Hey everyone,
The Cohesion3D ReMix and Mini Control boards powered by Smoothie are up for sale now at http://cohesion3d.com.
A few of you have already tried out my Mini for Laser Bundle and more have theirs on the way.
We’ve made the simplest possible way to upgrade your K40 to the 32 bit performance of Smoothie - which does PWM calculations for laser power every step and throttles them based on acceleration - meaning you get a uniform cut every time and can do amazing rasters like the work you’ve seen from @Ariel_Yahni_UniKpty , @Alex_Krause , @Joe_Spanier , @Carl_Fisher and many other members of this group. Plus it frees you from the horrible stock CorelDraw application and lets you use open alternatives like LaserWeb to set up your cutting and engraving jobs!
The Mini is the same size and has the same mounting hole pattern as the stock M2Nano board, making the physical replacement a simple drop in. But it also the ribbon, power, endstop, and pwm connectors that we’ve seen in all the K40’s thus far, allowing anyone to swap some 4 or 5 wires and be up and running.
With the Mini Board, 2 Motor Drivers, a MicroSD Card loaded with the K40 Laser Config, and PWM Cable, this $99 Laser Bundle is an extremely simple and affordable way to upgrade your machine to take full advantage of its capabilities.
not having this board myself, but I am sure it would be compatible with Visicut and fusion 360 (+laserweb) , like the original smoohtie. please confirm when you got yours.
Ok, finally pulled the trigger on upgrading my controller and ordered one. This seems to be the easiest option. Can’t wait to start using it and laserweb
I’ve seen a few upgrade boards and this looks like the easiest to implement. I currently use Corel Draw X7 and have become quite proficient with it since I’ve already been using it to make brochures for my company. Is it possible to still use Corel Draw? If not, how would I cut my designs? I’m ready to buy, I just want to make sure I’ll be able to use the tools I’m best with.
Hi @Jeff_Johnson thanks for your interest.
I’ve never actually used CorelDraw (I gutted my laser on day 1), but I know it’s a vector program. So you should be able to export a DXF, an SVG, or an Image and import that into LaserWeb which will then calculate the laser movement gCode for you. I hope this helps. Let me know if there’s anything else I can answer.
I installed LaserWeb last night and it looks like the DXF files exported by Corel Draw won’t work. I’m looking for other gCode apps now but if you have any suggestions I’d love to check them out. What application are you using to create vectors?
I tried that and I suspect that the problem is CorelDraw. I’ve had a couple people on Thingiverse tell me that my exported DXF files look funny and when I open them in InkScape nothing looks as it should either. It’s possible that I need to learn a new tool if CorelDraw can’t do what I need.
Me personally, I do 3D Cad in autodesk inventor and I can export dxf of faces I need to cut. I tend to use Vectric Aspire to create my gcode (I wrote a laser postprocessor for it) and then LW to send.
There was an article floating around about how to convert to polylines using Draftsight. I’ll have to dig it up.
Well the mini does have support for 4 drivers so we do have people working on XY and a Z lift table and a rotary. The 4th axis (A) isn’t officially supported by smoothie yet but you can easily treat is as an extruder in order to control it.
Software wise im a dummy. I did read but did not save it. Someone said the did a post processer for vetric aspire. I have vcare pro that is rotory capable would that work ?
