I am evaluating LightBurn for our two Makerspace laser cutters. One laser cutter is a K40. As part of the move to LightBurn we would replace the controller card.
Can anyone recommend controller cards that are a drop-in replacement for our K40 card pictured below? “drop-in” is key - e.g. compatible connector pinouts and same form factor.
thanks !
There are 2 drop in solutions that I am aware of the miniGerbil from Aesome.tech and the LaserBoard from Cohesion3D.com Both are good 32bit boards that will run LightBurn. The C3D board is capable of running a dedicated rotary and Z bed, where as the miniGerbil just does the X and Y axis motion. So it really depends on what you see using the machine for in the future.
The Cohesion3D LaserBoard will drop right in to replace the M2Nano, and in addition to the z table + rotary support and many other features it has high quality trinamic stepper drivers to ensure clean and quiet motion, and comes with a power supply to power itself since the laser power supply isn’t strong enough to power the new board.
I will add that your picture is actually of the B1 style board - you’ll need to redo the wiring for the large 6 pin plug and the mounting holes might be in different locations than the actual M2Nano. Similar, but only 98% drop in instead of 100%.
Thanks for this information. Great to know that we have options for drop-in replacements. Re-working the 6-pin connector for the C3D board would be trivial in the grand scope of the change we’re contemplating.
