Got my camera calibrated

It is magic isn’t it?

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Took several iterations to get it aligned. It seems the GF didn’t really warm up to me until I installed the external fan. Once I did that the calibration started working. Normally I am among the first to point out that correlation =/= causation but I swear it likes me better now.

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Wow, that is an interesting connection. I cannot see any connection between having an external fan and running calibration but it is worth knowing that you experienced this.

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I don’t think it’s technical, I just think my GF is bratty. It wanted the external fan and pouted and slacked off until it got it. Next thing you know it’ll refuse to work right until I move the Prusa printers out and it gets its own room. Eventually I’ll be working for it and it’ll demand ever more interesting print files.

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Did your Prusa printers decide to form a union yet?

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Actually, yes. I bricked one of them by running with the filament sensor disabled (don’t ask me how I managed that one) and assembled the other one from a new kit. After building the one and replacing the hotend in the other they both refuse to print. This roughly coincided with the arrival of the GF so I’m unsure at this point whether they are objecting to my surgical methods or to the new kid in the room. When I ask them they both just turn a few meters of filament into something resembling a tumbleweed.

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Yep, sure sign that they have certified. You should disconnect your router so that they cannot communicate. Downgrade to a 56k modem and see how they like that!

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Not asking.

I’ve also never asked my dad’s cousin how he once managed, according to family lore, to shoot a deer with the wrong end of a razor-tipped arrow.

I’ll just put your accomplishment in the same category, and move on. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Hi,

Not sure how to get the camera calibrated… can you explain please ?

I might be able to explain it, but better just to give you a link to the authoritative source:
Lid Camera Calibration Beta

There’s still a problem when selecting artwork that it increases in size relative to the image of the work piece but after de-selcting any art it seems to be in about the right position. (Insert obligatory rant about unavailability of Snapmarks here.)

Does the story also hold that immediately after doing this he mumbled something about “I lose more bowstrings that way”?

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It shouldn’t change size when you select it, unless the bed image happens to refresh right then because you’ve set the focus in a new location. (That happens because of the fisheye correction, and Set Focus optimizing the image for the location you selected, which can change how it looks overall.)

And I had Snapmarks for a long time. They were cool and all, but it turned out I really didn’t use them often. The new coordinate positioning system is WAY more accurate; only use case I can really think of for Snapmarks these days would be for cutting out preprinted materials, and I can do that on my Cricut.

Not to my knowledge. I was too fascinated with trying to figure out how he didn’t slice off any fingers, or an ear!

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Wow ok that was a long thread but worth it eventually I will need this…
But wait !!! Are you all leaving your machine on all the time ?

I always close using the power switch once I know I am done lasering…

I almost never turn it off :slight_smile: Just if I have an issue with centering or something, I’ll do a power cycle as part of my troubleshooting. So about once a month or so.

There was some analysis a long time ago about how the GF calculates where the head is and they figured out there was some drift incurred by the math defined by the stepper motor revs vs distance moved that suggested it was good practice to reboot it monthly so that its internal calculations match precisely where it really is physically.

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So you also clean it while turned on ?
Am I breaking my Glowforge if I continue to turn on and off frequently ?

Yes and no.

No warranty issue turning it off in between uses. Also you’ll get firmware updates as soon as they’re released. Those load when you power your machine on.

I do clean it when it’s on but I’m extremely careful not to move the head. I do the lens by draping the wipe over my pinkie finger and reaching under the head up into the lens. That is not recommended cleaning procedures though :grin: I do a more traditional cleaning whenever I have to reboot it.

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I turn mine on when I need it, and off when I am done. Sometimes a few times a day. If I am working on something and know I’ll print in an hour or two, I might leave it on, but usually I just power it off. Even after turning it off, when it powers on again, it will print in the same location close enough that you can’t even tell (i.e. score a design, power cycle, then score it again.)

If you’re using it all day long then it would make sense to leave it on all day.

There is no harm in power cycling it. It’s a computer with some motion control.

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I needed it last week. Needed a really precise alignment on something and that made it so much easier.

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I used to leave mine on 24/7, except for cleaning. I’m not as brave as @jamesdhatch; I always turn it off for that. :slight_smile:

Now, though, we’ve moved to a place where there are frequent thunderstorms and such, and they often knock out the power, so I turn it off (and unplug it) when I go to bed, or when there’s a storm moving in.

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Probably not brave - something along the lines of 'toopid :smiley:

But I’ve had years of having to do laser alignment by hand and the only way to do it reasonably fast is to defeat the interlocks and fire the laser (and sometimes you set your sleeve on fire and sometimes you drill a hole on your thumb :man_shrugging: ). That’s the GF version of “when I was a kid we walked 6 miles to school every day and it was uphill in both directions”.

Kids, don’t know nothin about real lasers :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

Old habits die hard.

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