Laser impossible to configure! :(

Snapmaker 2.0
1

I got the latest firmware and Luban version.

I have spent hours and days, and many hundreds of $ in plywood to understand the laser settings. I give up, whatever I do I am unable to get ANY consistency! With a very heavy heart I now give up, this system and/or software is not working. I’ve wasted so much time it is silly.

I manage one cut, and when I try to repeat it nothing is the same. I try to calibrate, but the machine/software seems to not do anything right on auto. On manual I have no idea what line to select, so I’ve selected all. I’ve painstakingly printed tons of tests with minor changes. Thought I got it and started a 27 hour print (again!!!) and it does not do what the test did (usually not cutting through). I buy thinner 1,5mm plywood, same process, and it fails again.

The manual on the subject " 6.2 Remeasure Focal Length" is not understandable to me. I’ve read and interpreted it every way I can imagine. Makes no difference or sense. What about the lense cap, no idea what they try to explain I should do with it in this chapter.

The camera does not work, as all of you know. But some times the camera light does not go on, sometimes the laser does not turn on (yes the enclosure is closed). So I reboot the machine and probably all my settings are fxxxxx up again.

This is, and I am and wish to be a Snapmaker 2 fan!!!, so frustrating that I’m about to lose my temper. Snapmaker doesn’t even have a template file that I can use to test, no default settings that might be a good starting point.

I want to scrap the whole thing right now, all my projects for xmas is now failed and I’m just sad. And frustrated it does not work better than this.

I don’t want to be a complainer, and I’m not a technical novice, but this should be much easier for me to solve.

:frowning: :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

2

Sorry you’re having such problems.

I had all sorts of weird little issues with laser calibration (among other things) with 1.10.1. I went back to 1.10.0 and working fine for me. (has 99% printing bug occasionally which doesn’t bother me).

Try camera calibration using that. Some people have reported having more success with having no lights on. There’s a light on head next to camera. See if that works better.
You can also just set your focus manually. You want the smallest dot possible. Wear laser safety glasses. There are other threads on forum with more detail.

See if those work. Use cardboard to practice.

If still having problems, walk us through your workflow. Settings? (screen captures help) What type of file? Are you running from Luban or sending to SM and running from there?
-S

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3

Yea, what sdj said. Additionally, personally, I’ve had no luck with auto calibration, and doing manual and picking the smallest size is the only way I was able to have success. I posted more detail on that here:

Again, personally, I chose to just remove and leave off the lens hood. I wasn’t comfortable with how close it was to the work given my focus distance, and just choose to wear safety google whenever the laser is on. I think the only purpose of it is to hide the laser a bit.

Also I agree that 6.2 is written poorly and hard to understand. I think all it’s trying to say is for auto calibration 1) take off the lens hood 2) start auto calibration 3) It will either successfully detect the thinnest line automatically, or it will ask you to choose the thinnest line. 4) I have no idea what the lens hood bit is trying to say. I just left it off.

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4

Have you tried to clean the laser lens with earprick and Isopropanol?
I had problems too and clearing the lens helps for me.
Good luck

Keep alive and kicking :mask:

5

Yes, did not help anything. :frowning:

6

I use a focus point of about 5.5mm above the laser piece (manualy) and move to the work origin with the touchscreen, run boundary and set the correct point.
In Luban the middle of the coordinate cross is your 0-point alias work origin, drag your object where you want it to be or right click to select a autopoint.

7

5.5mm? You removing the lens cap then?

I can only get mine down to 10mm.

8

I used this setting just for greyscale but I guess this was a good focus point. I had no need to remove the cap.

General manual focus: move your print head to the workpiece. Between the workpiece and the cap a piece of paper, then move up till the focus is proper, like my 5.5mm.

9

Some people do remove that cap, i dont know the repercussions of that.

i really need to play with the laser…

It sounds like its a nightmare to configure :expressionless:

10

I was wanting to work with the laser too but now I will continue to figure out the 3d printing. I am at least having success finally after help on here. I have the week off though so I will tackle the laser at some point this week! :slight_smile: Just hang in there. The knowledgeable and generous people here on the forum will get you there!!! Ok guys, don’t let me down!

11

I think there is some confusion here. On the SM2 the focus is measured as the distance from the lens to the work surface. I believe @xchrisd is sharing the distance he has between the lens hood and the work surface.
The lens hood just shields you a little more from the laser. It can be unscrewed and extended to provide even more protection. (just be careful if you’re doing multiple passes with depth that you don’t set it too close.) It can be removed completely and won’t affect anything as far as performance.

It really isn’t. At least I haven’t found it to be. I did have issues with 1.10.1 and camera calibration and went back to 1.10.0 because of it. Using the camera to actually set work origin I found to be poor with thin stuff and completely broken with anything that had any thickness. Plenty of easier and faster ways to set work origin.
-S

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12

Picking up on this comment about the laser head being really close - I’m having this issue too. The hood on my A350 is about 1mm (by my calibrated eyeball) above the workpiece when it is focused. That can’t be right. I’m worried about smoke collecting here and (a) sapping the strength of the laser and (b) depositing on the lens. Is this a common problem?

13

I also had that concern. I did 2 things:

  1. Remove the lens hood permanently, with the enclosure and my OD6+ eye protection I’m not concerned and don’t feel the extra shielding does anything useful.
  2. Adjusted the lens focus internally to the toolhead to raise the focus distance to about 35mm by turning the slotted ‘bolt’ inside.
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14

Does raising the focus distance change the laser behaviour or just give you more room to blow away the smoke? My “logic” says you might get a sharper focus point but less focus depth if that makes sense? Though I don’t know if thats a good or a bad thing. :thinking:

15

It gives more space, lowers the intensity of the laser at the beam waist, and increases the depth of focus proportionally.

16

Might have guessed I would get it the wrong way round! Do you get better cutting or is it slightly worse. Does the larger depth of focus compensate for the less intense waste?

17

In my experience, with the materials I work with (such as balsa, basswood, solid pine, no plywood) it works great. I can cut through 3mm basswood in a single pass, but 2 cleans up some stragglers that haven’t burned clean through.

I’d like to think the little bit of extra focus depth helps with that a bit, but it also might be a very small change.

This was 2 passes to cut on 3mm basswood, 1 almost worked but not quite.

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image782×799 223 KB

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