@phil Baud rate for SM2 is also 115,200. I also would like to know the answer to your 2nd question.
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I would just try Lightburn on a 30 day trial. It is hugely capable and images can take any number of parameters. It is very well written and to complement it, there is a place online that will prepare your image in some manner for laser burning. May be worth a look. If you are comfortable in design software, Lightburn will be very easy to run. Its layering is superb. I think it was worth the expense and it makes Luban look very insignificant as software goes. the development team is just two guys but they are supremely active and helpful.
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@jepho do you know if it can do real gray scale specifically? Or is it limited to dithering?
Hello Adam. Yes, it has a grayscale setting. I have not played with all of the settings as my SM1 is now sold and I am awaiting my new machine so I can hook up to the JTech laser. I had briefly tried these settings when I first bought Lightburn and they all give different results.
Below are screen captures of the different image mode settings boxes. You can read what Lightburn recommend below each image of the settings. It is worth taking a free 30 day trial of the full software (not hobbled in any way) and experimenting because then you will know if it suits your style or method of work and the kind of image processing you want the laser to burn.
For my money, this is by far and away the most competent piece of laser software I have used. It works like any design program (the design language will be very familiar to anyone who processes images) and it is easy to layer the work so that you can order what is done when. Highly competent commercial quality software and a very responsive development team. What’s not to like?
Dither:
Jarvis:
Stucki:
Atkinson:
Grayscale:
Sketch:
Halftone:
Newsprint:
Ordered:
Threshold:
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Here’s the Grayscale square as an image:
Would be curious how this turns out and how long it takes to print this 5x5 cm.
It is a .net application so it won’t run on a mac. Maybe I’ll try the lightburn app and compare it. @jepho are you affiliated or employed by the company who makes that app?
I’ll try this out today. I’m curious to see the results. That is edit(smaller) than what I printed but the tones are more solid. I’ll have to try to remember to time it. I keep forgetting lol.
Thank you !!!
I am used to illustrator, and i’ve been fiddling there so much to try and make Luban happy…
looking forward to proceed with my lightburn learning.
I can answer that, he is not, but from my understanding he enjoys the app and recommends its use.
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Ahh… mac… Thanks @MadHatter !
i’ll try lightburn and am looking forward to reading what you think of it.
No I am not affiliated but it was a blessed relief to be able to use properly written software with a very responsive development team. There is a great forum too so many of your questions may be answered there.
Once you have tried it for the full thirty days, you will see that it helps you to work withy a laser module.
You can see my brief look here:
I have not gotten around to finishing that particular look at the software. I have sold my SM1 and have bought a Shapeoko 3 which should arrive in country this week and I hope to have it to set up next week. I have added a 4.2W JTech laser so then I will have no need of this forum. I still have a few things to tie up here but I am going to be busy elsewhere. If you want functional software that works with you, I would say look no further than Lightburn.
If you are familiar with illustrator, you will have no difficulty using Lightburn whatsoever. You can export .ai, .dxf and .svg. As for import options see the illustration:
It is a breath of fresh air to use this software.
I’d never make anything in any of these software. I’d probably just use Illustrator if I wanted to make a vector image or Illustrator/ Photoshop to edit existing images for 1-bit prints for dithering etc if it wasn’t for just playing around and testing it out like rn. I mean… those are the best tools for the job and it would be frustrating to try to use something that added it as an afterthought to producing gcode. But I guess I can see where you guys are getting extra frustrated if you’re trying to use these software for more than producing gcode. I hadn’t considered that. I considered a shapoko with the JTech laser mod. Unless I decide the firmware is inferior, if/ when Snapmaker has the full CNC bed conversion available, I’ll probably buy that and call it a day. I really like the quality of materials used in the machine etc. Good luck with your new machine!
@Hauke I printed the squares. The final product took 1h 20min at 300mm/s work speed and 16% maximum laser power. One attempt was at 3000mm/s and 100% laser power which printed in 16min, but it failed lol. I’m thinking maybe my other test image should have been at a slower speed now but it turned out fine for some reason so idk. It’s of course always going to depend on the material etc what your max settings can be. We could try faster speeds to see where the speed:power sweet spot is.
I actually had my first attempt at something like 14-18% power and 3000mm/s work speed which produced a very interesting result. It sort of worked but almost the whole print was white and the lines between the squares were much thinner even though they were in the exact same place. Did you overlap a little when you produced the image? I see by the gcode that these lines between the squares were intentional.
In the second picture, the bottom one is the second failed print I mentioned.
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Those are all supposed to be units of mm/min right? Just asking because 300mm/s is probably achievable.
Edit: darn, got excited for a second. Was hoping for delta speeeeeed!
lol you are correct. My bad. mm/min
Hi @MadHatter, that does not look too bad! However, it’s rather slow. I guess it dwells on each pixel with adjusted power for a given time. That would explain why it takes so long. Which brings me back to my original concern: If Laser would be running on hardware PWM, the same result should be possible in a few minutes. I have yet to contact Snapmaker on that, was too lazy and yet have no Laser project in my pipeline.
The lines are a bit strange… I can’t see them in the original image… but I guess this is a matter of tweaking.
Thanks again for trying this!
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@jepho, YEY ! that’s great !!!
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@MadHatter please correct me if i misunderstood something.
my idea is to do design stuff with the Adobe family and use Lightburn to make the g-code.
Is that what you are saying too ?
FWIW, you can draw a fair amount in Lightburn and very easily use as many layers as you want.
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