K40 + Visicut (Win/Mac/Linux) with Smoothie board replacement.

Lasers
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K40 + Visicut (Win/Mac/Linux) with Smoothie board replacement.
One big step forward for a usable solution !
Thank to @Thomas_Oster (Visicut developer)
Community call for help - Beta testers needed

Go there to find out about Visicut open source software -> https://hci.rwth-aachen.de/visicut
You will need a Smoothie board to upgrade your K40 -> http://smoothieware.org/getting-smoothieboard
Then please test all Thomas changes and report bugs and stuff in the pull-request https://github.com/t-oster/LibLaserCut/pull/23 from where you can already download the first build files.

Visicut for Win/Mac/Linux already existing, Visicut driver for Smoothie board (LibLaserCut) was the last missing link for a fully operational chain, hardware to software to mod our cheap K40 laser cutter at reasonable price. (Smoothie is cheaper than DSP board and benefit of Smoothie community support).

@Arthur_Wolf did told me sometime ago a K40 was modified with a Smoothie board. A hardware Mod tutorial would also be needed for our K40 community, any candidate ?

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Thanks for the heads up on this. Lookin around I see a chinese board which may be suitable - AZSMZ, Iā€™ll start doing some research, something similar could end up on my 3D printer or K40. See here: http://thinkl33t.co.uk/smoothieware-compatible-mainboards/

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@StephaneBUISSON We are working on conversion kits for Smoothie/K40, including a full panel with a LCD etc. And documentation of it. No release date yet though.

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#K40smoothieVisicut

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Visicut will actually work with the Stock M2-Nano board now. It is however, poorly built to work with these sorts of laser cutters. More the send the whole project and execute deal. Much less the whole send the project while itā€™s hooked up to the program.

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I gave it a try (K40 with the Stock M2-Nano board). Thatā€™s what Iā€™ve got:

  • The USB connection seemed to work
  • In the dialog window it says:

Job was sent as ā€˜_testā€™
Please:
-Close the lid
-Turn on the Ventilation
-And press ā€˜startā€™ on the Lasercutter $test

And thatā€™s it. As my machine has not ā€œStartā€ button, I cannot execute the jobā€¦

Is there a chance that I can run the job directly from the computer?

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It might require the permissions for the USB to run in windows the easiest method for that would be to make sure you install the USB drivers packaged in K40Whisperer. You donā€™t need the program, but might need the driver since uses libusb. It might work natively in other OSes that allow more unguided access to the USB drives.

The message you are given is an anacronism. Visicut is generally intended towards cutters that send a job off like printer spooling job. However, in the case of of the M2Nano itā€™s not acutally going to do that. It actually requires to run the job in the background since the board does no processing itself except of the Lhymicro-GL code.

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Thank you for your reply. :slight_smile:

the easiest method for that would be to make sure you install the USB drivers packaged in K40Whisperer.

Thatā€™s what I did. But no luck yet :wink:

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Well, Iā€™m going back and add PPI power modulation to the driver which is going to require doing some hardware tests, so Iā€™ll see if I can duplicate the failure. Canā€™t get Visicut working for the test just yet though. And other software packages work right? MeerK40t and K40 Whisperer?

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I previously installed K40Wisperer and was able to cut parts. :slight_smile: But I have not touched MeerK40t yet.