The reason I’m writing is due because I’m having problems with a Omtech K40 Plus C02 laser I just acquired. I’ve plugged in the laser and searched for it on lightburn and it all came up and got it set up. The laser homes to the rear left position on it’s end stops. When I put something on lightburn’s workspace and attempt to test the laser, instead of moving to the area where the job is at, it wants to move to the rear and keeps hitting the laser frame. When I try to position the laser on lightburn away from the workspace as in going to negative values (above the workspace and to the right) it then moves to the correct position on the laser. I’ve looked around on internet to see if I can come across any solution, but I haven’t found anything that works. I’ve even tried to set up laser offsets on negative values to see if that makes it move to the right spot but no luck. I’m wondering if anyone could help me get this set up and resolve so I can test this equipment and make sure it works properly.
The attached picture is my current home location where the laser is at 0,0. Below are my $$ settings as the laser has them as well as the $#:
Greetings! Just saw the response on the support email and as I stated there, the origin is already set up to match the laser position on the rear left and Absolute Coordinates is selected as well but it still wants to move to the rear when putting the laser location on a positive place on the workspace. If i put it anywhere above the workspace, then the laser moves down and to the qctual workspace on the laser itself.
Ok. So the laser would move to positive numbers on the X direction but when I try to move it positive on the Y direction, is when the laser hits the fence. Moving the laser on the negative direction (above the work area) does moves the actual laser to the right place on the laser workbed. I’ve tried G10 L2 P1 X300 Y-200 but that doesn’t seem to work and putting both values on the negative doesn’t seem to work either.
If you have any issues with jogging in that version let us know.
And if the Y axis moves down when you jog up after homing set the device origin to the front left.
And since you home to the back you may also need to include a G54 offset to shift Y0 to the bottom left corner: I think you will need to enter G10 L2 P1 X0 Y-200 to do that (clear any existing offset first with $RST=#).
I greatly appreciate the help brother. That did the trick. I used the $RST=# first then did the G10 L2 P1 X0 Y-200 and moved the origin to the bottom left. At first, it was moving a bit strange but I noticed that it had the offset turned on and when I turned it off, it worked just fine. Now to try and get some settings dialed in to test this out. I’ve played with my 50W JPT fiber and my diode but first time playing with a C02 laser. Let’s see how it goes.
No problem, I think the issue was that your machine origin was actually front left even though you were homing to back left. Can you confirm this please by jogging to the middle of the workspace and then in the console window enter G53 G0X0Y0 - which corner does it go to?
If it moves to the front left click on the ‘Get position’ button in the Move window and tell me what the coordinates say.
Ok thanks, I think it must have been just Y that was inverted when the origin was in that top left corner (negative coordinate space for Y only).
After homing, if you enter G53 G0X0Y-10 does the head move down a little?
An alternative method to solve this in a way that no longer required the G54 offset may have been to invert the Y axis using $3 (so you can set device origin to top left-to match the home origin) and then set $23 to home in a negative direction for the Y axis.
E.g. currently $3=3 and $23=1, to invert both for Y: $3=1 and $23=3 and then clear the offset $RST=#.
But if everything is working ok now you can just leave the settings as they are.
So far everything seems to be working great.. with the exception that I’m trying to do some burn test with it on a piece of balsa wood and I’ve used anywere between 50mm/s to 300mm/s using a 30% power but no marks whatsoever. I even tried to do a ramp test with a line to see what was the focal lenght of the laser (currently have it a 2 inches above the material as per the manual) but no luck. It doesn’t even mark the line or the word test. I currently have the fire button set at 11% and when I do press the fire button, it does fire and marks a dot where the nozzle is currently at but other than that, it won’t mark the line I’m using on the ramp test or the word test. I’ve tried searching for information on the internet with no luck and I just called Omtech to see if they can help me out but I’m waiting for a call back.
I think I’m getting somewhere. I started playing with the potentiomenter on the laser and moved it all the way to the left and started to crank it little by little and so far it’s marking. I had it all the way to the right and I thought that was full power but aparently not. I guess I will have to keep playing with it so I can get it dialed in correctly. If any one has experience on it and would like to share, I would be glad to hear it.
I’m not 100% sure. This is my first Co2 laser and ive been trying to search for information online but haven’t been so lucky. I did noticed that if I put it about a quater from the left and I use 100mm/s with 30% power, it does mark. It shows about 4 mA on the screen. According to Omtech that’s low and it should be displaying about 10mA. If I increase the potentiometer all the way to the right, it does displays about 10mA but it doesnt mark as dark as the prior setting.
The attached picture is with the 100mm/s and 30% power with the potentiometer turned about a quater from the left.
Right, so potentiometer is good if the current goes up as you turn it to the right.
But if you are not getting a darker burn at 10mA in that wood that makes me worry that the tube might be weak/degraded…what if you go to 15mA does it get much darker then?
Presumably you are certain the optics are clean and aligned correctly?
