1% power setting produces 5-7ma
Way too much?
I created a macro to fire the laser
P4 changes power proportionally
As little as 1(or even less) ma
Any help?
Thinking something in the configuration is wrong
Ken
Sorry, I don’t even know what P4 is…?
I don’t know of any glass tube lasers that will lase at that power settings.
The $30 value needs to be equal to the S-value Max in the device settings. The default is 1000 for Lightburn. I doubt this is the reason for your problem, but check.
If this is ok, do you have a current control on the console like a standard K40?
With a voltmeter you can tell if the control board signals to the lps are correct.
Keep in mind we know nothing of what you’re doing… take the time and give us a good description. That results in a quicker fix…
Welcome to the site 
The panel on the K40 is digital control panel
when it is connected power is controlled thru the digital panel, but Lightburn has no power control, but it does fire the laser
what ever the digital panel is set to
k40 modle# SH-G3020
$$
Waiting for connection…
ok
[VER:1.1f.20230606:]
[OPT:VZHL,35,254]
Target buffer size found
ok
Homing
ok
sys.aborts
JY230 INIT SUCCESS
MonPort
Grbl 1.1f [‘$’ for help]
$$
$0=10
$1=25
$2=0
$3=1
$4=0
$5=0
$6=0
$10=3
$11=0.010
$12=0.002
$13=0
$20=0
$21=0
$22=1
$23=3
$24=25.000
$25=3500.000
$26=250
$27=3.000
$30=1000
$31=1
$32=1
$33=1
$34=1
$35=0
$36=0
$37=1
$39=1
$100=160.000
$101=160.000
$102=160.000
$110=8000.000
$111=8000.000
$112=100.000
$120=500.000
$121=500.000
$122=20.000
$130=300.000
$131=200.000
$132=200.000
ok
Did you check that S-Value Max is the same as $30?
Lightburn sends a percentage power to the controller. The controller generates a pwm with the same values. Set at 50% produces a 50% pwm output that goes to the controller.
Do you have a voltmeter?
You can easily check the output of the controller to see if it’s producing the proper pwm.
Usually the power setting on the console is the maximum… the pwm gives you whatever control you have.
I can control the power with this macro in lightburn, works as expected?
M4 S200 gives approximately 20% 2-3ma
M4 S500 gives 50% 8ma
If you can control it via the console, it would indicate some issue with configuration…
Still looking… maybe @berainlb can see something I can’t with your setup…
Can you confirm that this is no longer connected?
What is the history of this laser? Did this previously work and no longer? Or is this a recent conversion?
What’s the source of this macro? What’s the purpose of disabling laser mode?
What are you comparing this to? Under what circumstances are you getting 5-7ma at 1% power?
with the CBL cable from the monport board connected to the power supply
The digital panel is disconnected (display is off no lights, buttons don’t work)
macro came from Awesomtech
https://awesome.tech/test-fire-button-in-lightburn/
I got fustrated with this board, contacted them to see if the would confirm the board would work, confused emails then they said they don’t support my board?
the 5-7 ma at 1% power is anything lightburn does,
fire button, test grid ect.
Have had the laser several years,
mostly just use to engrave leather,
it has worked fine with whisper,
wanted to have better control of images hence the upgrade to Monport to use lightburn,
monport is saying the board won’t work with my laser??
It seems to be wired the same as k40 with dial?
I haven’t heard back yet about the macro working,
I am thinking it is a configuration issue with lightburn?
Sorry just noticed the reply to message button:o(
Try removing the $32 commands at the start and end and retry the macro. Does the macro still work?
Push “Show all” in Console window. Then set Fire button power to 20% and then enable Fire. Capture all the output in Console window and return output here.
Make any simple design in LightBurn. Go to File->Save gcode, save with .txt extension, and upload file here. Also save the .lbrn file and upload here.
$32 removed
No it doesn’t fire
show all test fire AT 20%
Waiting for connection…
ok
[VER:1.1f.20230606:]
[OPT:VZHL,35,254]
Target buffer size found
ok
Homing
ok
sys.aborts
JY230 INIT SUCCESS
MonPort
Grbl 1.1f [‘$’ for help]
Starting stream
$32=0
M4 S10
G4 P1.00
M5
$32=1
Stream completed in 0:00
Starting stream
M4 S10
G4 P1.00
M5
Stream completed in 0:00
Starting stream
M4 S10
G4 P1.00
M5
Stream completed in 0:00
Starting stream
M4 S10
G4 P1.00
M5
Stream completed in 0:00
Starting stream
M4 S10
G4 P1.00
M5
Stream completed in 0:00
Starting stream
$32=0
M4 S10
G4 P1.00
M5
#32=1
error:1
G-code words consist of a letter and a value. Letter was not found.
On or near line 4:
Stream completed in 0:00
M3
G1 F100 S10
ok
ok
S0
G0
M5
ok
ok
ok
M3
G1 F100 S200
ok
ok
S0
G0
M5
ok
ok
ok
SimpleTest.txt (77.4 KB)
This is likely going to be either a controller issue or a firmware issue.
Do you have a volt meter that you can use to test proper PWM signal voltage? Voltage should scale from 0-5V with power from 0-100% power.
Based on your experience with the macro, this may imply more a firmware issue than a hardware issue. You could run the same test with $32=0 to see if that changes the results. If so, that would basically confirm a firmware fault.
test button in lightburn
power @ 1% 0.61v
power @ 10% 2 1.6v
power @ 20% 1.69v
Test from Macro
S10 .[quote=“berainlb, post:13, topic:132112, full:true”]
This is likely going to be either a controller issue or a firmware issue.
Do you have a volt meter that you can use to test proper PWM signal voltage? Voltage should scale from 0-5V with power from 0-100% power.
Based on your experience with the macro, this may imply more a firmware issue than a hardware issue. You could run the same test with $32=0 to see if that changes the results. If so, that would basically confirm a firmware fault.
[/quote]
s10 .05v
S100 .32v
S200 .33v
S500 1.06v
S800 1.28V
S1000 1.9v
with the macro I only see the voltage for a second
doesn’t seem to be for the time i’m expecting?
The macro is explicitly running for .25 S. That’s the G4 P.25.
These numbers are very odd to me. They’re both higher than expected and also not linear? You may want to test with a higher range of power to confirm.
0.61V at 1% is actually commanding roughly 12.2% power. Would you expect 12.2% power to draw 5-7mA on your machine?
The MA Meter is newish, haven’t used it much
Doing a test pattern 1%-10% was way too much even at high speeds.
most what I have done has been (on the dighital meter 7-15% for engraving, 20-30% cutting (cutting has only been on thin birch or balsa)
The test fire button will only go to 20%
You can command higher power levels in cut layers. You could also do this in Console but I’d suggest just doing this as a layer.
I’d suggest getting in touch with Monport and explaining your symptoms. Not sure why but Monport seems to have all sorts of QC issues as of recent.
Monport has said it’s not compatible with my K40 doesn’t make sense ?
I was looking to change it over to the knob with the digital readout,
I found the wiring looks to be the same?
Does the knob version still show percentage reading on the digital panel with lightburn?
Wondering if this is still a board problem like the last couple… They were low power…?
What specific board do you have? And when did they say this?
For what purpose? This would nullify one of the advantages of using a LightBurn compatible board.
Same as what?
Depends on what you’re referring to. There are ways of attenuating overall power that still allows for variable power from LightBurn.
Different symptoms than the ones that were outputting 3.3V logic but I believe there were some other Monport boards with other QC issues. I don’t recall one exactly like this. But it seems in general that Monport boards are inconsistent in design and function.