Oh I know I’m looking around thinking of engraving everything! Just so happens I was prepared for this and order several sheets of acrylic, the ups delivery guy must really wonder what I do with all these crazy shaped packages
Hi guys,
I just read this post, and it looks like @Mark_Leino has the exact same PSU as I have in my k40. I got my Smoothieboard months ago, and have had fits and starts getting it to work. I am very close though.
My problem was that I couldn’t get the laser to fire at all. I had it wired up following @donkjr 's blog post here: http://donsthings.blogspot.com/2016/11/k40-laser-power-supply-control-take-2.html. I would run gcode from LaserWeb, and I could only get the laser to fire when I held down the test button.
That got me to thinking that I needed to use the K+ wire, which I guessed from Don’s configuration file here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9A1NYiboK99VEthU1NYMGxLbFk/view?usp=sharing. This was confusing because I keep seeing “only two wires!” but Don’s config references 2.4 and 2.5.
Anyway, I tied the K+ to the “red side” of 2.5. This forced the laser always on. I went in to the config and tried every combination: 2.4^, 2.4v, 2.4^!, and 2.4v!. No luck with any of them. The laser will not go off.
Does anyone have any idea what I have done wrong? I will attempt to include a pic, and my current config so you can delight in my incompetence!
Thanks for any help you can give me!
Mike
If it isn’t clear…
The yellow wire on the connector that isn’t pushed in all way is spliced to K+. I pulled it out a bit to remind me to take it completely out once I took the pic. I didn’t want to burn the house down!
The green connector on the lower left is the +5v line. I have been afraid to leave it plugged in because I wanted complete control of when the Smoothie was on while I was testing.
If it wasn’t obvious, I’m very new to Google+, I hope I haven’t breached etiquette. I can’t figure out a good way to attach my config, so I am just pasting in what seems appropriate.
Laser module configuration
laser_module_enable true # Whether to activate the laser module at all. All configuration is
# ignored if false.
#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 0.8 # 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
switch.laserfire.enable true #
#switch.laserfire.output_pin 2.5^ # connect to laser PSU fire (!^ if to active low, !v if to active high)
#switch.laserfire.output_pin 2.5v # connect to laser PSU fire (!^ if to active low, !v if to active high)
#switch.laserfire.output_pin 2.5!^ # connect to laser PSU fire (!^ if to active low, !v if to active high)
switch.laserfire.output_pin 2.5!v # connect to laser PSU fire (!^ if to active low, !v if to active high)
switch.laserfire.output_type digital #
switch.laserfire.input_on_command M3 # fire laser
switch.laserfire.input_off_command M5 # laser off
@Mike_Wiles sorry I am pretty confused, as I often get, as to what you have and what is working or not.
The K+ signal has nothing to do with the laser PWM, in fact its 4.5V. The LPS wiring should stay like stock except for 2 wires to ADD to the laser power supply on its DC connector as the diagram below shows.
You can save your config file to your Gdrive and then share it with a link here.
In the config file:
I would suggest a review of this section: http://smoothieware.org/configuring-smoothie
The # at the beginning of a statement makes that line a comment and essentially disables it.
The switch statements in my laser config file can be ignored for now as they are not relevant to getting PWM to work.
Your file dump above has multiple #'s that are disabling the controls for PWM.
After insuring that you are wired like these diagrams, I would start fresh with my config file and concentrate on getting PWM to work before changing any of the config file.
I am certain that my config file with the wiring as this diagram suggests will work :).
Have you wired the system exactly like this.
+Peter van der Walt Are you saying this is an obsolete post or just an older unresolved problem? it showed it was 7 hrs old.
Thanks for your response, @donkjr !
Yes, I believe I have wired the laser power section like your diagram. I don’t have the middle man circuit you describe because everything seemed to work as they were supposed to. I was able to connect the stepper motors and end stops directly to the board.
As for the config file, I intentionally left the commented lines in to give myself a log of what I had done, and also prove that I tried each combination. (I also made sure to restart the smoothie each time so the config changes took effect.)
I piggybacked on this particular post because it looks like @Mark_Leino has the exact same machine as I do, and he solved his very similar sounding problem. Unfortunately, one of his linked pictures doesn’t resolve any more, and it looks like whatever troubleshooting and “ah ha!” Moments happened in private conversations. Th solution feels tantalizing close to me!
To summarize my wiring and config… the four blue wires coming from my laser psu are going to the following places:
24v - to the 12-24v input on the smoothie (which must be working, because my machine will execute gcode.)
GND - to the GND of the 12-24v, and also the “right-most” side of the middle “big mosfet” (sorry, I don’t know the PIN number, but I’m sure it matches your diagram.)
5v - to the 5v input on the smoothie (but I don’t keep that plugged in because I want it to be lowered by my pc’s USB while I am testing.
L - to pin 2.4 on the smoothie. (Left-most, just like your diagram.)
I hope this makes sense. Thanks again for the help!
I can’t even remember what I did to fix it… It was something that I did wrong though… Sorry!
@Mike_Wiles I think that you are wired incorrectly. Check the photo below of my actual wiring and yours. Make sure you are using the correct edge connectors. You do not have a socket in the leftmost position so you may be off by one?
Here is my marked up image. I think everything matches what I am seeing in both @donkjr and @Mark_Leino pics.
@Mike_Wiles Running my exact config file?
This now looks different than the first picture you attached as you had something in the 5th connector from the left edge. Now its the same as mine?
I removed the K+. That held the laser on for always and forever. Basically, I reverted back to my initial problem: the laser never fires.
Before I posted this, I did a diff of your config against mine. It resulted in disabling the stock extruded heater settings, and adding the laser module settings that refer to 2.5. These settings are what led me to believe that I needed to connect K+.
From there, I tried the four combinations of the 2.4 pin setting, three of which are commented out.
@Mike_Wiles K+ is 5V and should not have had any effect if it was connected to “L”?
The configuration I am using works if its wired like mine, which you seem to be.
Something else is wrong. I will look at this thread again tonight. Do you have an oscilloscope?
I connected K+ to 2.5 because I thought “Obviously closing the Test switch (short-circuiting K+ and K-) causes the laser to fire. Maybe pin 2.5 is effectively serving that purpose. Maybe that is why there is that entire section referring to 2.5”
I do not have an oscilloscope. That is one of the things I really regret leaving behind during my moves!
I will upload my config in a minute.
Here is my config. I’m going to go through it and make it as identical to yours as possible.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6iMocsPMfDOMjR3eG1MYjNXZTA
@Mike_Wiles just download and use mine?
@Mike_Wiles K+ is connected internally to 5v in the LPS through a pullup. It will not fire the laser. You connected the output of a mosfet through a pullup to 5v …generates a tiny bit of heat that’s all :).
Connecting K- to 5v would turn on the laser. However the PWM from 2.5 in my config is negative true so the laser would have stayed on with no PWM signal.
Anyway I know we will get this to work with my schema :).
Success!
I was initially concerned with taking the numbers from @donkjr 's config because I am not using a middle man board anywhere. But I tried it anyway. As defined, my machine went bonkers as soon as I tried to home it.
I expected this, so step 2 was to change the following settings in the config:
alpha_dir_pin 0.5 # Pin for alpha stepper direction
beta_dir_pin 0.11 # Pin for beta stepper direction
alpha_max_endstop nc # NOTE set to nc if this is not installed
alpha_max 324 # this gets loaded after homing when home_to_max is set
beta_max 218 #
panel.enable false # set to true to enable the panel code
network.enable true # enable the ethernet network services
The last two are obvious. I don’t have a panel, and I am hooking my Smoothie directly to my network.
The first five relate to how my steppers are setup and where my endstops are. I don’t know if it is right, but it definitely works this way.
Anyway, I ran my gcode and it WORKED PERFECTLY!
Thank you @donkjr for your diagrams, blog posts, and config file!
Thank you @Mark_Leino for taking the time to post your own pic, and giving me this post to leech from! 
Now to find calibration gcode and deal with my mirrors! (The adjustment screws seem to be superglued in place, so I am not looking forward to this part!)
Mike
@Mike_Wiles and we have another winner!
Great job sticking with it … now the fun begins!
My donation account is always open 