i have couple of question if you can answer them for me i will be greatfull,
First i’m thinking of buying bamab lab H2D with 40w laser becouse my snapamker 2 A350 for laser and CNC and i will upgrade it with:
Snapmaker 1064nm Infrared Laser Module red laser use
and maybe
Snapmaker 200W CNC Module Bundle
i want create somthing like this:
i’m still testing but my question is posseible with 1.6w laser or not ?
and for Lightburn what is the correct setting for 1.6w ? the old guide here still work i try to follwing but some sitting or option not the same.
First, thanks for your write up, been a little back and forth but I think I’m getting there.
Trying to get my A350 2.0 set up in Lightburn with my 10W laser.
Your old guide says “Read through the first few comments for how to use with the 10W/1.6W” but I don’t see anything in this new guide that mentions “do this / not that” for the 10W laser.
I’m I missing something?
I do see your answer to ramos96 about how to figure the 10W z-height, so I guess I’m there next.
old says GRBL-M3 new says GRBL (GRBL works with 10W?)
old and new G-code start/end lines are different (new headers work with 10W too?)
Thanks!
Recent tests lean back toward using GRBL-M3. Had a few weirdnesses with the plain GRBL.
The new start/end lines are a bit of an evolution and leaning it up to make it faster. Once you have your Z-height and origins, yes the new ones will work.
OK, Thanks for the quick response, I’ll keep working on it. The post you link above to ramos96 says focus height should be 30 but I’m not getting anything close to that.
Home position Z: 319.00
Lazer touching work surface Z: 9.90 (10.10 on 2nd attempt w/ calibration card).
Corrected start header is: X: 171.00, Y: 182.00, Z: 309.10
Then you tell ramos96 to do the same thing again but using manual focus with material down. Wouldn’t that give you a number that only works for that material and effectively give you new position relative to the top of the material, not the bed. Like I say I must be missing something.
OK, My ‘Z’ values work now. Had to clean the lens after smoking some wood.
Laser wasn’t moving and I’m chalking that up to using the GRBL. Switched to GRBL-M3 and movements are now correct.
Was going to run the Lightburn material tests but I don’t see anywhere to set the material thickness in the test parameters window. Do these work for the Snapmaker?
I guess not. When I run the focus test or interval test the machine always goes back to home and runs the laser in open air. Material test gives me a blank sheet as if the laser isn’t even on. Even if I park the laser at my work origin and set my “Start From” to “current position” it returns home before firing the laser.
At this point I’m back to process my images in Lightburn (or AutoCAD or Illustrator) and hooping I can get them to run from Luban. I’ll hold off on turning my trial version of LB into a paid version.
If you’re using my header, it’s made for full automation and you should be using Absolute Coods. If you plan to use your own origin, comment out the start gcode with ; infront of each line.
Yes, I’m using your header, and if I print a mock job, it goes exactly where intended, thanks!
Reading the Lightburn user guide, it says you must set your origin and material thickness before opening the test tools.
Material is set to 3mm in the Cut / Layers window
I set the position to X:15.00, Y:55.6 in the move window and hit go. Of course, Lightburn doesn’t let you input ‘Z’, because who would use a printer for engraving? The world is flat too.
Confirmed on the touchscreen X:15.00, Y:55.6 was the work origin and the new machine coords were X:24.8, Y:44. (absolute right?). I manually set Z using the calibration card just to make sure just nothing had gotten out of whack. I don’t want to use the Lightburn move for Z because it doesn’t have an entry for Z, only the keypad, and I don’t want to crash the laser into the workpiece. WC Z:3.0, MC Z:13.0.
So, (I think) I understand that your header is setting the home position to new current values (G92) based on the setup steps, so that 0,0,0 is the bottom left corner of the bed. If I want to run a new job on the same piece of material, I just place it where I want it in the work area, and it lands where I expect, perfect. This is what I want to do with my test patterns in Lightburn but they aren’t visible in the work area, you have to specify your origin before running the job.
So, if I hit “Set Origin” in the move window what have I done? Set a new work origin I presume, and this work origin is “absolute”, even though Lightburn doesn’t “know” my header is redefining 0,0,0. To use your header, I would have to move the machine to a “virtual” location offset from my desired job origin and pick “Set Origin”, which sounds like a pain.
So, you’re suggesting I disable the G92 command while running the material tests, because I have to manually enter work origins instead of using the workspace to locate the job.
I’ll try that, but it doesn’t explain why Lightburn was running the tests at the machine home position (Z = 300 +/-), or why when I pick Absolute Coords in the Laser window it runs the test right in the middle of my workpiece. I would expect the job to run offset a bit from the desired location, based on the G92 position.
Same thing. Commented out the start header.
Attempt 1:
Parked the laser exactly where I want to run my test (WC X:15.00, Y:55.6, Z:3.0).
Selected “Current Position” in the Laser Window “Start From” pull down. Open the focus test window and pick start. Machine goes to home and begins firing the laser in free space.
Attempt 2:
Entered X:15.00, Y:55.6 in the Move to position and picked “go”. (Z = 309). Pick “Set Origin”. Selected “User Origin” in the Laser Window “Start From” pull down. Open the focus test window and pick start. Job starts at 0,0,309. Totally ignoring the XY origin and the material thickness. At this point I’m just glad I couldn’t set Z because it would have crashed into my corner clamp.
I guess this is outside the scope of your guide, as now I’m just questioning whether you can even run the material tests from Lightburn on a Snapmaker machine.
Skreelink, I routinely check back to see what progress has been made on the snapmaker/lightburn front. I followed the updated guide using GRBL (I have a A350T with quickswap kit). I have my computer directly connected to the SM (COM3). Before I updated my set up, everything was working fine except for the Z access. I was still having weird issues. So, I figured lets wipe it and start from scratch. So I did. Set everything up and open Lightburn 1.7.08. Select my device and it says waiting for connection. When I go back to the previous set up, it gives me a “Port Failed to Open, Already in use?” error. I can not get this error to clear and can no longer connect to my Snapmaker. Any suggestions?
I’ve tried:
Rebooting Snapmaker
Rebooting Computer/Lightburn (several times)
Disabling/Renabling COM port
Changing USB port/COM ports
Deleting device and creating brand new device.
I must be missing something and hoping your expertise (or anyone’s for that matter) can point me in the right direction.
Thanks to everyone’s input and information as it pertains to SM… Sending up the Bat signal… Please help.
Sadly, I’m not going to be much help for a USB connection. I always generate my lightburn project, export the gcode, and start it wirelessly with my drag/drop scripts. However, I can suggest a few things.
Use the GRBL-M3 profile, after several tests, this still seems to be the best option. For the connection; try the other COM ports in the drop-down menu. If none of them work, open the control panel > device manager and see if the snapmaker’s COM port is listed. If it is, try reinstalling the CH340 driver, info on that can be found here.
Thank you my friend… I will give it a go! Just making sure, I can follow this guide except choose the GRBL-M3 profile. Everything else should be the same?
This guide applies to the IR laser as well. I originally wrote this guide for the IR, and then obtained the 40W and found it worked for that one as well.
In my personal experience, I use GRBL-M3 however keep in mind this breaks the framing function, and control buttons. But if you’re going full auto with repeatable origin, you generally don’t need those functions if you make sure to set up your project correctly.
The main goal of this guide is to make it fully automatic and accurate. Where you don’t need to do the safety of framing, etc. You just put your material on the laser, setup, and hit run.
