Issues with SainSmart CNC

I recently upgraded my SainSmart Provrxl 4300 CNC to the closed loop motors. The upgrade came with a new controller unit necessary for these motors. Although I worked through the issues with the Spindle, I am now having an issue when I use the laser. If I try to engrave with the laser using files that worked with the previous controller, they no longer work. No matter what settings I use for speed or power, nothing seems to change. It always runs at the same speed and power which obviously is unacceptable.
I made sure the switch on the controller is set to “laser” but that doesn’t seem to make a difference. Interestingly, the speed can be adjusted when I jog the laser and the speed seems to work when I outline the planned engraving (I.e., whatever setting the speed is at will be how fast the outline runs) but once I start the project, it seems to run at some constant speed. This is also obvious if I run a test grid; all of the boxes are about the same even across a wide range of speed and power savings.
Any thoughts?

What type was the first controller?
Post a picture of your current controller.

Thanks for your response, I’ll post it this evening. Here is a picture from the SainSmart website of the upgrade:

I believe I figured it out. With the old controller, once I switched from “spindle” to “laser” I was good to go but that isn’t the case with the new one. In my laser program I needed to add the command: $32=1 to turn on the laser. Once I did this, it appears to be working fine. I feel kind of dumb but at least it’s working.

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This sets the controller to laser mode…

:smile_cat:

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Yes sir, that’s why I did it. With the old controller, setting the switch to Laser did it automatically, with the new controller, obviously that wasn’t the case. Once I added the command, all was good. Unfortunately, SainSmart didn’t mention this with the new controller.

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