Anyone recommend a good controller upgrade?

Lasers
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Anyone recommend a good controller upgrade? Is the lightobject Lo x7 a good investment ?

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Cohesion3d

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I started down the LO x7 road and glad I did not. Its still proprietary control which diminishes your tool chain options.
I like my smoothie …

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@Russ_Rsty3914_None ​ http://www.cohesion3d.com by @raykholo ​

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No lcd though ? I have k40 laser with M2nano board…

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Lo x7 has been working great for me. It has been about a year. I upgraded from stock MoshiBoard and MoshiSoft. I can’t speak to other options as I haven’t tried them.

I did the X7 DSP upgrade kit for K40/D40, plus extra motor controller, z bed, and upgraded lens.

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Thanks all !

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Brooke, do I need to replace stepper motors with the lo x7 kit?

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@Russ_Rsty3914_None sure the Cohesion3D mini can support an LCD! You would just add the GLCD adapter to the options for the mini laser bundle, and then snag a “reprapdiscount 12864 GLCD” off amazon to use with it.

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I think the lo x7 is overkill…looks like Cohesion may be the way to go…
Do I upgrade stepper motors too ? Ethernet available ?

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@Russ_Rsty3914_None I didn’t replace the x/y motors. I found step-by-step instructions online on how to switch from stock to the LO 7. It took a couple weeks of evenings and a weekend to complete. I did have to go through re-alignment.

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If I hadn’t gone the LO route, I would have looked more closely at smoothie as it seems to have the best community support on this forum.

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@raykholo Is there a Ethernet Module available for the Cohesion3d card ? I see the more advanced one has it… I would like to have all the new features and be compatible with the Laser…But rewiring laser is ok…

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@Russ_Rsty3914_None no, you just swap the stock board with the new one.
Ethernet - it’s the “Lan8720” module from China. I don’t make my own yet. Laserweb does not support smoothie Ethernet, you would use LaserWeb to set up the job and save the gCode, then the smoothie web interface to upload the gCode file to the board and hit run.

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Hey @raykholo …i need your help bad bro…678-877-0944…i need a 1.7vdc at 12 amps 980nm diode driver…you are the guru name your price man…lol

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So if I go down the road with the Cohesion3d board. What software is required ?
I think I will get the Remix board…Latest one right ?

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The ReMix doesn’t have the laser specific connectors on it. So if the machine you get has a ribbon cable, it’s more work for you to wire.
You can use any CNC style software that outputs gCode, we recommend the amazing LaserWeb.

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I have Mach3

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anyone got a breakout pic for the Ribbon cable…I think that needs to be replaced anyhow…I can see issues further down the road…

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I recommend LaserWeb. It’s free and very well supported and used in the K40 and Cohesion3D communities.