Preface: This article covers how to enter your scanning offsets properly and some steps to troubleshoot what went wrong and where to find your offsets if you lose the gold card.
If you have a new machine that was built and shipped around Q2 2023 or later, we recommend using the Easy Button to import your offsets and many other things.
Quick Start Video:
Configuration Wizard:
Complete Guide:
How to Enter your Offsets:
Offsets are what control the quality of your Engraving (Fill and Image Layers) when using Bi-Directional mode. If you do not enter the offsets right, you will have issues that can be seen here.
1. Open Lightburn and check your Units (mm vs in, seconds vs minutes)
Open Lightburn and click the Gear icon (Edit>settings)
Make sure you are in mm/sec mode (Can change back when done)
2. Open Up the Device Settings Window
Click the Gear\Screwdriver icon of Edit>Device Settings in Lightburn
Device Settings window pops up
3. Enable Offsets
Go ahead and do this so that we do not forget. It does not good to have offsets entered but not enabled
Not Enabled (Red, Slider to the Left)
Enabled (Green, Slider to the right)
4. Enter Offsets using the Add Button
Values will be entered into the Speed and Line Shift boxes only, nothing should be in the Initial Offset box except 0's
Click the Add button
Enter the values for each line. Repeat for all lines on the Gold Card
5. Check that everything looks right
Lets compare the gold card to what is entered and check the units before we click and try to run a project
Check that your Gold Card Matches the Values you entered:
Check these 5 other things, then click OK twice to close the windows and save your offsets
If any of the 5 things are not correct, then go back and fix and re-enter the offset values if needed.
What if you have lost your gold card?
There are a few ways to find your scanning offsets . Please see the below sections to find out how.
Find them on your USB Stick:
The file referenced below may not be on your USB stick, the process to add the screenshot to the USB started around 2021.
Check the USB stick that came with the machine and navigate to the path shown. Open the image file named after your machine's serial number, those are a copy of your offsets.
1. Look for an Image File (png,bmp) on the USB
2. Use values in Red Box to enter into Lightburn
(Search around the USB as the file location can vary)
Find them on your Computer:
If you have previously exported a copy of your offsets or device profile, the offsets can be recovered from that.
Find them with your computers search function to find "*lbso" or ".lbdev" files:
Windows Example (will vary by OS revision)
Mac Example (will vary by OS revision)
Where to Import:
If you found a *.lbso File you will import the file in the Device Settings:
1. Click on the Gear\Screwdriver Icon or Edit>Device Settings
2. Import the file you found. Be sure to enable your offsets too
If you found a *.lbdev File you will import it as a new device (new Laser):
1. Click on the Devices button
2. Import the Device File you Found. Use the new device or copy offsets from it to your existing device
Email Support to Request a Lookup:
Email Support@thunderlaserusa.com with your machine model and serial number, we will attempt to look them up and send them back
Be sure to turn scanning offset OFF in LightBurn prior to running this test. here is the official documentation on this: https://lightburnsoftware.github.io/NewDocs/ScanningOffsetAdjustment.html Here is more about the attached file: You will need a ...
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If you are a Thunder Laser USA client and still need Technical Support after exhausting the resources in the Knowledge Base, simply email support@thunderlaserusa.com and the Technical Support Team will promptly assist you!