Z1 Comgrow 5W not tracking consistently

LightBurn Hardware Compatibility
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1

I purchased the Z1 Comgrow 5W laser and have used if for about two months. It has worked fine and was a definite upgrade from my iCube 3W laser. I bring this up because I have a problem that seems to happen on one and not the other.

I can cut and burn on either and they appear to work fine. But sometimes my jobs on the Comgrow Z1 are moved to the right slightly. Being somewhat new to this, and the fact that it doesn’t seem to happen every time, I have been blaming my inexperience (must have bumped or not paid attention while lining it up).

However, after a day of testing, I have been able to definitely confirm it’s the hardware itself. Here is the issue:

When running a job on the laser, I can frame and then immediately burn and it works fine. I can ask it to frame the job over and over and it works fine. However, if at any time it returns to Home, it comes back slightly to the right (maybe 1 or 2 mm). and then it frames in that same spot. If I have it burn the same job over and over, it consistently burns slightly to the right. Here is the interesting part. If I then turn off the laser and turn it on again, it will burn / frame that same job in the correct spot - without me having moved anything or made any changes in Lightburn.

This same issue does not happen on the iCube 3w laser.

My first thought was an issue with the firmware, but I am running the latest version. Just to be safe, I ran the firmware update this morning. I’m still getting the same issue. Here is what the console shows: VER:V2.3.0.20230830:$I OPT:VZL,15,128

I’m down to maybe a belt issue or some other adjustment to the Z1 - hoping someone will have had this issue and resolved it. Thanks! Dan

2

I’d start with belt tension to see if that helps, but also check to see if your machine is square. Although being out of square is unlikely, it can lead to some odd results like this, especially if one or both of the limit switches aren’t triggering reliably.

You can also try to reach out to Comgrow directly if your troubleshooting isn’t fruitful. Hopefully, they’ll know what’s going on or provide you with more machine specific information

3

Thanks joed. I have reached out to the Comgrow folks to see if they have any idea. I had no thought of the machine was not square - that is an interesting thought. I appreciate your thoughts - I will provide updates as I progress.

4

Another possibility is that the cables are stretched a bit tight in the Home position. If motor power is not kept on during idle times, the cables might spring back slightly.

One more possibility, if it is not 100% repeatable when Homed, is that the approach and pull-off speeds may be too high. Slower speeds give improved accuracy when doing a Home cycle.

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Good morning joed. It seems as though the belts were the issue. I tightened them, and it seems to track correctly now. Thanks for the suggestion!

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Good morning Mikey. Thanks for all of the tips - I will keep them in my tool belt for future issues. At this point, it seems as though the belts had stretched a bit. I tightened them and it seems to be tracking properly now. Thanks again for the thoughts!

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“Routine Maintenance” = Don’t worry about until it breaks. :face_with_bags_under_eyes: :rofl: