Originally bought to do engraving on small items, it also came with a 2 watt IR laser which has sat in its box for two years until I decided to try it out yesterday on some aluminium and brass.
Is there a specific .lbdev config file for use with this IR laser unit? The reason I’m asking is that it frames the job fine in Lightburn, but when I actually hit the Start button it does two things - first it tells me that I’m out of bounds (which I’m not) and secondly it has a -16mm offset - I think the second problem is that the 16mm is to account for the offset to the cross-hairs on the standard diode laser unit, which the IR unit doesn’t have.
I can edit the .lbdev file easily, or just remove the offset in the settings, but is there anything else that needs changing for the IR unit?
As for the out of bounds, I have no idea why this is appearing, especially when I’m engraving a 20x20mm symbol in the middle of the bed. Any ideas?
Finally, I’m well aware that this little laser is slightly outdated these days, but its a shame not to keep using it - has anyone done any useful upgrades to bring it up to date?
Make a copy of the device, then modify the copy for the IR module… I assume some day you’ll switch back, so you don’t want to break the original copy for the led module.
Yes, thanks - I’ve got a copy of the original file as well as my modified file, and now have two different setups- one for the 40w diode and one for the IR laser unit.
With some more digging I’ve realised that the setup for these X-Tools is a bit different to my CO2 Ruida machine - in particular it sets the x0 and y0 position on startup to wherever the laser happens to be. So starting a job at that position, especially if it has a fill, means that it will overshoot one or both zero points. A really dumb mistake, and obvious with a little thought, but it has sat unused for so long I’d forgotten all these little details! I’ve now set it to home itself on start-up, so it should now have a sensible 0,0 position.
The xTool machine likely handles negative numbers (internally), which the Ruida does not. So it has to know which quadrant it’s operating within. With only positive numbers you can locate anywhere within that quadrant.
This is the coordinate system, all (hobby) machines are 0, 0 when they power up.
The default home position on the D1 pro is the back left corner, so the same as your machine, and yes, it has home and limit switches on both axes. The supplied .lbdev file contains these two lines:
“MirrorX”: false,
“MirrorY”: true,
-which seems to imply the quadrant 4 setup is the norm for this model.
On my CO2 laser I’ve set it up so its at the front left corner - it’s a 900x500 bed so this is much better for access having the laser where I can reach it for cleaning etc. It’s a long time since I first set up the CO2 but I vaguely remember having to play with the Ruida settings and the stepper motor connections to get it working in the orientation I wanted - all part of the fun of building a machine from bits I guess. I use this machine a fair bit, so regularly make backups of the Ruida settings.
