Hello Tech Geniuses! I appreciate this forum, thank you in advance! I have built a simple engraver: a laser diode attached to an EggBot Pro & Black Box controller. I did some testing to find I am not achieving full power during a job run. Using Lightburn (same results in Open Builds Control), laser power is very weak while running G code. J Tech Photonics laser driver has a toggle switch to turn on the laser manually, when I use that switch I am able to burn and get full power 11.10v ---FYI . Hopefully this excludes the possibility of a wiring issue. Multimeter testing results of output from the laser driver during a job run: at the start (before running the job) 3.2mv. During the job the power fluctuates from 1.0v—.345mv. When the job is done the laser lingers and stays powered at 345.9mv until I use the jog button and then the laser power drops back down to 3.2mv. Please advise. I admit I am slightly confused on the Grbl page about spindle speed settings vs feed rate. Is the S parameter and F parameter in conflict(?) : G1X0.47Y-2.22S1000F1000 gnea/grbl Sorry for the text dump but here goes…. [14:24:40] [ ] Grbl 1.1f ['$' for help] [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $0=10 ;Step pulse time, microseconds [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $1=255 ;Step idle delay, milliseconds [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $2=0 ;Step pulse invert, mask [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $3=0 ;Step direction invert, mask [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $4=1 ;Invert step enable pin, boolean [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $5=0 ;Invert limit pins, boolean [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $6=0 ;Invert probe pin, boolean [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $10=1 ;Status report options, mask [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $11=0.010 ;Junction deviation, millimeters [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $12=0.002 ;Arc tolerance, millimeters [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $13=0 ;Report in inches, boolean [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $20=0 ;Soft limits enable, boolean [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $21=0 ;Hard limits enable, boolean [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $22=0 ;Homing cycle enable, boolean [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $23=0 ;Homing direction invert, mask [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $24=25.000 ;Homing locate feed rate, mm/min [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $25=500.000 ;Homing search seek rate, mm/min [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $26=250 ;Homing switch debounce delay, milliseconds [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $27=1.000 ;Homing switch pull-off distance, millimeters [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $30=1000 ;Maximum spindle speed, RPM [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $31=0 ;Minimum spindle speed, RPM [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $32=1 ;Laser-mode enable, boolean [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $100=5.000 ;X-axis steps per millimeter [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $101=5.000 ;Y-axis steps per millimeter [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $102=250.000 ;Z-axis steps per millimeter [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $110=500.000 ;X-axis maximum rate, mm/min [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $111=500.000 ;Y-axis maximum rate, mm/min [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $112=500.000 ;Z-axis maximum rate, mm/min [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $120=10.000 ;X-axis acceleration, mm/sec^2 [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $121=10.000 ;Y-axis acceleration, mm/sec^2 [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $122=10.000 ;Z-axis acceleration, mm/sec^2 [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $130=200.000 ;X-axis maximum travel, millimeters [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $131=200.000 ;Y-axis maximum travel, millimeters [14:24:41] [ $$ ] $132=200.000 ;Z-axis maximum travel, millimeters [14:24:41] [ $$ ] ok [14:24:41] [ $I ] [VER:1.1f.20170302:CUSTOM] [14:24:41] [ $I ] [OPT:QVH,15,128] [14:24:41] [ $I ] ok [14:24:42] [ connect ] Firmware Detected: grbl version 1.1f on /dev/tty.usbserial-AR0JW5R3 Below text is from console during the job run. <Idle|MPos:63.400,-0.800,0.000|FS:0,0|Pn:XY> ok Starting stream G00 G17 G40 G21 G54 G91 M4 M8 G0X2.74Y0.38 Layer C00 G1X0.47Y-2.22S1000F1000 G1X0.45Y-2.21 G1X0.55Y-0.01 G1X0.54Y-0.01 G1X0.92Y3.78 G1X0.93Y3.77 G1X0.14Y0.58 G1X0.12Y0.58 G1X0.05Y-0.27 G1X0.72Y-3.46 G1X0.71Y-3.47 G1X0.32Y-1.61 ….Yada, yada, yada… G1X0.63Y9.93 G1X-1.02Y0.09 G1X-0.6Y-9.93 G1X0.49Y-0.04 G1X0.5Y-0.05 M9 G1S0 M5 G0 X-23.55Y5.15 M2 [MSGgm End] Stream completed in 1:15
Not really no. You are cutting at 1000mm/min by having F1000 with 100% power. S1000 matched your $30=1000 to be 100%. S500 would be 50% for example. The M4 in the header will scale power based on acceleration, so it will fade in until axis is up to speed. Your F1000 is never reached because you set Max rate to only 500. And the acceleration is far too low to reach even 500 in a short line segment. Which is very low. Check our Acro profiles in CONTROL for better examples of what to set these to
Credit to @Erik Engstrom for the very thorough original post. With all that information, its super easy to find a root cause. Thanks Erik!
Thank you Peter for your input! I apologize for my delay. I have adjusted the acceleration and the feed rates (multiple times) to numbers closer to the ACRO settings, as you have suggested. for example: Higher end [13:16:10] [ $$ ] $110=10000.000 ;X-axis maximum rate, mm/min [13:16:10] [ $$ ] $111=10000.000 ;Y-axis maximum rate, mm/min [13:16:10] [ $$ ] $112=10000.000 ;Z-axis maximum rate, mm/min [13:16:10] [ $$ ] $120=750.000 ;X-axis acceleration, mm/sec^2 [13:16:10] [ $$ ] $121=750.000 ;Y-axis acceleration, mm/sec^2 [13:16:10] [ $$ ] $122=750.000 ;Z-axis acceleration, mm/sec^2 ACRO 55 settings: [13:16:10] [ $$ ] $110=5000.000 ;X-axis maximum rate, mm/min [13:16:10] [ $$ ] $111=5000.000 ;Y-axis maximum rate, mm/min [13:16:10] [ $$ ] $112=5000.000 ;Z-axis maximum rate, mm/min [13:16:10] [ $$ ] $120=500.000 ;X-axis acceleration, mm/sec^2 [13:16:10] [ $$ ] $121=500.000 ;Y-axis acceleration, mm/sec^2 [13:16:10] [ $$ ] $122=500.000 ;Z-axis acceleration, mm/sec^2 And as low as: [13:16:10] [ $$ ] $110=600.000 ;X-axis maximum rate, mm/min [13:16:10] [ $$ ] $111=600.000 ;Y-axis maximum rate, mm/min [13:16:10] [ $$ ] $112=600.000 ;Z-axis maximum rate, mm/min [13:16:10] [ $$ ] $120=40.000 ;X-axis acceleration, mm/sec^2 [13:16:10] [ $$ ] $121=40.000 ;Y-axis acceleration, mm/sec^2 [13:16:10] [ $$ ] $122=40.000 ;Z-axis acceleration, mm/sec^2 (My understanding it that $122 & $112 will be ignored anyhow because Laser mode) I hooked the multi meter straight to the output for the tool head on the Blackbox Controller (hopefully this removes the possibility of the Laser Driver <J-Tech Photonics> being the issue). BTW this is a 2 wire connection to the laser driver, maybe wiring issue(?) I still have this undesirable result: During the job run the laser power never gets higher than 1v. On the Grbl page it says that 100% should be 5v. Grbl v1.1 Laser Mode · gnea/grbl Wiki Using Openbuilds Control v1.0.298: When I click the Tool On icon and select Laser ON 100% power, the mmeter says: 0.740v. Then I click the Tool Off icon. mmeter says: 153.9mv Then I must jog either X or Y and the power drops back down to 2.6mv Another clue: From the Control Tab: Pen Up & Pen Down Icons are there and they do work. From the Troubleshooting Tab: Grbl-Servo installed ON Is “Grbl-Servo installed” incongruent with “Laser Mode”? Thank you
Usually 3 or 4. So pictures of how it was hooked up? Incorrect wiring or, for example, wiring laser diode directly to the logic output (it needs a driver in between) could have damaged the microcontroller. No, flash back Default Grbl 2-axes! Servo is for Pen Plotters.
Ah-Ha! I re-flashed and now it say this:[16:15:29] [ $I ] [VER:1.1g.20181112:ACRO55] I don't dare test it until you say the wiring is ok. Thank You
Looks good, though (; I will say the green ground and black PWM confused me initially. Black is usually GND (; PS: That's a 4-wire laser: GND+PWM (2) and PWR (2 - barrel jack has + and -) going into driver = 4
It works! Very exciting to see it do PWM, as I had yet to achieve this. Thank you very much! I switched the black wire to ground, per your suggestion. Thx More ignorant questions to follow….you are patient person.
