XY home position

[takitus]

@Tony

e.g. saying “I’m going to sell customized light switch plates, which require precise engraving because the have to interact with the screw holes and the switch hole. I’ll be engraving 10+ of these per day. I’d love to be able to put 5 of them on the bed and have the engravings fit perfectly to the object every time”.

This is pretty much the need. Another example could be drawing a perfectly even outline around the apple logo on a laptop/phone.

For me, engraving text or accent lines which are perfectly centered on the ridge of a casted item just pulled from a mold is a need.

Another example I’ve run into is when using 123D make, sometimes the software glitches and doesn’t include the alignment rod holes in the template for the piece you cut. Happens all the time. I know exactly where they need to go in distance from 0,0, so I just put them in one at a time.

However if they are off just a little bit it will screw up the entire alignment of the pieces and I’ll have to do a bunch of rework which could take a while. I learned this the hard way when I didn’t type in the distance to the right number of decimal places and I had a ridge where the two connected. Big letdown.

[chadmart1076]

Is there a reason @tony or @jamesdhatch that “your” y-axis zero at the north edge? Seems un-intuitive. Does the interface for your machine have you put negative values for Y?

In junior high math the 0,0 point was always lower left… and CAD software follows that approach, though the 0,0 can be moved to any point and values can be negative. (i.e. if my 0,0 is at the top left of the screen, then anything in the middle of the screen will have a positive X value and a negative Y value. Of course, in CAD you can also rotate the display… but it’s pretty bad-practice to do so.

[takitus]

north edge is because thats generally where lasers home to. its where all the mirrors are closest together and the gantry isnt in the way of the bed

[rpegg]

A simple way to determine home position. Draw a heart on a blank piece of Proofgrade material. The overhead camera captures the image. Home is where the heart is.

[julybighouse]

I really like that. Maybe add some shoes “there’s no place like home”

[rpegg]

Needs to be cut from red sparkle acrylic.

[jkopel]

@dan a very simple and straight forward use case that I think many people will encounter is a little thing I call “the screw up”. If we are not using proofgrade (hey it might happen) and our lines do not cut through the first time, being able to register would save us.

If I get in the habit of placing material up against a set of stops (I am OK making these stops) then if something happens I know I can get the piece back in there and register it to try again. If I pull it out and find a mistake and have to reposition by eye, I have doubts about my chances for success.

[takitus]

@jkopel

a little thing I call “the screw up”

HAHAHA yes. You know… this didnt even come to mind, but it is probably the most common reason on my k40. Especially when cutting through ply.

“Ah… smoke is coming out the bottom, its good to go. Oh crap… no its not, back in the bed”

[palmercr]

Again I think a revolutionary machine with two cameras should be able to just index off a corner and repeat the cut with the work placed anywhere on the bed and only roughly oriented. No harder than pass through, although that looks quite a lot of work to me. Shame it wasn’t already done when first advertised.

8. Optical Alignment

The dual cameras align the laser head with the frame, with your design, and with your material. Glowforge realigns with every cut and engrave, adjusting timing and position, so every print comes out perfectly.

Note this is superpower 8 but discourse has rendered it as 1.

[jbv]

I have noticed that discourse does allow an out-of-order list number.

[chrgeup]

@jbv

I have noticed that discourse does allow an out-of-order list number.

Geez. Is Discourse a Microsoft product?! - Rich

[jkopel]

1. This is number one.
3. This is number two.
8. This is number three.

[jbv]

1. one

2. two
   and[quote=“jkopel, post:335, topic:3386, full:true”]

3. This is number one.

4. This is number two.

5. This is number three.
   [/quote]

6. three

ok, maybe it doesnt like quoting list numbers out of order, or lists broken up with a quote?

[takitus]

its only copying the text into the editor, not the actual HTML elements

[jbv]

I guess that makes sense for the quoted list, but it still doesn’t want to let me have my third point.

Meh, honestly I don’t really care that much, but it gets confusing when you expect WYSIWYG but instead WYSI N WYG.

[Duality]

Exactly, the corners won’t be visible. Sorry @dan but this is exactly the kind of response from you guys I just don’t get… Makes no sense (and it adds another 37 speculative crowd responses to the thread). Is the passthrough not supposed to be ‘infinite’? Corners are no use on the 2nd, 3rd etc passes.

Boy, I have some catchup to do on this thread. Dunno where some folk get the time…

[jamesdhatch]

@chadmart1076

Is there a reason @tony or @jamesdhatch that “your” y-axis zero at the north edge?

One is upper left, one is upper right. The one that homes to the upper right may be because that’s the position the head is least exposed to damage when putting material in. Before I send a job I can define a 0,0 for the design. I can also tell the laser to set a logical home position anywhere on the bed. Typically I put both of those in the lower left (front left) of the bed. But I can move the machine’s logical origin someplace else when I’m using material that I’ve previously cut something out of. There’s a test trace function that will outline the cut area so I can make sure it’s going to fit.

[johnwills]

e.g. saying “I’m going to sell customized light switch plates, which require precise engraving because the have to interact with the screw holes and the switch hole. I’ll be engraving 10+ of these per day. I’d love to be able to put 5 of them on the bed and have the engravings fit perfectly to the object every time”.

This is essentially the use case for engraving on shot glasses.

[markwkruse]

Examples requested of projects that could benefit from an exact registration from known origin on cut bed coordinated with an identical origin in UI utilizing registered alignment.

1. cutting exterior of sewn item. Make note that sewing unit registers embroidery off origin.

2) cermark or engrave on thin ring marking

3) lettering on small blocks

4) precision cut of exterior of print images

[palmercr]

@chadmart1076

Is there a reason @tony or @jamesdhatch that “your” y-axis zero at the north edge?

Makes sense for the home position to be where the head is most out of the way but there is no reason for the origin to be at the home position. In fact I think it homes to the lid camera and then moves out of the way. So you have a home position and a park position, neither of which need to be the origin.