Lightburn 1.4.03
OMTech Polar 350
Windows 10 x64
Ruida controller 64423S/G
I read parts of the manual, I have watched a video or two. Not many on doing the z offset out there it seems.
So what I am trying to do is get the head to move up and down when doing a engrave layer then a cut or score layer. What I do now is manually set the focus by hand, engrave then turn it off. Then turn on the cut and score layers , reset the focus and run them.
So I have the 3 green buttons on Z control enabled. I have tried different combos of on/off what any luck.
I have a 3 layer design. First layer engrave, second layer score a line, third layer cut.
Engrave layer I put a z offset of -10.1mm ( seems the Polar needs it numbers opposite than what others need).
For the cut layer I have z offset at -6.3mm. Tried -5mm. I tried 6… and 5mm and what happens is that the head goes up regardless whether positive or negative.
If I manually drop the head to the engraving height first then run the job it will drop the head to cut, but will not when I have the two z offsets in there.
Any ideas on this ?
Also need some clarification on the numbers to put in the offset.
When I turn on the laser and it homes xyz z is 25mm off the honeycomb bed.
3mm material makes it 22mm. When I set the head manually to engrave the control panel reads 10.1mm… So when I put the z offset am I putting 11.9mm to drop down to 10.1 or do I put 10.1 the actual drop I want it at ?
For the second drop am I putting the distance from the 10.1mm to 6.3mm that I want to be at. So 3.8mm for the drop offset or 6.3mm actual height I want it at. ?
I have tried so many combinations of settings and numbers that I confused the hell out of myself.
If you get the 1.5 public beta there has been an accommodation made specifically for the Polar Z-axis.
In Edit->Device Settings you can set:
Enable Z Axis
Omtech Polar
Optimize Z Moves
This allows you to use positive values for Material Height and the machine will focus to the height accordingly.
For the per layer offset you may then be able to use the “Z Offset” in the Cut Setting for that layer to adjust the Z. I don’t know if you need positive or negative numbers there but it may be the opposite of what’s listed.
Note that I have not tried this but don’t see why it wouldn’t work.
Okay. Didn’t think it would be a big deal running two versions as long as they weren’t going at one time. I’ll just over write the old. Not a brave Beta man after years of Beta beatings with so many other softwares.
Thanks for the help all.
I think you’re right to be weary. 1.5.0 is an especially large release with many fundamental internal changes. There are sure to be regressions and issues.
The good thing is that right now it seems relatively stable. The issues you are likely to encounter are more inconveniences or oddities. However, given the improvement in quality of life for Polar users I suspect worth the risk.