Hi all! I have my Smoothieboard hooked up to LaserWeb and I'm having an

CAD & CAM Tool Chain LaserWeb/CNCWeb Suppport
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Hi all! I have my Smoothieboard hooked up to LaserWeb and I’m having an issue. I’m not sure whether to post it here or the Smoothieware forum but I figured this would be a good place to start!

First of all the smoothieboard is smooth . . . movements seem to not be nearly as jerky and noisy as GRBL. X and Y axis translations are gorgeous! Along with this excellent software it makes my lil ol’ K40 seem pro :slight_smile:

But the PWM isn’t working at all in LaserWeb. I’ve included my config file for perusal - but the laser portion is set to “true” and I’ve also installed a level convertor to kick the PWM signal up to 5V. When I set the Smoothie on my bench and hook it up to my scope I see zero PWM action on any pin that i specify in the config file. I’m down to randomly trying pins in the config file . . . still no joy

I’ve reinstalled LaserWeb AND the firmware on the Smoothie. I’m running the master branch of both LaserWeb (Build version: master-27197b7, Build date: Jul 4 2016 04:10:42, MCU: LPC1769, System Clock: 120MHz) and Smoothie firmware.

Does anyone have a few ideas to get me started? I’m pulling a blank here after 3 days of head scratching . . .

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And here’s the config file part for LaserWeb:

#laser_module_pin 2.4! # this pin will be PWMed to control the laser. Only P2.0 - P2.5, P1.18, P1.20, P1.21, P1.23, P1.24, P1.26, P3.25, P3.26
# can be used since laser requires hardware PWM
#laser_module_maximum_power 1.0 # this is the maximum duty cycle that will be applied to the laser
#laser_module_minimum_power 0.0 # This is a value just below the minimum duty cycle that keeps the laser
# active without actually burning.
#laser_module_default_power 0.5 # This is the default laser power that will be used for cuts if a power has not been specified. The value is a scale between
# the maximum and minimum power levels specified above
#laser_module_pwm_period 20 # this sets the pwm frequency as the period in microseconds

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@Rich_Barlow ​ have you power setting for smoothie into laserweb setting?

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Oh sweet baby Spagetti Monster . . . I’m an idiot. Three evenings of my life wasted because I’m impatient.

Uncommenting. Blushing.

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All better now.

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Peter - I missed your earlier post because you’re so darn fast . . . flashing the latest edge as well.

You rock sir!

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@Rich_Barlow ​ you are going to have to adjust pwm period as well to get good engraves I run mine around 200 micro sec

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Thank you Alex! Adjusting that as well.

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Is the k40 a CO2 laser? or diode? If its CO2, the minimum laser power probably needs to be larger than 0.

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CO2.

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So he should really be setting a tickle!

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@Richard_Betel When setting the minimum power, does that mean it will always fire at that for anything under that power level in the PWM? E.g. a white area in a file, will it fire with whatever min power you set?

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+Peter van der Walt Ah yeah, I will give that a go next week, my garage/laser is all packed up at the moment. Thanks

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Yep . . . 5% tickle makes my really light areas a bit more definted. great stuff folks!

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I use laserweb to supply my tickle power based on the type of material used Its as easy as setting laser min power

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I have found based on how you focus your material tickle power can change. I do some images out of focus on purpose and this changes the amount of power needed to get the same result as an image engraved in focus

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Glad you got it to work :slight_smile: