Hello, I am trying to get my CNC 3018 that uses grbl going, but am having the common problem of not getting the laser to shut off between cuts. After looking at the support forum, I’ve seen countless posts explaining that I need to send $32=1 to turn on laser mode. This seems to work for everyone. However, when I do that, it simply says invalid command. When I send $$ to view the setup, it doesn’t even show a line for 32. I’m puzzled and would really like to get it figured out. Today is also my last day of the trial. I would really appreciate any help! Thank you!
Also, I should mention that I did see the warning that says “if your laser does not turn off between cuts, switch to the GRBL-M3 device, but am not quite sure what that means. I assume it has to do with this drop down menu, but I only have one option there.
Sorry about being a rookie, everyone has to start somewhere!
If you don’t have that option you’re running an older version of GRBL firmware, and you’re already showing that you’re using the GRBL-M3 device in LightBurn. It sounds like you may have a wiring issue or something else wrong with the machine, because the M3 driver is compatible with nearly everything.
If you email our support email address with your trial ID we can extend it for you. I would contact the seller, and try the software that was supplied with the machine to see if that behaves any better.
What does the console say when you first connect? Is it actually GRBL, or is it BenBox or one of the other not-quite-compatible flavors?
Thank you for the quick reply! I just tried using the software that came with the machine and it seems to be working fine. The software is called litefire and it shuts the laser off during the rapids. Below is what my console looks like when it connects in Lightburn.
Check Edit > Device Settings and look for a value called ‘S-value max’. Make sure that’s set to 255. Other than that, I can’t think of why this wouldn’t work. Does the litefire software have the option to save gcode to a file? If so, you could attach a file here and I could have a look to see if it’s using commands that we don’t.
It looks like your device is using Grbl 0.9j… I believe that it has to be Grbl 1.1f or higher to support the variable power mode.
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