I am using a spider X1 laser and I’m brand new to all of this. I set up the frame; the x axis is 800 mm and the y axis is 400 mm. When I create a project and position my engraving (it’s just a test pattern at this point) and I start the laser cut the test pattern it starts much higher on the Y axis than I have it positioned on the grid according to the lightburn software. Because of this the unit gets stuck trying to go higher up on the y axis than the frame allows; make sense. 1) what am I doing wrong ? 2) is there a way to manually give it a starting point rather than having the laser position itself when I hit start ?
If I can’t get a simple test pattern burned maybe I should consider a new hobby 
Start my selecting Absolute Coords in the Laser window. This will make positioning more predictable.
-
Enable Homing switches if you have them. This will make the machine knowing where it is located more predictable.
-
If no homing switches, position the machine very close to, but not on, the front left corner. Power up the machine. Then click Set Origin in the Move window.
Do not do both #1 & #2.Pick only one.
Don’t do that. I have too many hobbies myself.
You have a couple of options here.
If you have homing or limit switches, make sure your machine is homing on startup to give LightBurn a known position to work from. If you don’t have homing or limit switches you can manually move your gantry to your 0,0 location and then click the Set Origin button to tell LB you’re at 0,0 and then use the User Origin for your Start From.
My preferred method though is to use Current Position for the Start From. Unless you’re using a workpiece that fills your entire bed or using fixed position jigs where you’ll always have a known X,Y coordinate, Current Position is just so much easier. Manually move or jog your laser to your workpiece and use your target laser to set the position on your workpiece that matches the Job Origin setting. Then your job will work relative from that position.
One of the common traps that newer users deal with is thinking that the position on screen has to match the position on the laser bed and that’s only true if you’re using Absolute Coordinates.
All of these settings are found in the Laser tool box.
Reference the documentation here. It will help answer a lot of your questions about this: Coordinates & Origin - LightBurn Software Documentation
The laser is a Spider X1 and it’s supposed to automatically home itself each time I turn it on. It should home to the bottom left but it keeps going to the top left and does not stop when it gets there. I keep trying figure out how to fix this in light burn. Any suggestions ?
What’s the history of this laser? Is this brand new? Have you made customizations to it?
LightBurn is not directly involved in how your machine homes. That’s purely handled by the controller. If the machine is not homing in the proper direction either there’s something wrong in the hardware or something wrong in the controller configuration.
If you have not done any customizations and the machine shipped this way then my first suggestion would be to review your wiring. Make sure that you have not plugged in the Y-axis cables in backwards on either the stepper or controller side. If you have, correct by reversing the cable. Then test again.
If you are absolutely certain that the wiring is correct then you can remedy this in configuration.
First, can you confirm whether or not jogging controls work correctly? Meaning up moves up, down moves down, left moves left, and right moves right?
Please run these commands in Console and return the full output:
$I
$$
$#
?
The laser is new and I just set it up a couple weeks ago. The problem only occurs when I have the machine hooked up to my laptop with lightburn running. Otherwise it does not occur. I have to assume it’s a setting in lightburn I made a mistake with.
You’re saying it homes to the bottom-left if LightBurn is not running? Or it doesn’t attempt to home at all?
Can you confirm that your machine has homing switches?
Are you able to confirm jogging direction and run the commands listed in the previous post?
I disconneted the laser from my comupter. I re-setup the spider x1 acoring to the directions and it homed just fine. It moves as expected when using the arrows on the laser touch screen. But as soon as I connect it to my computer and to lightburn it goes up to the top left and doe does not stop when it get to the corner of the frame (yes I’m using the frame) so I have to shut the laser off and I am not able to try the commands you asked me to perform.
Can you provide a detailed description of the homing process?
Can you explain what this means? Is there an option not to use the frame?
Also, to confirm, you’re saying the laser moves to top-left as soon as LightBurn connects to the laser?
Can you provide the following:
- Full screenshot of LightBurn. Please have Laser window in view for the screenshot
- Screenshot of Edit->Device Settings
If you connect to Lightburn with the laser powered up, and Auto-home on startup is enabled, Lightburn will issue a $H command to the controller. That is all it does. It does not tell the controller where or how to perform the home operation.
type or paste code here
Auto-home on startup is in the Device Settings window. I see you have Beginner Mode checked. That hides some of the controls.
You are showing Edit->Settings rather than Edit->Device Settings. Can you double check and create a screenshot there?
Also, can you please answer the questions from my previous post. They’re important to understand the circumstances of what’s going on.
Are you able to answer the other questions? Else there’s nothing to go off for next steps.
$I
[VER:1.1.2023042401:]
[OPT:MPHSW]
[MSG:Using machine:MKS DLC32]
[MSG:Mode=STA:SSID=EFUDD:Status=Connected:IP=192.168.50.235:MAC=80-64-6F-3E-85-A0]
ok
$$
$0=10
$1=255
$2=0
$3=1
$4=0
$5=1
$6=0
$10=1
$11=0.010
$12=0.002
$13=0
$20=0
$21=1
$22=1
$23=1
$24=300.000
$25=1000.000
$26=250.000
$27=1.000
$28=1000.000
$30=1000.000
$31=0.000
$32=1
$43=0
$38=1
$37=1
$40=1
$100=80.000
$101=44.440
$102=80.000
$103=100.000
$104=100.000
$105=100.000
$110=6000.000
$111=6000.000
$112=6000.000
$113=1000.000
$114=1000.000
$115=1000.000
$120=500.000
$121=500.000
$122=500.000
$123=200.000
$124=200.000
$125=200.000
$130=400.000
$131=400.000
$132=80.000
$133=300.000
$134=300.000
$135=300.000
ok
$$
$0=10
$1=255
$2=0
$3=1
$4=0
$5=1
$6=0
$10=1
$11=0.010
$12=0.002
$13=0
$20=0
$21=1
$22=1
$23=1
$24=300.000
$25=1000.000
$26=250.000
$27=1.000
$28=1000.000
$30=1000.000
$31=0.000
$32=1
$43=0
$38=1
$37=1
$40=1
$100=80.000
$101=44.440
$102=80.000
$103=100.000
$104=100.000
$105=100.000
$110=6000.000
$111=6000.000
$112=6000.000
$113=1000.000
$114=1000.000
$115=1000.000
$120=500.000
$121=500.000
$122=500.000
$123=200.000
$124=200.000
$125=200.000
$130=400.000
$131=400.000
$132=80.000
$133=300.000
$134=300.000
$135=300.000
ok
$#
[G54:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G55:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G56:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G57:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G58:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G59:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G28:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G30:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G92:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[TLO:0.000]
[PRB:0.000,0.000,0.000:0]
ok
?
<Idle|MPos:-880.000,879.996,0.000|FS:0,0|Pn:PX|WCO:0.000,0.000,0.000|PS:100|PF:100>
ok
$I
[VER:1.1.2023042401:]
[OPT:MPHSW]
[MSG:Using machine:MKS DLC32]
[MSG:Mode=STA:SSID=EFUDD:Status=Connected:IP=192.168.50.235:MAC=80-64-6F-3E-85-A0]
ok
$$
$0=10
$1=255
$2=0
$3=1
$4=0
$5=1
$6=0
$10=1
$11=0.010
$12=0.002
$13=0
$20=0
$21=1
$22=1
$23=1
$24=300.000
$25=1000.000
$26=250.000
$27=1.000
$28=1000.000
$30=1000.000
$31=0.000
$32=1
$43=0
$38=1
$37=1
$40=1
$100=80.000
$101=44.440
$102=80.000
$103=100.000
$104=100.000
$105=100.000
$110=6000.000
$111=6000.000
$112=6000.000
$113=1000.000
$114=1000.000
$115=1000.000
$120=500.000
$121=500.000
$122=500.000
$123=200.000
$124=200.000
$125=200.000
$130=400.000
$131=400.000
$132=80.000
$133=300.000
$134=300.000
$135=300.000
ok
$$
$0=10
$1=255
$2=0
$3=1
$4=0
$5=1
$6=0
$10=1
$11=0.010
$12=0.002
$13=0
$20=0
$21=1
$22=1
$23=1
$24=300.000
$25=1000.000
$26=250.000
$27=1.000
$28=1000.000
$30=1000.000
$31=0.000
$32=1
$43=0
$38=1
$37=1
$40=1
$100=80.000
$101=44.440
$102=80.000
$103=100.000
$104=100.000
$105=100.000
$110=6000.000
$111=6000.000
$112=6000.000
$113=1000.000
$114=1000.000
$115=1000.000
$120=500.000
$121=500.000
$122=500.000
$123=200.000
$124=200.000
$125=200.000
$130=400.000
$131=400.000
$132=80.000
$133=300.000
$134=300.000
$135=300.000
ok
$#
[G54:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G55:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G56:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G57:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G58:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G59:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G28:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G30:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G92:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[TLO:0.000]
[PRB:0.000,0.000,0.000:0]
ok
?
<Idle|MPos:-880.000,879.996,0.000|FS:0,0|Pn:PX|WCO:0.000,0.000,0.000|PS:100|PF:100>
ok
It’s not clear to me what you’re trying to achieve. I’m asking you to provide additional details related to specific unanswered questions in previous posts but you’re posting seemingly random things with no additional context.
At this point it’s unclear to me what you’re facing or if the context has changed at all.
What is the current state? Are you facing the same original issue or something else?
Seems to me that the homing is not actually working. X switch is actively being actuated and position after homing is unusual.
I am still facing the sme problem. What I posted was the answers to the commands I thought you were asking for. What other questions do you need answered ?