Disable foot pedal signal

In EZCAD2, the part counter can be set and an option in the parameters essentially disables the foot pedal and throws up a pop-up screen so nothing more can happen.

Is this possible to do in the current Lightburn? I’ve tried to set “Repeat” checkbox and set count, but foot pedal completely ignores and just continues counting up.

I make a lot of identification plates for automation and made an auto feeder that uses a Reprap firmware board. It uses 2 5V relays to receive the “Marking Complete” signal, does the auto feed and then send “Start Marking” signal back to galvo fiber laser.

The problem is that the auto feeder is stupid and has no way to monitor when finished. EZCAD2 had the ability to stop receiving the foot pedal, but I’m not a fan of it.

Maybe there’s an easier way for me to accomplish this, but I’m not aware. Please enlighten if some other solution could work that doesn’t need to worry about disabling foot pedal.

Video - https://youtu.be/PAuAWgLg8KE

2 Likes

Neat jig you’ve got there…


There are in/outputs that are accessible and configurable to some extent via Lightburn. I think these are controller outputs, so I don’t think Lightburn really acts on any of them except maybe end of job, but I don’t know that for sure.

Try this post and see if it helps…

Let us know :grimacing:

:smile_cat:

That, unfortunately, doesn’t solve my problem, but I think you summed up the issue for me. Lightburn doesn’t have an end of job, that I can find, but a end of current marking. Even selecting Repeat and setting number, if the foot pedal signal turns on, laser starts again and counter goes above threshold.

EZCAD2 had the option to brute force end of job by doing as I mentioned above by counting the full job number and entering that into the part counter box.

I use the variable text with CSV file to input data to laser and as soon as I load a file, Lightburn gives me exactly how many elements are in the array, which is great.

I think in my ideal world, either there was an option to end job at set value or option for variable text data to stop at end of file instead of restarting. I think my only other solution would be to design a more complicated auto feeder.

Thank you for quick feedback.

Sorry, I really don’t know the output these have and how accessible it is to a user. I’ve had mine for about 18 months and it’s out of warranty, but I haven’t opened it up.

There is an end of job signal, but I’m not sure how it works…

I also remember one of these, possibly the linked thread that Lightburn wasn’t interpreting it correctly…

Sorry the memory isn’t doing so good…

Maybe if @JohnJohn drops by, he can put in his two cents as it sure sounds familiar.

:smile_cat:

1 Like

@NicholasL is several time zones ahead of me and has already escalated this to the Dev Team.

1 Like

Thanks… I’m falling a bit behind on this phase of operation…

Thanks for hopping in…

Well, that’s a bummer… :crazy_face:

:smile_cat:

Yes, I’ve raised a question but no response yet…

I do not think there is currently any means to prevent a job from starting again via the foot pedal signal if the job ‘Count’ reaches a certain number, nor if the ‘Current’ variable text record exceeds the configured ‘End’ record.

Having a way to prevent another ‘Start’ once the job count reaches a certain number would be very useful.

Thinking out loud, could you prepare the correct number of blanks to mark, and then configure the loading mechanism so that it does not trigger the pedal signal if no part was present?

For example, one way to do this without requiring any changes to the existing logic at the feeder would be to have a proximity sensor set up so it is triggered when the pneumatic ram (presumably) goes a little further than it otherwise would if the part was present and held. The sensor signal could be used with a latching relay to hold open the pedal circuit preventing any “Start Marking” signals from being received by the controller until the relay was reset.

image

Great, I think your solution could work for me, probably wouldn’t even need the latching relay since Reprap firmware supports conditional statements. I’d prefer not to have to count out number of tags to mark as that is kinda at odds with my laziness to just throw a big stack of tags in the hopper, hit Start and walk away, heh.

Is there a possibility of future patch to fix? Even though the input from foot pedal goes directly to galvo board, the software on PC handles what to do about the signal.

It seems like for galvo at least, the “Repeat” option has no function. I’ve tried it with on and off and it only does one cycle regardless of repeat quantity entered.

Thank you for quick responses and ideas.

I’ve actually added code to handle this. It seems like a reasonable case, and if it all checks out it should be included in 1.7.

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.