I recently bought a 2nd hand Ten-High GY430 40W CO2 Laser (similar to a K40 but a bit bigger bed). I also decided to get a Mini Gerbil so I could use it with Lightburn. Which is much much easier to control than K40 Whispererer.
I’ve only had it setup for a few days and it all appears to be working correctly and today I’ve decided to knuckle down and start creating my own basic materials database. But I’m a bit confused and have a few questions about power settings.
I have the power setting on the Laser panel set to 60%. Does this “hard” setting have any effect in Lightburn? Does the Mini Gerbil controller override the power setting at the hardware panel?
For instance, when I set the power in LB to 50%, is that 50% of my hard setting 60%, which ends up being 30%? In any case, it appears that going any higher than 50% power in LB has little effect on cutting (it’s possibly even worse).
I have done some reading but I’m still confused. I could do some more trial & error testing but my room is getting a bit smoked out and thought I might get some answers quicker if I posted here.
FWIW, at this point the laser will cut through 3mm MDF at 50% power running a 5mm per second. Seems to be the best I can get at this point.
I don’t have a K40 type but I do read and have discussions with owners of these machines.
My understanding is that the ‘pot’ controls the analog voltage to the lps IN. I would think that the Lightburn percentage would be based on what the analog IN voltage is.
Mine is a Ruida and works a little different, but same results…
Some of the other users may be better at explaining what’s going on.
But I would wonder why that “doesn’t do anything”…
The output of the display is not now connected to anything. But it is controlled via LB. That is great for me. I don’t want to understand too much. I just want to get on with my ideas using this tool. Amazing.
