YEAY!!! My Smoothie is here!!!
Please let us know how it installed and works for you. What can you do with it, that you can’t do without it?
Changing the stock board will among other things: 1- bring platform independence ( use other software to control your laser) / 2- recognize Grey as depth.
What else do you need beside the board? I see other stuff on the Uberclock web site.
Well they sell a bunch of other stuff that’s 3d printer related. For a K40 laser just the board but other connectors could E needed depending on your current psu and stock board
Thanks - what software do you plan to use - I don’t have reliable internet connection at the machine site.
I already did my convertion and i use Laserweb3 to control it on a daily basis.
You need an internet connection for laserweb though - correct?
Nope. It runs locally on your computer
Awesome - one last question - what version of the board did you get - I will only use it for the K4
I don’t have an original smoothie but the desicion is also based if you would like network cable to connect the laser, if not go with the smaller board for 3 axis
Same here… I wasn’t able to actually get a “real” smoothie… but it’s my hope that it’ll do the job until I can.
Ariel I’ll have questions for you about the pwm power setup… but I think I’ll figure it out with your config file you sent me.
@Jon_Bruno no need to actually change the smoothie, but it’s important to support the developer. PWM is just decided on the pin but the actual hookup depends in exactly what machine you have
I know there was some writeups referring to level shifters and such…
that area seems a bit grey in my research.
I have an LPSU with the smaller connectors. I’m not sure how that makes the difference between the models mentoned in some of the writeups…
Place an image of both psu and stock board
The stock board was removed when I went RAMPS and the factory LPSU has been changed long ago. I’ll post pics anyway… FWIW the stock board worked with the second LPSU the same as the first which ironically had the larger green connectors. this is why I’m skeptical that there is a difference in the way they work.
@Jon_Bruno Do you have to use a ribbon cable to connect to the stock board? For running the laser with smoothie look at the PSU from R to L. The first 4 pin connector will read 24v/gns/5v/L . You need the 24v - GND to power the smoothie and the L will be connected to a mosfet ( where you would connect a heated bed or 3d printer extruder heater ).
The factory board was connected to the X axis and home switches with a ribbon. I have since terminated that cable to more managable termination with wires.
My question is more for the power level control. I understand that L is pwm’d but what is to be done with the power (IN) pin on the LPSU? Do we just feed it 5v solid and let the L manage the duty cycle or are both modulated? also the output of the mosfet, wouldn’t that be at 12V or whatever the input voltage rail is at? I suppose I wouldn’t want to send 12v to the L pin if it’s only 5v tolerant.
There is no need to tap into any other line at all. The basic reason is the original board wasent connected to any other source either. Note that with this method the you still keep the pot and is used for security or to cap the max output. If you would like to control it also then you will need a 2 pin configuration. Depending on your board then you add the level shifter as smoothie will only output 3.3v and the PSU expect 5v for max power