Using macros in Lightburn is actually how I do it, so no need to move away from Carbide Motion.
Here is my “useLaser” macro in LightBurn:
$32=1
# mandatory: enable laser mode
$10=0
# mandatory: change status report options so that Lightburn display positive values
$20=0
# optional disable soft limits, I don't need those in laser mode
$120=50
# optional/specific to my laser setup: reduce X accel to 50mm/sec² to minimize laser wiggle
$121=50
# optional/specific to my laser setup: reduce Y accel to 50mm/sec² to minimize laser wiggle
G10 L2 P1 X-459 Y-415
# set the work origin in the front left corner of my SO3, to work in "natural" coordinatesin Lightburn
# X/Y values will be different between SO3/XL/XXL and even between different machines.
and here is my “useCNC” to switch back:
$32=0
# mandatory: disable laser mode
$10=255
# mandatory: change status report options back to default
$20=1
# optional: re-enable soft limits. Not recommanded if using CM. This is specific to my machine
$120=400
# reset X accel to 400mm/sec²
$121=400
# reset Y accel to 400mm/sec²
G10 L2 P1 X0 Y0
# reset work origin to the bottom right corner
so it can be basically go down to three lines each.
Coming back to the initial issue, in case it helps to seek which params may be set to suspicious values on your machines, here’s a snapshot of the GRBL params on my SO3 immediately after using “Send Config Data” (with HDZ and BitSetter option selected, but that only impact $102)
$0=10
$1=255
$2=0
$3=2
$4=0
$5=0
$6=0
$10=255
$11=0.020
$12=0.010
$13=0
$20=0
$21=0
$22=1
$23=0
$24=100.000
$25=2000.000
$26=25
$27=5.000
$30=1000
$31=0
$32=0
$100=40.000
$101=40.000
$102=320.000 (HDZ specific!!!)
$110=5000.000
$111=5000.000
$112=1000.000
$120=400.000
$121=400.000
$122=100.000
$130=845.00
$131=850.00
$132=150.000
That’s funny, I never noticed before that CM would send XXL-specific values for $130 and $131 even when selecting “Shapeoko” config. It does not matter as soft limits are disabled anyway, but still, not very clean. That makes me doubt I did not mess up and select XXL, I’ll re-check.
EDIT: I did check, and confirm that these are the settings for SO3. But actually, these are ALSO the settings for the XL and XXL, because the GRBL (machine-side) params seem to be identical for all three configurations. BUT, some things are managed locally on the PC by Carbide Motion, e.g. internal soft limits & quick positions, and for sure these are getting updated when selecting a given Shapeoko config. Anyway, I hope I did not add too much confusion.
EDIT2: this is with using Carbide Motion 428. Earlier versions MAY set different values.