It would be awesome to have direct integration to Lightburn. I.e to be able to plug your computer directly into the OF controller by USB.
Two main reasons over just exporting the gcode file:
Framing, when you hit the frame button the laser quickly darts around your proposed work area just to double check it’s going to engrave in the right spot.
Webcam integration. Being able to overlay a webcam photo onto your workspace in Lightburn so that you can position your engraving precisely is really useful if you have odd shaped objects or scraps of material that you’re using up and want to accurately position what you’re going to engrave.
+1, Lightburn’s Print and Cut feature opens up all sorts of possibilities, but seems like a non-starter without live control, or a custom i/f that reports 1F position, and support for it in LB
Any word on if this can now be accomplished or not? I’m new to lightburn and laser in general, and i see the framing feature in light burn would be helpful in putting me at ease.
+1 on this, is this feature in the works or a workaround possibly? It definitely was a let down after spending all that money on the journeyman machine and the 24w laser to find out you can’t do things that a $200.00 laser can do.
As a work around, simply draw a rectangle around the working area of your job and create a new gcode file with the laser firing at 0.5% or something similarly low.
We now have a X-35 machinist in house and nearly operational. We’ve been making steady progress on a generic GCode profile for LightBurn. With that said, we have yet to investigate IP/USB control of either the Buildbotics control (which we have) or the Masso (which we will add to the stable as soon as we can).
Hi Minz,
The CNC machine is intended to be used as a CNC router, with the ability to use the laser.
The feature that allows you to not need a computer in the shop as the Onefinity can be used without one (keeping a expensive computer from being in a dusty, dirty, shop environment and from tying up a computer from being tethered to the CNC for it’s entire file run (which can be 24 hours or longer at a time) is the reason lighburn (at the moment) cannot directly control or move the machine like a dedicated laser could.
However, lightburn can export code just like your CNC cad can to run the laser.
This is an older thread - just checking to see if there has been any progress on this. There are so many things that can be done with a direct connection to Lightburn that it really has become an important feature request. The trial and error nature of creating, exporting, and importing Lightburn files is tedious and detracts from productivity.
I’ve actually purchased a small diode laser system to be able to connect directly. The workflow is night and day better. Every time I look at that little guy and then at the magnificent Onefinity and Opt Laser, I shake my head and lament: “If only …”
Is this a request that is impossible to fulfill? Is it just not in the nature of the beast?
You’d need to start a thread like this on the lightburn forum and request it as a feature from them. They have two machines. @ColinLightBurn might know more about the progress?
As far as I’m aware we only have the one X-35 - and it’s been successfully running code from our new CNC router software. We’re well on our way with developing our CNC router software, and it’s running quite well, and that will all trickle into LightBurn shortly thereafter, I’d imagine.
Unfortunately, due to the Buildbotics control not supporting external direct control, direct control of OneFinity’s Buildbotics-based machines isn’t possible at this time. At a minimum it would require a significant investment of time and labour to make new firmware that may be able to work, but that’s outside of our typical scope of work (BuildBotics would be a better choice for this, considering they wrote the firmware in the first place).
I don’t believe we have any Masso hardware on hand, so I can’t confirm anything with that platform at this time.
Your quick replies are appreciated. So, unless Buildbotics implements this in their firmware (and Onefinity then brings that development into their version of the firmware,) this feature will not (can not) be made available.
The co2 machines are powerful, but their real estate is limited - even with pass through. They also represent a fairly large expenditure for many pieces of the puzzle that are redundant with the CNCs.The little diode lasers are what they are. There aren’t any (that I know of) that have the industrial quality, fit and finish, and real estate of the Onefinity and other CNCs in Onefinity’s market. To be able to marry Opt/JTech/etc. and Lightburn with these machines is great. To marry these with Lightburn direct control would be to approach Nirvana.
Thanks again for paying attention and getting back.
You can always attain Nirvana by swapping controllers - but that can be daunting if you’re not fluent in motion control.
@OnefinityCNC Ahh that makes sense. I’m in the middle of moving to a new home+shop so my machine’s been down for a bit, I’ve only surfaced the bed, but its a sweet little unit! Needs way covers though. I’m hoping to keep modding it to do carbon fiber submerged machining
Yeah, I’m a retired trombone player - no motion control experience here. I gape in wonder that a relative handful of humans have dreamed of the tools we now take for granted - and that they have thought them through, designed them, built them, and made them available to all of us through mass production. I am decidedly not a member of that tribe. Thanks, Colin.
