runs with a normal usb to my computer.
Yes i have try many times to connect but lightburn doesnât sees him.
My cnc operate on the software Uccnc.
The Uc-100 controller i think is the problem that is not supported any type of grbl. Wen i try to search i doesnât find my controller or my uccnc.
So i donât know how now further.
I hope maybe you know what to do.
Greetings
There must be multiple controllers available for the D 840 in that case. UC100 seems to not be a supported controller.
You could try setting up a device in LightBurn as GRBL-M3 and saving the gcode to run in Mach-3 or whatever software youâre running.
Alternatively, if you could convert the machine to GRBL or LinuxCNC that would make it directly addressable from LightBurn. Iâve never seen anyone using LinuxCNC but itâs listed as a supported device.
Hereâs one reference of someone setting up a GRBL controller:
CNC (weigu.lu)
Found this board that might be usable as well though it looks like it was designed for different hardware:
GitHub - eflukx/Stepcraft-GRBLizer: Replacement (âArduinoâ) controller that fits inside a Stepcraft CNC machine. Comptatible with GRBL and EstlCAM
I have tried that with all formats present in lightburn.
But my Uccnc uses different gcode control.
So unfortunately that doesnât work, I also tried to modify the gcode but that didnât work either.
I still hope that Lightburn wants to build in a universal gcode generator, I had hope that it had already happened because the last message that lightburn gave saying that they wanted to do it was more than two years ago.
In what way does UCCNC expect the g-code to be different? At some point modifying the g-code will work. Itâs not like the controller knows where the g-code originated.
Thereâs no g-code that will somehow work for all machines. G-code needs to be generated for each dialect of machine. Itâs likely that LB today already uses a general g-code engine with exceptions for each controller type. The only question is if thereâs a reason to support the dialect of g-code that UCCNC uses. If LB cannot directly drive the controller I see little reason to support g-code generation specific to the controller which is the last post I saw on this.
The easiest route is likely to figure out why the GRBL-M3 code doesnât work.
Yes my gcode is not so good, a friend of my try to help me. We made indeed a GRBL-M3 gcode but all the letters and code a different. And i try many things but i cannot fix the problem. Is there maybe a tutorial that can help me further with this problem. ??? I hope
There are many places to learn g-code. A google search will pull-up many such resources. The trick is in learning the specific nuances required by our controller.
What software are you using today to run your laser? Are you able to save the gcode for a simple example like a 100x100 mm rectangle and post here? We can take a look and see how it compares go GRBL-M3.
ASPIRE STEPCRAFT GCODE.txt (563 Bytes)
This is made in Aspire with the laser sumulation in a end mill that works great for me.
( ASPIRE STEPCRAFT GCODE )
( File created: Wednesday April 13 2022 - 07:45 PM)
( for Stepcraft2 Laser )
( Material Size)
( X= 210.000, Y= 210.000, Z= 0.001)
(Toolpaths used in this file:)
(ASPIRE STEPCRAFT GCODE)
G00G21G17G90G40G49G80
G71G91.1
T1M06
G0Z0.001
G0X0.000Y0.010
M03
(Toolpath:- ASPIRE STEPCRAFT GCODE)
()
G94
X0.000Y0.010F520.0
M11
G0X55.000Y55.000Z0.001
G1Z-0.001F400.0
M10Q41
M10Q41
G1Y155.000F520.0
M10Q41
G1X155.000
M10Q41
G1Y55.000
M10Q41
G1X55.000
M11
G1Z0.001F1040.0
G0Z0.001
G0X0.000Y0.010
M5
M9
M30
M2
%
What power setting did you configure the job to? I donât see how power is being set in that g-code.
Can you try running the attached gcode? How does it work? If there are errors can you paste them here?
GRBL-M3-100x100mm.txt (302 Bytes)
I will test it today and report again.
My set power was 41 %
Thatâs what the âM10Q41â must be. You may need to add this and/or remove the S commands.
Oke i test the gcode you send but my cnc is running the gcode and follows the vector of the square.
But my laser stays off doesnt respond.
Wen i run my own made gcode that i made in Aspire that will runs perfect and i get what i want.
But i hope that i can generate a gcode of photos i want to make but then with dithering and Stucki or Jarvis. And tthen save it as gcode and then i can laser them so i get way better results.
( ASPIRE STEPCRAFT GCODE )
( File created: Wednesday April 13 2022 - 07:45 PM)
( for Stepcraft2 Laser )
( Material Size)
( X= 210.000, Y= 210.000, Z= 0.001)
(Toolpaths used in this file:)
(ASPIRE STEPCRAFT GCODE)
G00G21G17G90G40G49G80
G71G91.1
T1M06
G0Z0.001
G0X0.000Y0.010
M03
(Toolpath:- ASPIRE STEPCRAFT GCODE)
()
G94
X0.000Y0.010F520.0
M11
G0X55.000Y55.000Z0.001
G1Z-0.001F400.0
M10Q41
M10Q41
G1Y155.000F520.0
M10Q41
G1X155.000
M10Q41
G1Y55.000
M10Q41
G1X55.000
M11
G1Z0.001F1040.0
G0Z0.001
G0X0.000Y0.010
M5
M9
M30
M2
%
Can you try this file? Be prepared to shut off the laser in case there is an issue.
GRBL-M3-100x100mmv2.txt (268 Bytes)
If that works, can you try this one as well? Itâs an image file in dither mode.
Marlin-M3-dither.txt (53.6 KB)
i go and try it out
Okay, both gcodes donât activate my laser, it stays off.
My cnc just goes to the start position and then it follows the square and goes back to zero when itâs done.
This is the same for the Marling code, here in also goes to the small square and the cnc follows but the laser stays off.
Yes with the last gcode my cnc goes to the start point laser goes on low power and follows the square and wen the square is ready laser goes off and goes back to start point.
sorry the forum let me not respond quicker because im a starter forum member.