Ok I followed the instructions setting up macros , ( use laser/ use cnc)
Movements of command icons in light burn are working correct except the home command brings the laser head to the back right ??
In the settings windo I have asked home to be in bottom left
The little green icon is showing in bottom left and under the green icon there seems to be a reddish brown icon there too. Any ideas?
In the “Use laser” macro, what X and Y values did you use in the G10 L2 P1 line ?
This is the line that should make Lightburn home to the bottom left
Did you determine the values for your specific machine as described in the video ?
G10 L2 P1 X-762 Y-762. These are the code I used in use laser Marco
When I jog x or y in move console laser moves in correct direction but when I click get position the values are in - 1.550. Shouldn’t these number in lightburn be positive numbers?
Do you have $10=0 in the “User laser” macro ? This is what makes the position values (from “Get Position”) show up as positive numbers.
Regarding your previous question, I may have read too fast: the home button in Lightburn will trig a homing, just like in CNC mode, so it’s normal that the machine would go to the back right corner.
Ok that makes sense for home to go where limit switches are
And no my $10=255
So you say I should change to $10=0
yes, “Use macro” should have a line for $10=0 (and the Use CNC macro should have the $10=255 to restore it)
Huh, so besides the G10 L1 P2 X-762 Y-762 in use laser Marco I am to also put $10=0
Does it go below or inline with the G10 code??
??
Yes, the macro needs to have at least three lines in it.
- one line for setting $32 to 1
- one line for setting $10 to 0
- one line for adjusting G10 L2 P1 coordinates
Here’s a copy/paste of the text in my “Configure for laser” macro. I have one extra line for setting $20 to 0, which disables soft limits: in my setup I was getting errors when soft limits were enabled, so I added that line, it won’t necessarily be required for you)
$32=1; enable laser mode
$10=0 ; to get positions displayed as positive numbers
$20=0 ; disable soft limits
G10 L2 P1 X-459 Y-415 ; deal with inverted coordinates
Here’s how it should look:
Similarly, I named the other macro “Restore CNC config”, it restores the original values, and in my case looks like this:
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Wow , it finally makes sense . Putting instructions in the macro wasn’t shown in YouTube or jtech instructions
Works like it should now .
Thanks so much
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I saved myself all this trouble and bought a 60W Co2 Laser Engraver/Cutter. You can get a smaller 40W for less than $400.
The thing that has me worried about these has always been the lifetime of the laser tube, and they’re not cheap, has that wokred out ok?
I love the cutter, and it does have a one year warranty. As long as you use a good liquid cooling setup to cool your tube, you don’t have to worry about the tube. I did not use the included water pump. I used a Watercool MO-RA3 360 PRO Stainless Steel Radiator radiator, and mounted total of 18 DEEP COOL CF140 RGB cooling fans, 2 two Alphacool VPP655 PWM D5 Pumps, , and a Aquacomputer Aqualis XT 880 mL with Fill Level and Lighting Option | Nano Coated, , and to match the cutter color, I used the Alphacool Eiswasser - Premixed Coolant - Crystal Red - UV Reactive, and for tubing, I used Pure Silicone Tubing - 1/4" ID x 3/8" OD - High Temp Kink-Free Hose Tube to connect to the cutter Laser Tube, and the Alphacool Eisrohr 13/10mm PETG for the rest of the loop.
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Yep I’ve sort of abandoned my diode laser since I bought my CO2 laser. My Chinese “50 watt” laser was likely closer to 30-35 watts. I swapped the tube and power supply with a true 45 watt (53 watts measured at peak) and its around 5” longer. The Chinese fudge their numbers a little. I was cutting 1/8” Baltic birch at 11-12mm/s with the old tube, I replaced the Chinese mirrors and lens which got me to 14mm/s, when I replaced the tube and power supply I’m up to 23-25mm/s at 14mah…Chinese “50 watt” is nowhere near 50 watts. The diode by comparison is probably 1/30th the speed. I use a proper CW-5000 water chiller. When the ambient temperature in my garage is 100+ degrees there’s no way a radiator cooler is going to keep my coolant at 60 degrees, which means dead tube. Now that my garage is down below freezing I just leave the chiller running 24/7 so it doesn’t freeze, so far so good.
Dan
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Julien- do you like the Jtech?
While I’d love a big chinese one I dont have the room in my basement at the moment, and $700 is more appealing than $2400 .
I do.
I initially rolled my eyes at the price point, it’s easy to consider this is just a cheap laser diode in a 3D-printed case, but I took a second look, and for me the following ended-up being more important:
- the controller has several safety features (physical key + I leveraged the additional electrical enable signal to put a second interlock on the outside of my enclosure)
- the shroud is great, and I knew I definitely wanted one (i.e. a protection window around the area where the laser is burning the material). Of course I still wear a good pair of laser goggles in addition to that first layer of defence
- I did not want to take any chance with 100% chinesium quality. I’m paranoid when it comes to my eyes, and fire safety. I know, that it is quite possible to buy a cheap chinese laser and add all the missing/quality safety features oneself, but I did not feel like investing my time in that endeavour.
- the tests I have done so far have given me good results (but this is my first laser, I don’t really have any comparison point)
- I LOVE the integration with my Shapeoko. I 3d-printed a custom magnet holder (the stock one was for the stock router mount), and I can install/remove the laser in seconds. My tiny garage is not compatible with a standalone laser machine anyway.
It all boils down to your expectations: if you intend to do a lot of cutouts, the JTech modules probably won’t satisfy you, and a more powerful standalone laser (like @DanoInTx has) is way better. For my usecases (99% surface engraving, with the occasional cutout in thin material), it’s great.
The one catch I have found so far, is that with the JTech laser integrated on the Shapeoko, you need to think about fumes evacuation & air assist, and there is no solution out of the box for this (but a fair number of good ideas here on the forum)
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sweet. that’s pretty much what i was thinking/hoping to hear.
i see other folks in other corners of the internet that …honestly kinda make me cringe with concern when i see them rushing to buy the cheapest chinese lasers than find on Ali Express all willy nilly like… serious “yikes” vibes.
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Jay at JTech is also really good with tech support and returning emails, you won’t get that from eBay or Alibaba. As was pointed out above I ended up switching to a CO2 laser for production work, but the little diodes are pretty cool for doing one-offs or if you’re just engraving your finished works. I always say that it all depends on what you wanna do, right tool for the job is always going to be the “best” regardless. Case in point, I can’t afford to own a CO2 laser with a bed as big as my XXL, so it’s going to win on larger engraving jobs. My path fortunately moved to cutting lots of smaller items really fast, so my 12x20” bed on my CO2 laser works out perfect!
Dan
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