Power modulation problem I think

@URHC how do I get the laser to just fire at 100%? I have an Ortur 20W. I can get the grbl software to manually fire the laser at S1000 (100%??) for a test fire. It seems super powerful. Yet, when I run any cut, its hardly firing. In lightburn, I’ve set the maxium laser power of 100% and the minimum at 95% to try to get it to fire in high, but it doesn’t seem to do anything different.

Just click on the color line you want at 100% and the setting panel opens up to set power and speed. Lines in the artwork can be changed to a different color and have different settings. Also fills can be specified. I printed out the lightburn manual and read it. It will answer all your questions if you go by the manual. I would never fire my laser 100% without it being under machine control. Sounds dangerous.

It was definitely dangerous. The laser recongized it was firing at 100% and not moving and shut itself down after 3 seconds and required a reset. But, all the settings people are talking about above and my settings are the same. Also, I’ve tried clicking on individual lines at changing power to 100% and it still doesn’t set the power anywhere close to what the grbl software will set the laser to in test fire mode. I will try out the manual however.

@Afred170
“was firing at 100% and not moving and shut itself down after 3 seconds”
This is a security feature of our hardware. Exactly for the reason of overburn protection.

Assigning Gcode directly to the console must be done with knowladge as basicly you instructed the laser to fire at 100% but without movine any axle. The machine performed your instruction as intended.

In lightburn you can assign to each colour power/speed settings (among other settings)
So if you draw a square and assign it a colour, you can choose what type of burn it will do Cut/Scan/Image, as well as speed/direction/Power.

I would sugest downloading one of the test files above and run them.

However the power issues on M4 dynamic power are still unresolved. Our engeneers have a new version of the firmware to address this problem but is still going through Quality Control and Testing

Regards

Yes, I figured the shutdown was on purpose. Its nice to see safety features at work. It did demonstrate the power of the laser quite effectively however, which is why I was immediately troubled at my results from lightburn.

I am definetly not getting full power through lightburn. As far as I can tell, not even close. Not with greyscale or even when doing simple fill. I will run one of the test files above when I get back in front of the laser and post the results.

I am wondering if Ortur is going to set up some type of tech support forum for these machines now that many are starting to use them. The only Ortur site I could find is for 3d printing.

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@URHC
Greetings Ed. Is infact in the pipeline.
We are trying to create something just like this forum as well as a new website.
Is in the pipeline for very soon

Regards

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As requested I ran the dither test you supplied above last night several times. The only difference in the tests shown are changing from dither to greyscale. Interestingly, if you change the device settings maximum S value (not in machine settings) to 250, the greyscale will look exactly like the dither. But that tells us the problem is actually two fold:
1: greyscale will not go from 0-1000 for S values
2: if both greyscale and dither look the same for a device setting of S250, the laser isn’t actually firing at 100% power and is only reaching 25% power.

I have your 20W laser, does that look like 100% power to you?

@Afred170
The problem is inside the firmware and how it parses and interprets Gcode.
Svalue machine settings are correct.

We have the problem identified and a fix in place, just need a bit more time because of the New year holidays.

Regards

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Awesome. Please keep us all updated! loving the affordable laser.

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Firstly I want to say I am SO HAPPY with Lightburn software 10 Stars from me!

Secondly - I am a real newbie and have the Ortur Laser with the same problem so I am very keen to receive information on a fix.

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This means the problem exists with all Ortur Lasers independent of the software used to control the Laser (Lightburn, LaserGRBL, etc.), right?
I confirmed the problem with my 15W model: When controlled with S255 in M3 or M4 mode, the Laser is firing at 25%. With S256 the Laser is not firing at all. With S1000 it is firing with 92% power. I validated this using an oscilloscope. So there is definitely an overflow of a variable. When the Laser is controlled just with the S1000 command without moving, it is wiring with 100% and shutting down after a few seconds due to the safety function.

When will this major problem be fixed?

Regards

Hello Everyone

We issued a Firmware update to address the issue:
Please visit and let us know in this thread if it fixed the issues correctly please?
https://forum.lightburnsoftware.com/t/ortur-laser-master-and-laser-master-2-firmware-updates-1-34/11714

Regards

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Thank you very much!

Firmware updated and I can confirm much higher power. This evening will be spent by re-adjusting the powers & speeds… :slight_smile:

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Thank you very much. Update was easy and I tried one photo at 100% power jarvis grey scale and it came out really good. Tomorrow I will play more with it but it seems like my problem is totally solved. I originally was a little leary about buying a laser from a company that I had never heard of before and now know that I purchased the right one from a company with great after sale support. Thanks again, can’t wait for my Ortur 2 to ship. I will make a quick video for my subscribers that purchased one to make sure they are updated. This thing is awesome now.

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Has anyone else run the test file I setup? Mine still looks wonky below 40% power. The straight grayscale strip looks MUCH better! I applaud Ortur for taking care of this, I’ll continue testing speeds, if anyone wants to share settings with the new firmware, I’ll chip in (I think a new post would make sense).

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I have only done a couple photos using the Jarvis at 100% power varying speed and photo contrast getting great results. I no longer need to run at reduced power because the laser now outputs the shades. I haven’t run the test file and now am trying to work out the best travel speed of the laser vs edited photo level brightness and contrast at 100% power. Lightburn seems to do a good job with the s codes on photos. I have not changed any of the factory settings. Maybe the Jarvis handles greyscale better then a stepped graph. The fill type and spacing also can make a difference on a stepped graph that I haven’t played with since the update. I think we should use the firmware post to report issues if anyone is still seeing problems. I am just going to do full power logos and photos with mine and so far they look good.

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Can confirm this solved my problem. Not only that, but I WAS underwhelmed by my 20w laser’s performance. Not anymore. I’ll be recommending the Ortur laser to my friends. Great buy!

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Definitely more powerful! I’m still working to find a speed balance for the birch plywood I’m playing with, the 10-30% don’t show any burn (the laser is on) at higher speeds and if I slow it below 2500 mm/min the 70-100% look super burned. Thanks for the fix Ortur, I’ll keep an eye out for more updates!

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