I’ve enabled the Enable fire button in Device options, but when i click Fire that’s set to 1% power, it flashes the laser every second or so on higher power than 1% so it’s almost blinding. I would like it to turn on the laser until turned off and on 1%, so i can position material as needed etc… is there some setting i’m missing? Thanks!
I recommend you go direct to Sculpfun if this is accurate. This is dangerous and definitely not normal.
Just to confirm your settings, can you do a screen grab of the Move window. Also, enter $$ in the Console window and report what you see for the $32 parameter.
My Move section looks like this
and value of $32 is 1. I think it has to be something with settings not a laser issue, as when i try to start any cutting or engraving job, the laser stays on and behaves normally as expected, it’s just the Fire button that’s doing weird stuff. Here’s the $$ list of values, if that’s any help:
$$
$0=10
$1=25
$2=0
$3=4
$4=0
$5=0
$6=0
$10=1
$11=0.010
$12=0.002
$13=0
$20=1
$21=1
$22=1
$23=7
$24=100.000
$25=8000.000
$26=250.000
$27=2.000
$30=1000.000
$31=0.000
$32=1
$41=0.000
$40=0.000
$100=80.000
$101=80.000
$102=250.000
$103=100.000
$104=100.000
$105=100.000
$110=6000.000
$111=6000.000
$112=1000.000
$113=1000.000
$114=1000.000
$115=1000.000
$120=1000.000
$121=1000.000
$122=1000.000
$123=200.000
$124=200.000
$125=200.000
$130=410.000
$131=400.000
$132=200.000
$133=300.000
$134=300.000
$135=300.000
ok
Have you tried running an actual job (even a simple, small one) at 1% power? Does it flicker then?
What if you bump up the fire percentage to 2%?
I tried laser job at 100% only, but i tried changing the percentage in Fire button from 1% to 50%, all the same.
I think the fire button only allows 0-20% power, not more. If you could enter higher values here, there is something wrong.
Which laser type did you choose as you added the laser to LightBurn?
Show a screenshot of the device settings window.
Okay i think i know what’s wrong. I tried ramping up the percentage in the layer properties each time by 10%, it still flickers even at 99% power. The flickering is less frequent as the percentage of power is increased, but it’s still there, it’s like the laser cannot work on less than 100%, and if you try to go with less than 100% power it just turns on and off the laser in some intervals… That’s very weird and likely a laser unit issue then right? I basically can use it only at 100% now.
Does the fan run constantly? No sound difference if you choose a different power? I could imagine the cables have been swapped.
Do you see any other lights flickering? Especially on the power supply or main switch? Some S9 batches had either problems with power supplies or the main switch was faulty.
Fan runs constantly normally yes, i will double check later. It all worked fine before, original laser unit was faulty and stopped working so i got a replacement from Sculpfun directly, the old one worked fine until it broke, this started happening when i swapped it for this new one, so power supply and all should be fine?
Three laser modules under warranty? That’s a little alarming and makes me wonder at the root cause. If the driver circuitry is on the controller it may be overdriving the LEDs…
I’ve already tried to contact Sculpfun again, will see what they respond to this. This is second module, first one stopped working completely after a while of testing.
I’ve got yet another laser under warranty from supplier, and it still doesn’t work as expected when i set lower power, so there has to be issue somewhere else. If you happen to have any idea what i could try to fix this i would very gladly try it out… maybe it’s software? It all worked at the very beginning, so it’s unlikely its a faulty hardware part i think, since the laser head itself is replaced yet still does not work. Thanks!
Edit: after taking down the cover of main board, only LED that’s flashing when trying to Fire at 1% power is the blue one next to red laser head socket, and i suppose that is supposed to be lit up when laser is turned on. When i try to run a job at 100% power it stays on, when i try to run it at 50% power it blinks just like the laser does…
Did you already flash a new firmware? Select the S30 firmware from this page: Firmware Update & Settings - Diode Laser Wiki And try again. Maybe the PWM frequency is not correct…
I did not, but it all worked at the beginning. The timeline was something like this
Got new S9 → worked flawlessly for a while → broke down (laser stopped working entirely) → got a replacement laser unit under warranty → installed DIY limit switches (i’ve tried unplugging them when trying the new laser to rule out the switches to be the cause) → unable to run on lower than 100% power problem occured → another laser unit arrived, same thing
So far I’ve tried replacing the laser, refitting all the connections on board and laser as well, tried to replace the laser board from the original laser head to the new one, nothing seems to do a thing… Firmware should be fine when i didnt change anything on it no?
Can you upload a Lightburn file where you set the power at 50% and it burns at 100%?
Its just rectangle with one layer set to 50% nothing fancy, file likely isnt the problem too since Fire button does the same
Having two laser heads in a row do this is unusual.
If you want us to help, you need to provide files, screen shots, or copy/paste text when requested. Otherwise, we are doing exactly the same thing you are doing, guessing in the dark. A simple box is good enough.
This will likely not be the first request.
The Fire button commanded power is code limited to 20% maximum. That is 20% of the power Lightburn sees as possible. Most diode lasers use about 0.5% for this because it is also used for Framing.
I’ve provided some info earlier in this thread, when i fire on 1% it flashes as well, just repeatedly flashing on 100% not continous laser on 1%. Here’s the video of it happening so you have better understanding. I already contacted sculpfun directly and i will receive more items to test tomorrow, like motherboard and another laser or something, they weren’t specific what they will send.
Yeah, I would call that video a Sculpfun issue. Definitely not Lightburn. Keep us posted on how it goes.
Not necessarily. Firmware code can always get corrupted. If the laser behaves weird, a firmware update is the first thing I would do, actually. Try that before digging deeper into other possibilities.