Hi
I have an xtool d1 pro. I’m trying to engrave on 3mm basswood with lightburn. I am using 70% at 60mm/sec and 0.1mm/ interval.
When engraving we are noticing that we are getting uneven levels of darkness. It seems to be in similar locations no matter where on the wood. And even from wood sheet to wood sheet, the same unevenness occurs (its remarkably consistent). I’ve cleaned the laser head to check that. I’ve tried to focus the laser each time. Please see images attached. You can see the C in Caroline is uneven. The 'l" in caroline and the J, h and n in John.
Any thoughts on how to resolve this is appreciated.
In most cases this is caused by the material. Wood is a natural material that is not consistent in characteristics. Try another sheet and check if it’s different.
^this is the #1 reason for such behaviour, judging by the pics in this case I’d guess it’s the font that is used causing it.
It looks like the interval is tighter or the lines are partially burned twice in certain places.
If there’s a logic behind the error, I for one can’t see what that would be.
It almost looks like there’s a shadow image that’s burned on the letters only, strange.
There is only one engraving layer though?
Things I’d try is to change the font, and perhaps reduce the speed and power to see if anything changes.
Another thing is to check the preview or even the burn itself (if You have an appropriate camera to do so) to find out what actually happens in those areas while engraving.
As a fellow xTool owner I do fully understand the reluctance to even think about it, but how does XCS burn that same text?
Or the same G-code.
Hi
Thanks @misken and @LSS for your responses.
I have done the same engrave on 3 different sheets of wood. All were basswood, but the variation in darkness occurred in the same place on the same name each time. It seems to be happening mostly on the edges (i.e. far left or far right and then again in the middle somewhere). I realized yesterday I don’t have “constant power” toggled on. Is that important? Should it be toggled on? I haven’t had that ever on.
Oh and yes, only one layer was used to burn. I can certainly try to reduce the speed. I also thought about reducing the interval (i.e. from 0.1mm to 0.08). The power is currently at 70%. Do you have suggestions about how much to reduce to make a difference? or just burn some different trials and see what works best? The reason I chose 70/60 to begin with is that the materials test gave a darkness I liked best. But I can try to figure out another combination.
As far as whether XCS burns the same way, I haven’t tried yet. When I get home from work I can try and see how it turns out.
I’ve also put a ticket into Xtool asking about this. Maybe its a simple issue with the software, but I’m worried it might be a bigger issue with the laser itself. My laser is only about 1 month old.
This is what I think is happening. It’s worth testing.
If the dark area is engraved twice or if the line interval changes, it can be seen with a GCode viewer. There’s a free plug-in for Notepad++.
To check this, load either Leaf pattern that shows this ‘doubling’, then in LightBurn, click File, click Save GCode and save the file somewhere convenient.
Please drag and drop that file into your next reply here. I’ll take a look and comment.
You can also download Notepad++, find and install the GCode plugin called NCnetic and scroll through the GCode to see what’s happening.
If the reason for the dark area isn’t seen in the GCode, it would have to come from the controller or some mechanical behavior. If it’s in the GCode, I’d ask if you’d be willing to share the LightBurn lbrn or lbrn2 file here for further analysis.
Eric, I don’t engrave at that power setting on my 10W laser, so you might try 25% power for the lettering and run 1 pass, check the wood, and if you need it darker try increasing the pass count until it looks the same. On most wood lettering I reduce power and vary # of passes and it is never the same from wood to wood even on the same sheet. Check after each pass to see if the burn pattern is the same, you may also want to try rotating the wood so you are engraving across the grain and not with the grain.
I just ran this again. I decreased the interval to 0.08mm. Otherwise I kept things about the same. I’m including the gcode output as well as the lightburn file.
One more update @LSS , I tried XCS and got a similar issue. I have submitted a ticket to Xtool. I hope they can resolve this.
