Create as many shapes you’d like different power settings. Assign each shape to a different Layer. Set the power settings for each layer as you like. When you run the job each layer will run in turn.
One other thing to try…
Go through all the connector pins on the board and see if you can find continuity to D11 and GND anywhere. If so, you could repurpose those connectors. If not, then just I’d suggest just cutting the traces to the current Laser connector and jumping from D11 and GND.
It seems to me D11 & gnd have continuity on the Arduino when lightburn is running a job. I’ll try to get a jumper set up between D11 & GND to the laser wires and see what happens. Thanks again, I’ll let you know. It’s been a while since soldering too, so this’ll be fun.
Well, I’ve been beat by this thing yet again 
I soldered the laser wires directly to D11 & GND. No joy. The laser would not even power on, as if there was no voltage. My meter is going out so I may have had bad results during my test run but I was definitely seeing stable numbers until I started the job and then they were jumping back and forth. I thought it was the laser firing.
When I try just the ground wire to the laser terminal. Go back to the laser terminal still no power. Switch it back to both on the laser terminal and constant on.
I am to the point where I think I need a new controller or a new laser (wishing I would have gotten an inexpensive new one at this point.)
Any suggestions for a controller that might work? It seems I would need one that comes with a new Arduino nano as well. Not just swapping these components to a new board.
Can you take a photo of all the laser module connectors? Are there 2 sets of connectors, one for 12V power and one for PWM? Or is it only the single connector that goes to the “Laser” connector on the board? If it only has the one connector then that’s why it wouldn’t work. Your laser module doesn’t support variable power.
If that’s the case I suspect your board is probably working fine with your hack and it’s the laser module that would need replacing.
To confirm, you were checking voltage between D11 and GND? Voltage should be steady for a given power setting. Try testing using the Fire button in Move window. At 0% power you should get 0V. At 20% power you should get 1V. These should be steady.
If you can prove that out then that means your board is likely working.
As far as a replacement, basically any 2-axis or 3-axis GRBL based controller is likely to work with your basic setup. I don’t see anything particularly exotic there. There are many inexpensive ones on Amazon or AliExpress.
If you want to get something more elaborate you could get a 32-bit variant often listed alongside. There are other branded boards like MKS DLC32 that are fairly popular. One criticism of them is that they violate GRBL licensing requirements from what I’ve seen.
There is a 12V port and a Laser port.
I’ll try to run the test again and try to use the fire button.
Hopefully I can figure out whether it’s the laser module or the board that needs replacing.
You need to have the 12V port also plugged in for it to work. That supplies the primary power. The PWM will only provide duty cycle information which effectively controls laser intensity.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.