No jog in k40 whisperer

Lasers
1

Hi guys and gals!
Long time maker, first time caller

Just got my hands on a k40 laser, got it all set up per the usual YouTube tutorials… However… It will goto home when I power up (so motors have power) but when I jog in any direction in k40 whisperer… No movement. But also no errors showing?
It will connect with the laser fine? And if I go to print something the laser fires. But the head just kinda niggles around the same 2mm square?

Any of you fine folk have any suggestions please?

2

Check
24VDC
Cabling to the motor
and
the flat cable that goes to the endstops

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3

Thanks donkjr, will take a look. My only concern is that the head will home when I switch the machine on, so suggests that they have power?
I fear it may be a coms issue between the board and the motors (ie the flat ribbon) as the computer doesn’t feed back any errors?

4

The flat cable is often problematic.
About the only thing you can do is to test the cable with an ohm meter, insure the cable is plugged in the right direction and seated fully into the connectors.

5

Here’s an instance from a few weeks ago:

(I moved this to the K40 Laser Help subcategory because it doesn’t look likely related to whisperer; at least, the first thing to check is the machine.)

6

Thanks mcdanlj
I’m gonna do a check on this when I’m next up the workshop, I’ve also put in a request for a quote on a new cable from a couple of suppliers who I’m waiting to get back to me
Worse case I might buy a spare middleman board I’ve seen on ebay and directly hardwire a loom between that and the main board pcb
Will keep all updated either way

7

I have never found a replacement cable, the spacing and length are non standard.
These cables can be repaired by scraping back the insulation and soldering a small jumper or solder bridge.

8

Morning everyone.

So I checked the ribbon cable and all seems to be fine? I also checked the middleman board and it, visually, looks ok…
All I’m getting when I try to engrave is the same motion in this video

Any further suggestions or checks I can carry out?

9

What settings in Whisperer ? And are you running Windows or Linux ?

10

Hi jammy,
Default settings in k4w, with the exception of the bed size being increased.
Running windows.

I’ve since ordered a mini gerbil control board, just waiting for that to arrive.
Will also be replacing the optical end stops for mechanical.

11

Ah ok - I’ve got a mini grbl board I’ve yet to install. Good luck!

12

I took the liberty of editing your post to put the uploaded video on its own line, which makes it show up in the post.

I don’t actually have a k40 to compare to, but this sounds bad mechanically. Something is probably binding mechanically; the noise sounds to me like steppers jumping steps.

13

Looks like an Y endstop problem.
Are these optical?
Sometimes the endstop flag gets bent and damages the optical sensor.
If so you can repair the optical and do not have to replace with mechanical.

Also check the X endstop just in case.

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14

Hi All,

So we have a solution… I installed a mini gerbil board via the ribbon cable, and lightburn identified the issue as a homing problem.

I replaced the ribbon cable with wire, and replaced the optical end stops with micro switches.

However, we still had similar issues, and despite my best attempts to rectify via the $ settings (inverting direction pin, inverting home direction etc.) it still wasn’t right… Either didn’t home correctly, or the axis were inverted and trying to print beyond the home point (similar to above video)

Eventually I turned the “invert end stops” $ setting to false… It now runs like a dream…

Thank you to everyone who had an input to this and offered their advice and help.

I just hope this experience will aid someone else in troubleshooting their machine.

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