Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / Mach3, Lightburn and GRBL work arounds

« on: October 03, 2023, 02:50:42 PM »

So I have been using Mach 3 for control of my 10w diode laser for a few years now. I have PWM set up with M11/10 commands to turn the laser on and off. I have been using Lightburn with the GRBL M3 profile to generate code. The code needs to be modified to M11/10 commands to be compatible with my mach3 set up. This is easily done with edit/ find/replace all.

To work with the regular GRBL code you must add M10Px before every G0 move and M11Px Sxx after every G0 move. In GRBL G0 moves trigger the laser on and off with boards that are "compatible" with GRBL. The GRBL M3 does this for you but I am not able to get the M3 GRBL and Mach3 to play nice in controlling the power level. This profile only fires at 100% power for me as do the GRBL LCP and GRBL STM profiles. Regular GRBL is the only profile that I can get to fire at the given Sxx. command.




I usually cut thin wood veneers with my laser and this method works great as I am usually firing the laser at 100% power. Recently I discovered that no matter what Sxx command I put into my code, mach3 would ignore this and only fire at 100% power.

With some testing and manual edits as described above, I was able to get the regular GRBL profile in LB to give me code that mach3 would accept and fire the laser at the appropriate Sxx command. There are still a couple issues with this that I was hoping someone here might have an idea about.

Once I have a modified code that runs at the correct power output, if I REWIND this in mach3, it will go back to firing the laser at 100% power. Or if I add M30 to the end of the code and re-run it it also fires only at 100% power.

To work around this the only way to get it back to firing at the correct Sxx power level is to manually CLOSE G-CODE and LOAD G-CODE within mach3.

Does anyone here have an idea about why this might be happening?



I'm hoping that my discovery here might also help someone else and might even unlock pic engraving but I have not yet been able to test a code with different S commands in the same code yet.

Somewhere on this forum is my mach3 set up for PWM/M11/M10. I will try to find it and link to it just in case there are clues there.

2

General Mach Discussion / Laser S commands with decimal???

« on: January 31, 2021, 04:08:16 PM »

Can Mach 3 read S commands for laser with a decimal? For example Does the S command need to me a whole number like S20, S25 S50 etc or can they have a decimal like S20.55 or S50.75 etc?

The reason I ask is I have purchased an app for laser raster that outputs S commands with a decimal point. Mach 3 doesn't seem to like this but I am not sure that is the issue.

Does anyone have any info that might help. The app author would likely be able to work with me on this if it needs to be changed but I thought I would do some research first.

Thank you for you help.

3

General Mach Discussion / Switching between laser and router profiles

« on: January 21, 2021, 09:29:40 PM »

I recently installed a laser on my cn router frame. To set the laser up I used a clone of my router profile and modified it.

As I am learning about how,to use my laser I am thinking that I'd like to use both the router and the laser on some projects.

What would be the easiest way to do this? Do need to have a single profile that will run both applications? I don't imagine that Mach 3 will remember my zero from one profile to another.

I guess I could write down my zero and use that if I switch profiles.....

Any infor is appreciated.

4

General Mach Discussion / PWM Laser output not responding to Sxx commands

« on: December 29, 2020, 10:10:30 PM »

I have M11/M10 working really well now with appropriate g-code. But I still do not have PWM control of the laser output. I have attached screenshots of my current set up. I'm hoping someone here can pick out something that might be preventing my system from being able to regulate laser power with Sxx commands in the code.

It is my understanding that the Amp meter should reflect the output to the laser based on the Sxx command. No matter what I set for Sxx the amp meter does not change as shown below. It always reads right around 4.1 amps. The voltage meter on the control box show ~4.9 volts usually.

The PWM wire is wired to my BOB at pin 17, ground is set to Pin 18. The BOB is attached via ribbon cable to the output 3 of my ethernet smooth stepper(ESS). The BOB LED for pin 17 responds to input from MACH3, it is lit when there is signal and out when there is not.

One correction to the screen shots. In the main config my controller frequency is 250 Hz. This significantly improved timing of my laser. Also M11/M10 output mode is set to output 2 in my current set up.

In the THC control screen the base frequency is set to 3000 currently.

I have followed the endurance set up as well as the set up on the Warp9/ESS and can not find the error in my set up.

I'm hoping someone here can help me solve this issue for me.
I've added a video of my laser firing and pic of my voltage and amp meter.

5

General Mach Discussion / Custom M11/M10 code headers and footers

« on: December 26, 2020, 06:22:41 PM »

So I have added a laser to my CNC frame. I am having a hard time finding a suitable post-processor for Fusion 360. I have discovered the use of the inkscape Lasertools extension to create g-code.

however the headers and footers are not quire right

So in my research I have written a header and footer to turn the laser on with the M11 and off with the M10 commands that I can add manually to my laser code.

If you would please take a look at what I've written to see if this will do what I want it to which is to

Turn on the Spindle  at 0% power (spindle is mapped to laser output in mach 3)
Move to the origin of the program with the laser off
Turn on the laser at 50% power with a feed rate of 3000

full g-code program inserted here

turn off the laser set laser power to 0
Turn off the spindle
Stop program and rewind

So here are the code blocks I've written
;
M3 S0
G01 X0 Y0 F3000.0
M10P3 S0
(go to start of first cut)
M11P3 S50 F3000

add g-code here

;(Footer)
M10P3 S0
M5
G21
G90
G0 X0 Y0
M30


Will this accomplish what I'm looking to do?

6

General Mach Discussion / New Laser Profile help M11/M10 PWM

« on: December 25, 2020, 03:47:41 PM »

I am setting up an Endurance laser on my CNC router part machine. It runs and ethernet smoothstepper and I am using Mach 3. I have a BoB connected to the ESS with a ribbon cable. I have the laser wired to Pin 17 on the BOB

I have played with the setting in Mach 3 and followed set up instructions and videos but I am still not getting the laser to fire with PWM control. I have updated my ESS plugin also.

So in my case. I have my BoB plugged into Port 3 of the ESS. I have wired the laser to pin 17 on the BOB. Does this mean in motor output I should have Pin 17 port 3 defined in the motor outputs tab?

Because this is wired to port 3 of the ESS does this mean that i should have output 3 in the output signals tab defined in the output signals tab? Should this be defined as Pin 17 port 3

Does this also mean that I should have M11/10Px mapped to output 3 in the Main ESS config in the outputs mode section?

In the spindle set up section should the relay control for M3 and M4 be set to 3 also?

I'm also wondering I have an issue with how the g-code is set up??? How should the g-code be set up to initiate the laser? I feel like something is wrong here also.

It is my understanding that the m11 command should read as M11Px where X is the output defined in the screens above.


On top of all of this can I hook up the main power of the laser box to my relay output of my CNC control box?

I know my solution is some combination of all of this stuff. but for the life of me I can not figure this out. any and all help is appreciated!