Problem with laser option

Sazabi

Hi everyone,
I'm having some problems with activation laser. Using 101 firmware, laser is On/Off style, 1W, connected to hotend fan pin (ORIG_FAN_PIN as in Configuration file).
Here's a piece of gcode:

;start g_code

G28 ; home all axes

M452 ; select laser mode

G21 ; set units to millimeters

G90 ; use absolute coordinates

;general g_code

M106 S0

G0 X0 Y0 Z40 F1000

G0 X-2 Y0 F1000

G0 X0.02 Y0 F1000

M106 S255

G1 X40.01 Y0 F500

M107 S0

I can manually activate laser, but it doesn't activate in print process. What am I doing wrong?

Sazabi

Small addition. If I stay in FFF mode, gcode works.

Repetier

You can not use a fan and laser on the same pin. Fan will always deactivate fan then.
Also you need to enable laser with M3 or use the increasing E value solution to activate it on G1 moves.

Sazabi

Actually, provided gcode works just fine, just small mod needed - no M452. Witthout activating laser mod, it engraves with no problem.

Repetier

Yes it does a sit now uses fan to control laser. Laser mode is better in that it controls exactly when laser is on and when not. Your way requires M106 for each change.

Sazabi

Repetier said:

Yes it does a sit now uses fan to control laser. Laser mode is better in that it controls exactly when laser is on and when not. Your way requires M106 for each change.

Is it possible to use heatbed or extruder heater outputs? My laser is 1W with about 1A consumption and I don't want to invent something to control it via ordinary pin? if we have 3 with mosfets already.
Another question, about the inkscape plugin. I need to cover big area, not just draw lines with laser. Not sure how to do so with your plugin (well, I'm trying to engrave pcb and need to light big areas).

Repetier

Engraving is not supported with our plugin. It only converts lines to moves. Also firmware does not natively support changing PWM for laser, that requires some modification of the setIntensity function to set a hardware pwm instead of switching a digital pin.

I think there are some inkscape plugins also creating engraving code. But for that I want to have a more efficient method to send data. Hope to do that in V2 where we also will have hardware PWM for laser.

You can use any pin you want as output, also extruder heaters as long as they are not used by an extruder or you get same problem. If you need PWM you need a pin supporting PWM as well and not conflicting with the timers used internally in firmware.

Sazabi

Repetier said:

Engraving is not supported with our plugin. It only converts lines to moves. Also firmware does not natively support changing PWM for laser, that requires some modification of the setIntensity function to set a hardware pwm instead of switching a digital pin.

I think there are some inkscape plugins also creating engraving code. But for that I want to have a more efficient method to send data. Hope to do that in V2 where we also will have hardware PWM for laser.

You can use any pin you want as output, also extruder heaters as long as they are not used by an extruder or you get same problem. If you need PWM you need a pin supporting PWM as well and not conflicting with the timers used internally in firmware.

I dont need PWM. My laser is On/Off style.

emasah

<a rel="nofollow" target="blank">Sazabi</a> said:

<blockquote class="Quote">

<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Repetier</a> said:

Yes it does a sit now uses fan to control laser. Laser mode is better in that it controls exactly when laser is on and when not. Your way requires M106 for each change.

Hi
For inkscape you can use Gcode tools to do that or use laserweb instead inkscape plugin
https://github.com/LaserWeb/LaserWeb4<br/><br/><br/>

LagaBMX

I have the same problem.
The laser is on/off and is not working, only starts for a dot at the begining of each gcode. Resulting in a dotted line.
I connected it in heatbed and hotend pin, and it is the same.
I don't know what more to do, really need help.

Measuring with the multimeter, the pin goes for 4v just for one instant on each gcode.

Repetier

Wouldn't the hotend/bed pins provide 12/24 volt like for the motors? Make sure no hotend/bed has the same pin set or changes will be overriden at 15Hz, whcih could be the dot you see.