In the pic the cable with ends, I’m ASSuming that the 3 connector plug goes to the laser, the
2 connector (white, yellow) goes the the controller board (mine has a 2 wire connection) and
the other would go to a power supply !?!?!?
Is there anything else needed to connect it.
Is there anything not shown in the pic
On my 3 watt the laser has a electronic box attached (hard wired).
In the Amazon pic shown it shows another cable and extension.
HI Bill, Im new here but have lots of expierience with these laser diodes and Co2 lasers,my own opinion is its still not worth the money. I have purchase three or four different diode lasers over the years to get the feelings on their quality and power and so far there is only a couple worth the money. the 15 watts you see in the ad is not optical power and you would be lucky to see 3.5 to maybe 5 watts if measured. so far the best bang for the buck are the lasers with 2 (5) watt modules with the compressed spot technology. I just bought a sculpfun S9 and the technology and spot size with the power they had was impressive but not much documentation to speak off and i have bee eyeing the atomstack M50 and the Laser tree with the air assist. Ideally if i had extra money kicking around i would probably purchase the optlaser PLH3D-6W. only my opinion lol
NIce Pict Im still playing with it! bought it originally to add to my cnc machine which i created from scratch a few years ago. i use all kinds of 2D and 3D design software packages. The intent was to offer engraving or signing of part number and or logos on stuff that i do. My cnc controller only offered a 0-10v control for power so i had got myself a 0-10v to pwm board to which i could control the laser power. worked great and one of the softwares i used just implemented a laser option so i was able to use the feature now. It was impressive and have cut through 1/4" acrylic, basswood and pine like butter. A couple months ago came down with covid was bored and out of work so i decide to design and build a laser machine from scratch and no im playing with everything. Yes Co2 is invisible and just as dangerous as the blue and other color laser but they really kick it on the cutting and engraving side. I decided to play with the diode lasers in parallel as the new spot compression really allows for some fine details as the spot size is miniscule compared to the Co2. Then i came across the dual 5W with the spot compression and the research and prototyping has taken a new stride.
I will check it out! The issue i am fighting with on the sculpfun s9 is the pwm i only have 5volt pwm and think i need 12volt for full power. making a circuit to boost it up to 12v.
It is but I didn’t do that lol
I would like to !!!
I May just try and find $400 cdn for the Neje.
(It looks like it has all the pieces I need (I Think) to upgrade and have some Extra Power)
Have to eat KD for a Month or 3 lol
For sorting out your Sculpfun S9 I have no Idea … Good luck
Maybe some reading this Knows
I have a 6 lane bridge you’d love to own… if you fall for this you’ll love my bridge… lol
Look at a 90 watt co2 machine and compare it, physically, to the one you are looking at…
Co2 lasers have the output measured, whereas most other equipment is rated by input power. You can check out the documentation on led lasers and about a 10% conversion is good. With everything perfect, maybe 20%.
My 30 watt Neje puts out a little under 3 watts, as far as I can tell. I don’t have a power meter for that frequency. I’d guess the 40 watt models would be under 10 watts out at best. I always figure 10%…
At 18mA with 20kV or about 360 watts in, I get 35 watts out on my co2, < 10% efficiency.
The laser is only effective when the material absorbs the energy. A visible light laser will pass visible light through glass and clear acrylic and will not damage the material. Meaning you can’t really engrave clear acrylic or glass, directly.
Any laser can be dangerous, but as above an LED laser with visible light will damage the retina of the eye, whereas a co2 in the infra red range will damage the cornea. Totally different type of damage because of the lasers frequency.
The most danger you can have is to be fearful of these machines. Learn how they work, use common sense and you will be fine. Any safety equipment won’t hurt, but if you don’t understand what’s happening the safety equipment my itself be a hazard, thinking you are safe.
It’s nice to get a feeling for these machines, no matter what ‘size’. It will be a continuous learning experience no matter what you end up with.
Easy Laddy
I don’t need any bridges or that Gorgeous land in the Florida Everglades!!! lmao
I was just questioning … because I couldn’t believe it.
Ok I should’ve said (is it REALLY That…)lol
But being Quite Honest I Have very little knowledge of lasers but I do have a Little Common Sense
I am Just starting to learn lasers (Just diode for now CO2 Much later If I have $$$$$$ lol)
And only believe a Very Small portion of what I see on YouTube!!!
Only just now seeing this. You’re almost certainly fine with your 5V PWM signal voltage. Power is not determined by the voltage of the signal but rather the duty cycle of the signal. So a PWM signal that’s 0% on will be 0% power. One that is on 50% is 50% power. Same with 100%.
Analog lasers, in contrast, could be directly controlled by voltage levels, however.
Based on this picture from Sculpfun I interpret the laser module to be active on for anything from 5V-12V and off for 0V (in reality probably something like < 0.2V).
Fully agreed, the thing is when i hook up a manual PWM board that has the 0-12 pwm i seem to get way more power. I noticed the same when i had it hooked up on my cnc machine. For that macnie i used a 0-10 volt to PWM converter and its cutting results were awesome. when i switch it over to the ruida controller i could not cut through the same material with the 0-5 pwm at 100% power. Might be just be a coincidence but something seemed different.
Odd. I’d be more concerned about you converting to 12V but since the module is 12V tolerant this shouldn’t be an issue.
Ruida frequencies are typically much higher than 1KHz. Did you adjust for this? If the Sculpfun is genuinely capped at 1KHz it’s possible that it wasn’t picking up all the signals from a higher frequency and limiting power “appropriately”.
This might be what’s going on with the other machines. If the Sculpfun is catching a high frequency 10V falling signal as “on” because it happens to be over 5V while dissipating. Essentially voltage is making up for missed signals. This is all hypothetical, however, so take with a grain of salt. I just tend to think there’s something else going on because fundamentally you can’t control power through voltage on a PWM module.
Yes in machine settings, under vendor i have it set to 1000hz, same with the pre-ignition. i have tried changing this ± 1000hz and don’t see any difference. i am going to try putting a scope on the output and see if it has the 1000hz and what my signals look like. maybe its just a crappy pwm signal.
That would be disappointing if true. Thought one of the advantage of DSP boards was fine PWM control. I’m guessing the Sculpfun is just misbehaving or that diagram I posted shouldn’t be read as a proper datasheet and there’s more to it.
Hi all… First timer in here… I’m looking to fit a laser to my CNC and have been looking for answers… I see you’re talking about a Sculpfun S9 which is what I’ve got. Maybe someone can help?
I’m connecting it to a DB25-1205 breakout board and using a 12v power supply to power it.
I understand how/where I’m connecting +12V and PWM pins but I’m a bit unsure about -12V.
Am I correct in thinking that -12V from my power supply runs to the -12v pin on the Sculpfun, and then daisy chains with another cable connecting to the GND terminal on the BOB?
It’s the board that I already have running my CNC mill and I understand that it’s capable of running the laser… by using the PWM signal normally used for spindle speed control.
Computer has a DB25 port and connects to the BOB… the BOB has my stepper motors and limit switches connected to it.
yes it should work, if not you might need to tie you ground on 12v to ground on the 5 volts. Make sure your DB board is PWM and not 0-10v otherwise youll need to convert.
Im still playing with it! bought it originally to add to my cnc machine which i created from scratch a few years ago. i use all kinds of 2D and 3D design software packages. The intent was to offer engraving or signing of part number and or logos on stuff that i do. My cnc controller only offered a 0-10v control for power so i had got myself a 0-10v to pwm board to which i could control the laser power. worked great and one of the softwares i used just implemented a laser option so i was able to use the feature now. It was impressive and have cut through 1/4" acrylic, basswood and pine like butter. A couple months ago came down with covid was bored and out of work so i decide to design and build a laser machine from scratch and no im playing with everything. Yes Co2 is invisible and just as dangerous as the blue and other color laser but they really kick it on the cutting and engraving side. I decided to play with the diode lasers in parallel as the new spot compression really allows for some fine details as the spot size is miniscule compared to the Co2. Then i came across the dual 5W with the spot compression and the research and prototyping has taken a new stride.
The issue i am fighting with on the sculpfun s9 is the pwm i only have 5volt pwm and think i need 12volt for full power. making a circuit to boost it up to 12v.
