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Laser help?

Discussion in 'Laser Cutters' started by tonkajeep34, Mar 11, 2018.

  1. tonkajeep34

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    Hey all,

    I just built my Acro with the xpro board and the Jtech 2.8w kit. I'm using laser web and GBRL Sender. I've got all the settings in GBRL set as instructed by OB and Jtech. Everything but the laser is working properly. the machine is moving, the fans on the laser are spinning, but i'm not getting any laser output. The laser control is hooked to D11, the interupt jumper is in place and the key is on and i've pressed the reset button.

    I've got to be missing something simple. Any thoughts or suggestions on what to look at?

    Thanks,
    Mike
    2018-03-11 09.14.29.jpg
     
  2. bubba

    bubba New
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    This might be a silly question but in Laserweb did you put in the commands to start and stop the laser?

    For my Laserweb settings ---> Gcode ---> Gcode Start I have M4 to start the laser and in Gcode End I have M5 to stop the laser.
     
  3. Mark Carew

    Mark Carew OpenBuilds Team
    Staff Member Moderator Builder Resident Builder

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    Also @tonkajeep34 make sure that you have
    $32=1 (Laser mode, boolean)
    set to 1 as shown in your grbl settings
     
  4. tonkajeep34

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    Thanks, I did not have anything in the gcode for laserweb, so i've added M4 into the gcode start and M5 was alredy in Gcode end.

    These are my settings:
    My Settings:

    $0=10
    $1=255
    $2=0
    $3=6
    $4=1
    $5=0
    $6=0
    $10=0
    $11=0.020
    $12=0.002
    $13=0
    $20=0
    $21=0
    $22=0
    $23=1
    $24=25.000
    $25=500.000
    $26=250
    $27=1.000
    $30=255
    $31=0
    $32=1
    $100=114.290
    $101=114.290
    $102=114.290
    $110=10000.000
    $111=10000.000
    $112=10000.000
    $120=2000.000
    $121=2000.000
    $122=2000.000
    $130=500.000
    $131=500.000
    $132=500.000

    I feel like the safety is still enabled or something... Adding m4 into the gcode start seem to do anything.
     
  5. bubba

    bubba New
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    I think the next thing to look at and confirm is the laser wiring. Can you post a picture and a description of how the laser is wired?
     
  6. tonkajeep34

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    Yep, I agree Bubba, and as it turned out the wire from teh xpro to the controller input was slightly loose on the xpro. That is now sorted and with the help of Jay from Jtech i've confirmed that the laser is working and it's my configuration of laserweb.

    On the Jtech laser controller, you can move a switch from TTL to CW and it'll turn on the laser (which worked yay!)

    Then he had me use universial gcode sender to send this command to verify that the laser would turn on: G1 F4000 M03 S11 (which it did again yay!!) and then G1 F4000 M03 S0 to turn it off.

    So back to laserweb and nothing. So yeah laser is working! But now i just need to learn how to use it and configure a workflow.

    So i'm thinking I need to find more documenation on configuring laser web, or use another program to export gcode.
     
  7. bubba

    bubba New
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    Glad to hear that the laser is working ok. Sounds like it's just a matter of getting the xpro and Laserweb configured properly.

    One question I should have asked right at the beginning: Have you updated the xpro board to the latest version of GRBL?

    I believe that Laserweb needs at least v1.1c and that the xpro board ships with v0.9.

    When the board is updated I would try putting the commands that jtech gave you in the Gcode Start and End sections to see if that's all you need. I know that there are a couple of other settings you need to change in Laserweb for the S command but I don't remember them off hand. The guy's who wrote Laserweb hang out on this forum so they might be able to jump in here and give some suggestions.
     
  8. tonkajeep34

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    Thank you guys for your help. I finally was able to get my first successful burn done last night. I confirmed that the board had the latest version on it and then went through the laserweb wiki page by page. Turns out in the gcode configuration i had missed the PWM Max S Value. It was set to 1 by default and i had to set it to 255. Now everything is working as it should.
     
    GrayUK likes this.
  9. bubba

    bubba New
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    Glad to hear things are working ok. I know how frustrating it can be to trouble shoot these kind of things.

    Post some pictures of your projects.
     
  10. Antony Lidorginakis

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    Hi all same problem laser turns on with Tool on button and turns off with Tool off but when it starts the work it doesnt work
     
    #10 Antony Lidorginakis, Sep 22, 2020
    Last edited: Sep 22, 2020
  11. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    Where is the Gcode from? Is your CAM set up to support Grbl 1.1's laser Mode properly?
    Upload the GCODE file for checking
     
  12. Antony Lidorginakis

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    Solved! From cam.openbuilds settings make 1000 the power values
     

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