LightBurn Tutorial 29 – Understanding LightBurn’s Different “Start From” Modes

0:03 in lightburn there are a few ways to

0:05 define how you would like to run a job

0:07 in relation to the coordinates of your

0:09 design in your workspace and the

0:11 location of your laser head these

0:13 methods are absolute coordinates current

0:15 position and user origin

0:18 the best option to use can vary by job

0:21 and it’s important to understand how

0:23 each works to ensure the success of your

0:25 job and its expected output in this

0:27 video we’ll go through each of these

0:29 modes covering what they are how they

0:31 work and how to set up each one in lightburn

0:33 as well as on your laser

0:35 timestamps will be in the description so

0:37 that you can jump to a specific mode if

0:39 needed

0:43 before we get started let’s enable the

0:45 fire button this will allow us to turn

0:47 the laser beam on or off from within

0:49 lightburn which will be useful when

0:50 we’re aligning and framing our project

0:52 to do this we’ll head up to the device

0:54 settings which is the wrench icon in the

0:57 top toolbar

0:58 in the device settings window you’ll

1:00 find this under other options you will

1:02 want to make sure the enable laser fire

1:04 button is enabled and starting with

1:06 lightburn 1.1.00

1:09 there is an additional option to have

1:10 the laser on by default when framing

1:12 that you can optionally enable

1:15 for this to take effect you will first

1:17 need to restart lightburn

1:20 upon restarting if you head over to the

1:22 move window you’ll now see a fire button

1:25 and a power text box

1:27 i typically set this to the lowest value

1:29 i can that will still allow my laser to

1:31 fire which is often one to two percent

1:34 now when we click the fire button the

1:36 laser will turn on and when we click it

1:38 again it will turn off additionally

1:41 depending on the setting you chose the

1:43 laser will also be on by default when

1:44 framing or you can hold down the shift

1:46 key when clicking frame to run the frame

1:48 command with the laser on

1:51 the first method we are going to look at

1:53 is absolute coordinates this is by far

1:56 the most commonly used and easiest to

1:58 understand when starting out for more

Transcript for for LightBurn Set Origin Modes (Cont…)

2:00 official documentation it is described

2:02 as the page grid you see in the main

2:05 editing window represents your machine’s

2:07 work area

2:08 anything you place in that area will be

2:11 cut in the corresponding place on your

2:13 machine

2:14 with this method you can expect that if

2:16 your design is in the middle of your

2:17 workspace it will be engraved in the

2:19 middle of your machine’s work area

2:22 anywhere you place a design in

2:23 lightburn’s workspace is exactly where

2:25 it will run in your machine’s work area

2:28 in lightburn the green square on your

2:30 workspace represents your job origin and

2:33 the red square represents the machine

2:35 origin

2:36 when running in absolute coordinates

2:38 mode these two squares will always be in

2:40 the same place

2:43 next we will take a look at setting up

2:45 and running absolute coordinates on a

2:47 machine with limit switches as well as

2:49 the machine without them starting off

2:51 with limit switches we’re going to use

2:53 the orter laser master 2 pro this

2:56 machine automatically homes to the front

2:58 left when it’s first powered on which it

3:00 is able to do because it has those limit

3:02 switches

3:03 we recently released a video on getting

3:05 the orter laser master 2 pro set up with

3:08 lightburn and in that video we enabled

3:10 auto homing on startup this is only

3:12 available on a machine like this one

3:14 that has limit switches and it ensures

3:16 that every time you run lightburn the

3:18 head of the laser will start in the very

3:20 front left which is its origin this

3:22 makes using absolute coordinates very

3:24 simple is all that we need to do is

3:26 select absolute coordinates in the laser

3:28 window and we’re ready to run our job

3:31 next we’ll take a look at the sculpt fun

3:34 s9 this machine does not come with limit

3:36 switches but can still be run in

3:38 absolute coordinates the key difference

3:41 is that before you power on the machine

3:43 you’ll need to physically move the head

3:45 of the laser to the front left corner

3:47 using your hand butting it up against

3:49 the frame on a machine without limit

3:51 switches the location the hand of the

3:53 laser is when powered on becomes its

3:55 origin which is why we needed to be

3:57 there before switching the power on we

3:59 did also do a setup video for the s9 and

Transcript for for LightBurn Set Origin Modes (Cont…)

4:02 the auto home on start-up must be

4:04 disabled for a machine without limit

4:06 switches or it will crash the head of

4:08 the laser into the frame since it

4:10 doesn’t know where home is once you’ve

4:12 moved the hand of the laser to the

4:13 origin which is typically the front left

4:15 on g-code machines and powered it on all

4:18 that’s left to do is make sure you

4:20 select absolute coordinates in the laser

4:21 window and you are ready to start your

4:23 job

4:24 next we’ll look at how to use current

4:26 position with current position your job

4:29 cuts relative to the current position of

4:31 the laser head when you hit the start

4:33 button

4:34 in this mode you’ll use the job origin

4:37 grid within the laser window to tell

4:39 lightburn how to position the job

4:41 relative to the laser

4:43 for example if you place the head of the

4:45 laser on the bottom left of your work

4:47 piece you’ll want to make sure you have

4:49 the bottom left selected in the job

4:51 origin grid

4:52 similarly if you have the laser head

4:54 centered on your work piece you’ll also

4:57 need to make sure that you have the

4:58 centre selected in that job origin grid

5:01 i like to use current position for

5:02 objects that i want to engrave in the

5:04 very center like coasters where aligning

5:06 the design might be more difficult i

5:08 find it easiest to make a small mark

5:11 using a pencil in the very centre of my

5:13 object to really help with speeding up

5:15 the alignment process then turning the

5:17 laser on i can quickly align the beam

5:19 with the mark before hitting start this

5:21 is a great way to ensure that the

5:23 engraving will be perfectly centered

5:24 with your workpiece

5:27 the third mode is user origin which

5:30 works very similarly to the previous

5:32 current position mode

5:34 the key difference is that in current

5:36 position the location of the laser head

5:38 is where the job starts from while in

5:40 user origin you’ll need to define the

5:42 origin location

5:44 on some larger dsp machines like

5:46 ruida-based systems there’s an origin

5:48 button on the controller panel that can

5:50 be used

5:51 on g-code machines like the diode lasers

5:54 we are using this will need to be set

5:56 within lightburn to do this we’ll need

5:58 to use the move window to jog the laser

Transcript for for LightBurn Set Origin Modes (Cont…)

6:00 head over to its starting location when

6:02 we’re happy with its positioning we will

6:04 need to select the set origin button to

6:06 apply that new origin

6:08 lastly we will want to double check in

6:11 our laser window that we have set the

6:12 job origin correctly in the grid the

6:15 grid option needs to match the location

6:17 that we just set the new origin too for

6:19 example if we jogged our laser to the

6:21 top left of our work piece and clicked

6:23 set origin the grid option for top left

6:26 would also need to be selected once

6:28 you’ve set the origin you can jog the

6:30 laser head around knowing it will return

6:32 to that origin position when you start

6:34 your job or select go to origin in the

6:37 laser window this has been how to use

6:39 the three different start from methods

6:40 within lightburn you should now have a

6:42 much better understanding of what the

6:44 different modes are and how to set up

6:46 your jobs correctly for each of them

6:48 links will be in the description of this

6:49 video over to our official lightburn

6:51 documentation covering each of these

6:53 modes be sure to check out our library

6:55 tutorial playlist on youtube for many

6:57 more guides covering the tools and

6:58 design features within lightburn