I just received a new K40 off ebay today, got it hooked up, but am trying to figure out if something is faulty with my unit. Apologies if this is a common question, I couldn’t find the answer after searching for about an hour.
I can’t seem to get the alignment on the cutting bed correct and never finds the home position. Every time I turn the machine on, it goes to a different spot. Also, when dragging things around in CorelDraw, the laser sometimes goes “out of bounds” and makes a terrible grinding/jackhammer noise. I’ve uploaded a video here of what happens when I turn it on (sorry it’s upside down). Any help would be appreciated! If it’s faulty, I’d like to exchange it ASAP with the ebay seller.
Check the X-axis end stop, behind the stepper on the left of the gantry. Verify that it’s connected properly, all the way to the board. Might also be dirty.
Thanks! Just checked and it appeared to be connected properly- I couldn’t follow the wire all the way to the board without taking things apart however.
I’d say something is faulty. See if you can get them to help.
Seems something is wrong with the stepper direction. It should home to upper left.
The carridge should go up then to the left in the video it goes right?
Thanks guys - I am going to return it and order another on Amazon Prime so that I can return it more easily if needed again! I did input the correct control board information into CorelLaser before starting it up. I think something is faulty with the unit.
We all know it should home to the left, however my experience has been that it will move slowly to the right when the end-stop isn’t working. That happens when my optical end-stop gets dirty. It sees it as “triggered” and does a slow crawl to the right to “un-trigger” it.
Hi Ashley - i’m brand new to lasers in general - do you have instructions on how I might clean the end stop optical? Or pictures of what I should be looking for? Thanks!
I don’t know if you have optical or mechanical ones. Mine are optical. Under the X gantry, on the left side, there should be a small green board with wires on it. If you have an optical switch, look on that board for two black protrusions, about 4mm apart. That’s the switch. Try blowing compressed air between them. Also verify the wires, make sure they’re connected, that none of them broke during shipping.
Thanks Ashley! I’ll take a look at that when I get home - maybe a piece of packing styrafoam is in the way or something. Does it look like there is only an issue with the x-axis sensor? is there such a thing as a y-axis sensor?
There is a Y sensor as well, in my picture you can see some of the wires for that stick out on the right side of the metal. It looks like your Y movement is homing correctly, it’s just the X that isn’t. But it’s worth checking both.
I got home and checked the x-axis optical sensor - seems to look like yours - everything i can tell looks normal! Any connections in particular you’d suggest checking?
Right, so blow some compressed air in between those 2 black protrusions next to the white connector. Then that white ribbon cable, you want to make sure it’s seated properly, on both ends. The other wires you see are likely for both the y-sensor and stepper motor, check them too while you’re at it. Then trace the wires/ribbon that comes out of that area and goes back to the board. Mine has a single ribbon cable, some people have individual wires. Make sure nothing’s broken or nicked anywhere, push on the connectors or re-seat the ribbon cable.
If all of that still fails, then there’s a good chance that sensor is dead.
I tried blowing out the sensor with compressed air as well as checking all connections. Still had the same problem. I am trying to return the unit on ebay but the seller is trying to sneak out of of it…I would rather fix it, but doesn’t seem to be an obvious issue.
Yes it’s a little Al tab. Check to see if it’s not aligned or bent, or maybe damaged it and/or sensor.
See videos in the link above. There are also schematics in the link. If you can use a dvm we can make some measurements.
I have also seen cases where there are poor solder joints and intermittent connections on the daughter card.
If nothing is obvious pull out the card and inspect it and post close-ups of both sides.
