Adding Positioning Cameras to Thunder Lasers

Laser
#1

Lightburn offers support for adding cameras to the lasers. The Epilog Fusion (and Glowforge made it famous) offer this feature. Users can see their object on the bed. They can then visually position and size their images exactyish where they want to engrave/cut.

It is esp nice as the developer has a Thunder Nova 35 that he used to develop this system. Cost is that of a web cam, <$150. The Lightburn forums have several models that have been tested. Field of view at a given height over the bed is the main factor in selecting which camera. Camera is mounted on the lid. Lightburn even offers a few cameras and mounting hardware.

11 Likes
#2

I like this new word. I think it means “almost exactly.” It could be very popular in a makerspace environment.

3 Likes
#3

That sounds like a cool idea. I found a page on Thunder’s site with some videos on how to install it. https://support.thunderlaserusa.com/support/solutions/articles/65000166052-thundercam-installation-manual

#4

In a prior role at my (technically) former employer, my peers were routinely called upon to make things happen that automation was too cranky - our outright refused - to do. Upon completion, the response was often It’s fixed…ish, which carried the strong implication ‘if you f__k with this again it will break’.

3 Likes
#5

In that vein, my current job inherited a website with this warning in a god-level css file:

SO HELP ME IF YOU TOUCH THIS FILE EXCEPT TO DELETE ANYTHING
A THOUSAND DEMON-POSSESSED HORNETS WILL BE RELEASED INTO
YOUR HOME WHILE YOU SLEEP, AND YOUR SWOLLEN, DESSICATED BODY
WILL BE HUNG IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE AS A WARNING TO FUTURE
COPY/PASTERS.

In the vein of this thread, this feature would be amazing to add! It’s one of the things I think the glowforge does exceptionally well.

2 Likes
#6

@dougemes also found this info from Lightburn

https://lightburnsoftware.github.io/NewDocs/UsingACamera.html

#7

you may find this helpful:

3 Likes
#8

and this:

1 Like
#9

Awesome. Thank you @ThunderSupport

1 Like
#10

So one complication with using a usb web camera - we are now using ethernet to connect to the lasers. Using a usb cable would require us to return to a dedicated pc per laser.

There are many cameras that support ethernet/wifi connections. Not sure if Lightburn supports that. Yet.

#11

We could do something like USB over ethernet extension, but I don’t know all the particulars of the software and shared resource requirements.

1 Like
#12

lightburn only supports usb cams at this time officially. there are ways to use an ip cam but its not generally advised.

1 Like