@Wolfmanjm has added some new features to smoothieware that will be of great use to LaserWeb users. This version of the smoothie firmware has been put up for testing and should be merged into the edge branch within a few days.
You can now send a code through the LaserWeb terminal interface to adjust your power level on the fly. It is the M221 command.
Usage -
M221 S50 will set the laser power to 50%
M221 S100 sets it back to 100%
A new fire command. Send Fire 70 through the LaserWeb terminal and it will fire the laser at 70% Send Fire off and it will turn off the laser and return it to automatic mode. Great for positioning the laser.
@Wolfmanjm fire being on indefinitely sounds like a hazard to me, I’d much prefer if there was a letter parameter (can’t be T or S though) for the duration, otherwise a default of somewhere between 0.1 - 1 second. There could also be a way to set it to indefinite (maybe the time param being set to -1, since I can’t think of a better way)
Thoughts?
well I’ll think about it. bu tit is a command so you need a console to send it, it prints out a big warning about the laser being on manual. My use case the reason I added it demanded it be on until I turn it off. However I agree a safety feature could be to make the default be a few seconds. However it is not something that someone can accidentally do without knowing what they are doing.
Is the M221 intended to work in conjunction with the G1 command? So for instance, once a G1 is issued, the laser is on, then M221’s can be used to change the power level without subsequent G1 commands?
M221 sets a global scale which any specified power on the G1 is scaled by. it is the same in principle to M220 which scales the feed rate and M221 for extruders which scales the flow rate.
I have to second the concern of firing the laser continuously. I love the direction your going. But adding a time constraint would make this perfect. This is very similar to how universal does their test firing through their host software.
The use case it to fire at a low power to focus the dot. a timeout would be irritating IMO. the command is hidden and cannot accidentally be triggered like a gcode could… but if the consensus is it needs a timeout then so be it but I urge you to try it first and see the big warning message you get.
It’s more to turn it off I have to type a command.
I completely get why you want it. And have been doing weird g1 hacks in macro mode to make it work for a couple months. I love that this works now. Let me see if I can get a screenshot of the universal system
question… as a laser Noob, what is the best material/surface for testing raster engraving with a lower power (2.5watt) laser? paper seems to just go up in smoke
well you can also hit the kill button to turn it off. but I have a lcd panel and i have the on and off in the custom menu so it is right there next to the machine.
Plywood is probably the best to test engraving on. You just need to find pieces that are very flat. We like to use corrugated cardboard from old boxes because it’s free and gives a decent result. Just make sure you dial down the laser power to prevent it igniting. Corrugated cardboard can ignite and burn freely because of the air gaps in its corrugations.
This has been merged into edge now. However the binary in github has not been updated yet,
There is a test binary here but note it is a CNC build, which means the home command is like grbl $H (or G28.2). http://blog.wolfman.com/files/laser-fixed-2.bin
What would be really awesome for Co2 users is a custom menu that you can set your power and then when you press the button it fires for the duration of the button test.
This is how the standard k40s work for test fire and all of the Chinese DSP controllers work for test fire.
Setting this up would be a familiar config for all the users converting to smoothie from existing controllers
Will fix it in the wiki.