Output to fire a relay, to turn on exhaust fan and air blow & 4th axis questions

Lasers
1

I am doing my first Smoothie board conversion. I have a 60W GWieke Laser engraver with Z axis. I am NOT new to CNC conversions. Done quite a few from benchtop mills and lathes to large machinining centers.
I have a 5XC
A few questions
I would like to know if it is possible to fire a relay, that would power the exhaust fan and air blower prior to starting the cut, say allow a given number of seconds for both to come up to speed, and then a delay a given number of seconds to turn them off. (to allow finishing exhausing of smoke/fumes.

In the CNC milling machine world we could use M3/M5 with delays or G4Px pauses to start and stop a spindle for example…

In a CNC milling machine, we would use a 4th axis to drive a rotary indexer. I noted that many that use a Laser Engraver, disconnect their Y axis and connect the rotary axis in its place temporarily.
Since I have the 5XC board, is it not possible to use the 4th stepper axis to drive the rotary axis? or is this unconventional in the Laser Engraver world? I will be using Light burn.

Pictures of my machine and build: https://photos.app.goo.gl/TLPfx2NAQGHU43pg7
(note I am using external Leadshine drivers set to 2000 pulses per revolution)

Thanks in advance!
Marty

2

There is firmware available to to use the 4th axis for your rotary, and LightBurn supports this.

Do a search for clustering firmware on https://forum.cohesion3d.com

3

Thanks Anthony, I’ll check it out
Marty

4

You are going to have to forgive me. It appears Cohesion3D is a different control board than Smoothie. Or is it a “clone” of Smoothie? I have a genuine Smoothie 5XC. I noted Smoothie put out a new CNC version about 2 weeks ago. I have not yet loaded it. I wonder if it has support for an A axis

5

The Laserboard firmware will work on a genuine Smoothie as far as I know.

1 Like
6

i can confirm that the cluster firmware does indeed work on a genuine smoothieboard 4xC.

2 Likes
7

Thanks Joseph.
Are you running a laser with the 4th axis? If so, can I get a look at your config file?
Marty

8

not currently but i am using the 3rd ant 4th drivers for x and y as i burned the first two.