Smoothieboard V2 Laser Connections & Config

I’m transitioning a laser from a functioning v1 smoothieboard to the new v2 prime. The setup is very similar between the two however I am running into an issue getting the laser to fire with smoothie v2. The laser was working fine w/ v1, so the fault isn’t with the power supply wiring or laser - It seems ONLY the PWM connection to V2 is the issue.

Relevant PWM connections to the laser power supply (k40 type) are as follows.

          Smoothie V2 

PWM Pin PE9 (on GD gadgeteer header)
GND GND pin (on GD gadgeteer header)

          Smoothie V1 (included for reference - these worked!)

PWM MOSFET Pin 2.4
GND MOSFET Ground Pin (labeled “Power In 1”)

The config.ini laser module settings are below:

[pwm1]
frequency=5 # PWM1 frequency 10KHz
[pwm2]
frequency=50 # PWM2 frequency 50 Hz

[laser]
enable = true
pwm_pin = PWM1_1
inverted_pwm = false
#ttl_pin = PE11
maximum_power = .8
minimum_power = 0.0
default_power = 0.0
proportional_power = true

A few things to note:

  1. It appears v2 uses kHz instead of ms for the pwm frequency. The frequency 5kHz is equivalent to 200ms (thanks unitjuggler.com), which was the setting that worked on v1. I’ve tried many different values with no success.

  2. The config “pwm_pin” default value is “PWM1_1” (which is pin PE9 on the schematics). When “PWM1_1” is the value the laser fires CONSTANTLY when smoothie is booted up. (I tried “PE9” as the value since that is the actual pin number, but had no success…meaning the laser did not fire CONSTANTLY).

  3. I’ve tried inverting the PWM with no success.

  4. With the v1 wiring, I didn’t need the TTL signal, so I have ignored that setting/wiring.

  5. I’m using Lightburn to drive the laser.

Arthur - I hope you’re still monitoring this board!

TIA

Looks like your config for PWM1 is set to 5. Which would be 5hz.
Try setting that to 5000 and see if it helps.

I passed the link onto wolfmanjm too so he may have more input.

-Ccecil

Also, If you look here: https://github.com/Smoothieware/SmoothieV2/blob/master/ConfigSamples/minimal.ini

That sample has more of the settings which are default or commented out.

-Ccecil

Sidenote:
If you hook up the UART>USB converter you will get a lot of debug info. It will give warnings about incorrect pin settings and such. On boot a lot of info is sent out which will help you debug the config settings.

Thanks Chris!