Hi guys, I’m about done with my laser mod to smoothie but I need some help. Inside Laserweb3 there is a test fire button. When I use it, my ammeter (stock k40) pegs around 23ma (trying to stay less than 18ma). I’ve set the threshold in the software to a lower level but it doesn’t seem to change anything. Am I missing something or do you have any recommendations? By the way, I should mention that I did remove the stock POT from the K40 as I wasn’t clear on how it should be wired. I was planning to use PWM only and adjust over time as the laser weakened… Thanks for any input.
Change your max power in the firmware from 1 to something like .7 or .8 and see if that changes your output
That’s the thing alex, I have it set to .5 at the moment.
@Chuck_Comito like the Laserweb master +Peter van der Walt said which board are you running?
How old is your tube? They are rather high amps for a k40 stock tube I belive you should not be running it past 13ma
Hi guys, x5 is the board. The laser tube is about 2 months old with fairly low hours. Not sure what the ma threshold would be. I’ve read to keep it below 18ma but 13 might be better. I’ll have to see how it performs. As of now I’d just like to not blow it up. Alex, “like laserweb master” meaning the google+ page? thanks all…
I’ve never gotten the fire command in smoothie to work, and quite a few of my customers report that the LW fire button doesn’t function for them, so that’s worth looking into.
Same here but I only need to test fire to align and then never again.
Ok I think I got it. I had thought I had to have a PWM for intensity and a separate one for “when” to fire. Turns out, if I only use the one going to the L on the LPS I can change the intensity. In a nutshell, I removed one of the PWM signals and it has now lowered to 15ma.
So, does that mean a job might perform different than the test fire button acts? Right now I’ve set the software to .75 for laser power. I’m going to load up some gcode and see how it performs during a job. I also don’t NEED the test fire although it is nice for alignment. I’ll keep you posted.
One last thing. Looks like I’ve got it however the laser is on during off modes and doing nothing when it should be in on mode?
Again, I figured it out lol. Firmware switch.