I’m presently working with a 4040 Reno and have a 40 W laser tree attached to it. Software is Lightburn V 1.6.03. My problem is basically the laser appears to be running at 100% no matter what power setting I use. My settings in Gbr are as follows: $32=1, $30 =255. I also tried $30=1000. Didn’t change a thing. In Lightburn I have tried the power setting from 100% right down to 5%, nothing changes. This laser and Lightburn did work properly until a couple days ago. However, I downloaded and tried the new version of Lightburn, MillMage. This problem seems to have started with that download. Don’t know, maybe something else!
Probably the first thing is to put a voltmeter on the pwm signal to see if it’s producing the correct value with the settings.
Just a voltmeter from ground to the pwm output that drives the laser. It is a 0 to 5V output typically. Some do get away with a 3.3V output. Which ever you board uses the reading will be percentage power times the voltage.
Usually it’s you can unplug the laser and run it at 100% to get the maximum voltage. Ensure you get $30 and S-Value max correct before you do this. If these are off, it won’t translate properly.
On a 0 to 5V system a pwm or power setting of 50% will read 2.5V, 20% at 1V.
This will tell you if it’s toward the controller or the laser head.
Both the laser and the software (Lightburn) need to know the relationship of the pwm signal what is 100% and what is the minimum.
$30 is actually the maximum spindle RPM and $31 is minimum spindle speed. The percentage or generated gcode (grbl) pwm is based on min/max values.
Hope that makes sense…?
It is not a new version of Lightburn. MillMage is for CNC milling machines, not lasers. It just has a very similar design environment. However, where Lightburn uses Layers, MillMage uses Operations.
Unless you tried changing some parameters in the controller board, MillMage would not have messed up your laser.
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