@donkjr
Do exactly as he says, and don’t question it. It will work I promise. Did for me! @Charlie_Thcakeray
@Ariel_Yahni_UniKpty @Mark_Leino apart from the middle man connector is there any other information i should know or is it a case of plugging in the other connectors? on that wiring diagram it show a relay board, do i need that?
@Mark_Leino would be more suited to respond but there not much, you could add another psu to drive the board and peripherals just to isolate it from Lpsu. From there the other upgrades available
@Charlie_Thcakeray if you are referring to the relay board on my schematics you do not need that for a basic smoothie conversion.
You will notice that the relay board it is not connected to the smoothie, It is what I use to control power to the vacuum, assist and other accessories.
That schematic pertains to my conversion and has more than you need for a basic configuration.
To get started on a basic conversion you only need the smoothie, and middleman.
You need to make a choice on power. You can power from the LPS ( in my opinion it is marginal). You can also add higher capacity supplies.
I will drop a simplified diagram here sometime this weekend.
@donkjr Are you using the open drain without a level shifter to control PWM?
@Charlie_Thcakeray There is a direct simple drop in board available from Cohesion 3D.@raykholo designed the board that literally all you have to do is remove the old board, screw the new one into the exact same screw holes, plug in the cables fro the old board, and you are done. The config file comes ready to go, you can do the upgrade in about 1/2 an hour if it is your first time, if you have done it before, it can be done in about 10 -15 minutes. No soldering, splicing, making cables. Just a simple drop in replacement board that has all the different variation of K40 connectors so it will work with any sub model of the K40 family. Here is a link to a post of his explaining the board https://plus.google.com/u/0/+RayKholodovsky/posts/UrNpWddMZok
@funinthefalls @donkjr you guys are all awsome, really appreciate all your help. it sounds like a really simply process then, i suppose as a newbe it can be abit daunting starting off. So for my k40 smoothie conversion ill just need a smoothie boarded and a middle man.
Do i need to do and software programing at all? i was planning on using laserweb is it just a case to ‘printing’ from laserweb or is it much more complicated than that?
Another question, whats the PWM all about?
Thanks again.
@Charlie_Thcakeray LaserWeb is all about loading your design file and sending to the laser. No programing needed with either smoothie or LaserWeb, just you need a properly setup config file. Don’t forget to join the LaserWeb community and start reviewing previous post to grab a feel
@funinthefalls Yes I am using the OD design show here as are multiple others.
@Charlie_Thcakeray here is that drawing I promised it uses the 24VDC from the LPS and an onboard regulator
The Cohesion board is a good choice for simpler conversion as @funinthefalls suggests.
@Charlie_Thcakeray as far as PWM is concerned if your not into electronics the subject can be complex to understand but here is an oversimplified explanation.
The K40 needs a digital interface so that software can tell it how to create (burn) an object. To do this it needs to control two things:
- turn the beam on-off and
- adjust the power in the beam.
The digital input to the laser power supply does this by turning on its power at a specific level while it dwells at a specific location in x & y.
So how is the power controlled by a digital input?
For every dot time the power supply is told to turn on and the controller keeps it on for a period proportional to the power it wants before the beam is moved to a new spot.
So if within a dot time the laser is held on for 50% of the time it is running at 50% of its max power.
The power is therefore adjusted by modifying (modulating) how long it is on during its dot time, i.e Pulse with modulation (PWM).