Lower power output with Genmitsu 4030XL GRBL controller + D-B10W laser module

LightBurn Hardware Compatibility
1

Hi;

I have a 10W output laser (D-B10W 10W Laser Module for Kentoktool Laser Engraver 0.01mm) connected to my Genmitsu 4030 laser output with the stock control box.

Lightburn will turn the laser on and off correctly, move the machine appropriately, but I am limited to a very low power output.

I am not sure if there is insufficient power available, or if there is another PWM incompatibility. Documentation is spotty.

Has anyone attempted similar or has any suggestions?

The device is in laser mode, $32=1 and $10=0.

Thanks for any assistance.

2

I put an oscilloscope on the 4030 control box laser output PWM.

It is modulating when driven with lightburn, but only between 0 and perhaps 10%. This is reflected in the output of the laser. e.g. when setting lightburn to 5% output, a small pulse width is observed, but at 100%, it is only marginally larger.

Is there a limiter or setting to enable the full PWM range?

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

3

A clue, perhaps?

GRBL and Smoothieware use the S-Value (spindle speed setting) to control the PWM power output to the laser. This setting is the number that corresponds to 100% power in LightBurn. Smoothieware typically uses a value from 0 to 1 and supports fractional numbers in between. GRBL defaults to 0 to 1000 for newer versions of GRBL, or 0 to 255 for older ones. The S-Value Max setting in LightBurn must match your controller setting, or you’ll either get not enough power output (if LightBurn’s setting is lower) or very small power numbers will set your laser to full power (if LightBurn’s setting is higher). The corresponding setting in GRBL is $30 for the firmware versions that support it.

4

Follow the Lightburn grbl setup … it will probably correct the error.

The $32 sets the controller to Laser mode from ‘spindle’ mode for milling machines. Some things are handled a little different.

$32 is doesn’t defined range control for pwm. $30 and $31 define the range. $30 should be equal to the controllers ‘S-value max’ setting in the Device settings… and $31 should be 0…

From my grbl machine, on Lightburns console…

$30=1000
$31=0
$32=1

Go through the setup and it’ll probably fine… most of this stuff isn’t really plug and play… :thinking:

Good luck

:smile_cat:

5

I went about it the other way and changed S-Value max in Lightburn to 10000 to match the setting that was existing in the GRBL control variables. This fixed the problem, and PWM works as expected now.

Thank you very much for your reply.

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