A friend of mine gave me his new laser, because he never got anywhere with it. i made some progress, but I’m new to lightburn. I’ve been a K40 Whisperer person, so forgive me if this is common, but I’m doubting it. the system works in XCS, no problems there other than the software is laggy on my system.
But via lightburn:
I have the machine connected, and it will frame. It won’t frame based on any laser offset, but it moves the laserhead approximately in the space that it should engrave.
I can cut vectors, and manually move my axis where they need to go via the commands.
But when I go to engrave, either via filled shaped objects in the program, or imported PNG’s set to dither, it will either move the axis to the furthest Y postion, not moving the X, and then stop and return, or it will it do the Y move, while trying to drive the X axis into a negative space past the limit switch(tested by disabling the limit switches).
I’m using absolute positioning, I’ve imported the D1 Pro device settings file from Xtool. I’ve set the machine to engrave at 0, 1 and 25%. Pass through is disabled.
The gcode sent is:
Starting stream
Layer C00
M8 N1
Stream completed in 0:00
ok
[MSG:Pgm End]
I find it’s weird that it’s moving yet no move commands are being sent. And this is with the “show all” setting activated in the console window.
Have You installed the required .lbdev file following these:
instructions.
Since the XCS works, You most likely have already upgraded the firmware, or it is the current (/the last) one.
If Your friend bought the laser new, he/she most likely has recieved a (non transferrable?) gift coupon code -because D1 family has been discontinued- that can be used in the xTool shop, worth it to check it out.
Yup current firmware, and used the .lbdev file. It seems so strange. Even if I position a small block in the middle of the workspace. It’ll frame to it, but if I set it to fill and click go, if the laser head is in the middle it’ll home and start slamming into the left if the limit switch is disabled. I’ve reenabled it since then however. Now it just stops. It’s probably something simple, but it’s been a headache for days
If You’re using 2.something LB version, one thing You could try would be to use some earlier 1.something version.
I don’t remember seeing that exact behaviour You’re experiencing mentioned previously, but most xTool users have been a lot happier in the past with the earlier versions rather than the latest one.
The reason being xTool parent company Makeblock and its protectionistic policies.
The LB staff have been working really hard -and done a superb job- the past few years to keep up with them, but they have been fighting the losing battle, Makeblock have always been a step or a two ahead of them.
For no good reason IMO either.
Since the D1 family has been discontinued, at some point the new LB upgrades inevitably reach the point where our D1’s no longer work fully with the new LB versions.
I for one definitely do not expect the LB staff to do anything about it, it’s just the way it is with discontinued hardware/firmware/software products.
And even then it’s just the matter of replacing the controller with something fully LB compatible, something I may well do sooner rather than later .
Well, some progress! The version he installed on my system was 1.7.0. I downloaded the latest, 2.0 version and it appears to work! I haven’t done a full test but it’s clearly moving more like it actually would try to do something. It was doing 45deg swipes at least. It was the end of the night and I didn’t have much left in me.
I’ll know more later in the week. Now I have to build an enclosure and get ventilation going.
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