Well turns out the MKS Base 1.3 I bought ( Smoothie capable) is jacked..

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Well turns out the MKS Base 1.3 I bought ( Smoothie capable) is jacked… sO i just ordered a RAMPS 1.4 setup lol cheap on ebay http://www.ebay.com/itm/252181241032

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it’s acting like it lost a Stepper driver somehow. I’ll send it to you if you want, you can keep it if you fix it. it’s the V1.3 board

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not a problem at all Peter, I’ll ship it out on Monday

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Peter, do you need a ramps setup as well?

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David, if you need help with the upgrade, let me know, I have done mine and figured out all the little issues.

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@funinthefalls Thank you , I appreciate the help if needed

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@David_Cook ​ - is the new one you’re getting Smoothie capable as well?

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@funinthefalls ​ I am in the middle of upgrading my K40 with Ramps upgrade. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

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Sebastian, what are you having trouble with?

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Will smoothieware run on a ramps board?

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Ramps1.4 and #LaserWeb by +Peter van der Walt is the best thing happened to my K40.

While waiting for the Ramps to arrive, get all the components for the middleman board. I actually soldered jumper cables to the ribbon cable, but say if I have to do it again, I will get the ribbon socket. Makes things easy if you ever decide to go back to the stock. (I dont thing anybody would do that!)

Also get some 22 AWG silicon wires for Laser Fire, PWM, and 5V input. They are soft and easy to route. I used regular wires for those three and end up changing it to all silicon wires.

Here are pics from older post. https://plus.google.com/+ChiragChaudhari/posts/gW49XQXTqNi

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@David_Cook what are the benefits of switching to Ramps 1.4 (instead of smoothie)?

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Does anyone make a kit or have a list of parts to convert the connectors used on the K40(LaserDRW) to ones suitable for the RAMPS boards. I would like to try the upgrade but not burn my bridges until I was happy with the conversion.

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Someone created a middleman board to plug the ribbon cable into so you don’t have to modify the laser permanetly. I have a couple made up if you want one, just pay for the shipping to wherever you are located, board is free.

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@Arestotle_Thapa that I don’t have to throw another hundred bucks at this thing :slight_smile: that’s the only advantage I can think of. I was using the Azteeg X5 with smoothie ware until I shorted it out with the scope probe… Then tried this MKS base 1.3 board from eBay. It stopped working after it crashed a stepper motor. So less than $40 got me that Ramps kit from eBay. Then I found the modified firmware for it that fires the laser with a low signal. Looks very simple. I’m familiar with Ramps as that is what I used when I built my first custom 3d printer . on my first laser power supply I unsoldered the the ribbon connector and use it as an adapter to wires back into the control board. Everything else is ready to plug in. I also have a Viki LCD I want to try and use from Panucat as well as an X3 board to try

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Thanks @David_Cook . How is raster/engraving support in Ramps kit compared to smoothie compatible boards?

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Using Turnkey Tyranny’s plugin for inkscape to generate the Gcode, ramps is excellent at raster engraving

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yeah looks like Ramps does Raster https://github.com/lansing-makers-network/buildlog-lasercutter-marlin

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+Peter van der Walt once I make some cash with this laser I’ll be looking to get back into Smoothie

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@funinthefalls I am in the UK and I would be interested, if you can let me have a quote for the post and packing.