I got my k40 laser about a year and half ago, installed the smoothieboard and firmware and had it working just fine. Now, it seems things have changed and I am completely out of of the loop with the laserweb group. I got started with laserweb3, and had it running great, but never had time to make the laserweb4 transition. Could someone point me to a guide (or give some suggestions) on what to do to get back into using the laser? It’s an all stock k40, only upgraded the smoothieboard.
The last time I gave it a shot it seemed like laserweb4 was working on my computer, but I was not able to make the machine move. I’m sure this is due to firmware, or not connecting correctly. I would really appreciate some assistance. Alex Krause got me going way back, and I greatly appreciate all his help, but I am having some difficulty getting back into it.
I’m not cnc illiterate or anything, I have a few 3d printers and a couple different cnc machines, but for some reason the laser seems baffling to me. Thanks for any assistance.
@Mark_Leino I suggest you start by getting the latest version of LW4 and choosing smoothie from the default machine profile in settings and report back.
I have some basic videos on YT on how to make operations in LW
Ok, got home from work and downloaded the latest laserweb version. It recognized my usb port (even though it had a strange name) it connected, and said machine connected. I then changed to generic smoothie machine, and went and tried to home the machine, no movement. Tried to jog, no movement (and I made sure that the jogging disabled was set so I could jog). Any ideas for next steps?@Ariel_Yahni_UniKpty
So I pulled the sd card, put it in the computer, and I open the firmware and it’s just garbled up info. Tried note pad, and gedit. Probably just need to update to a new firmware
Ok, so i updated my firmware. Put it in the machine. Nothing. Went back to computer, realized I have no config file on the card-only the firmware. I also think I’m going to rewire to the 2-wire schematic. Any other suggestions?
Make sure the electrics are properly setup. Having connected USB will light up the board logic (up to 5 green leds), but maybe you have the motor power disconnected (red leds)
Another check. Download Arduino IDE, setup and connect to your board with correct baud speed. go to console set up linefeed \r\n and type $H. If does not do something (like homing) you will be better get support on Smoothie / k40 group
Thank you. @Jorge_Robles I got into it and forgot about that forum. I have the board ordered directly from smoothie. The firmware I pulled just from the github page, didn’t use the cnc flavor so I will get that. I copied the config file into gedit and saved as text file, then copied to sd card. I will check my wiring (or change) and report back. Thanks again.