Install a camera
Physically mount, focus, and connect a workspace camera. Software calibration covered separately.
A workspace camera makes placement easier: capture the bed image, drop a job onto the camera overlay, and see where it lands.
This guide covers the physical install. For lens calibration and alignment-to-workspace, see the camera guides under Camera.
What you need
- A camera that macOS / Windows / Linux can see as a webcam (UVC-compatible USB cameras are easiest).
- Some way to mount it where it sees the entire bed.
- A free USB port on the same computer running Beam Bench, if you use a USB camera.
Steps
1. Pick a camera
For workspace use:
- Resolution: 1080p is plenty. Higher does not help much beyond about 4 megapixels.
- Lens: a wide-angle lens helps cover the bed from a reasonable mounting distance, but adds distortion (which calibration corrects).
- Connection: USB UVC is the simplest path. If you want to use a phone or network camera, first expose it to the OS as a normal webcam and test it in the OS camera app.
2. Mount it
Two common positions:
- Lid-mounted (looking down at the bed): best when the lid is closed during operation. Most accurate for placement.
- Head-mounted (moving with the laser head): covers smaller area at high detail. Different alignment math; see Head-mounted camera guide.
The mount should be stable. A wobbling camera means recalibrating constantly.
3. Aim and focus
- Point the camera at the bed.
- Set focus so the bed surface is sharp.
- For lid-mounted cameras with adjustable lenses, focus at the typical material surface height.
4. Plug in
- USB camera: plug into the same computer running Beam Bench.
- Verify the OS sees it (macOS: System Settings → Privacy → Camera. Windows: Camera app. Linux:
v4l2-ctl --list-devices).
5. Select in Beam Bench
- Open the Camera panel (Window menu, if not visible).
- The Device dropdown lists detected cameras.
- Pick yours.
- Click Update Overlay to capture a frame and confirm Beam Bench can read from it.
6. Grant permissions (macOS)
The first time the Camera panel reads from a camera, macOS prompts for permission. Allow.
7. Next: calibrate and align
The raw camera image is just an image. To make it line up with the workspace:
- Calibrate the camera lens, corrects distortion.
- Align the overlay, maps the corrected image to workspace coordinates.
Both are software steps documented in the Camera guides.
Verify it worked
- The Camera panel can capture a bed image with Update Overlay.
- macOS / Windows / Linux all see the camera at the OS level.
- The image is reasonably sharp at material height.