Laser pulses when initial connection made
I've finally properly installed my Gerbil in my K40. It was an older K40 unit, so I had to do some switching around of wires to hook things up properly (mainly the gnd, 5v, and 24v were in different places). One thing I've noticed is that whenever I connect to the Gerbil, my laser will rapidly pulse a couple of times.
- Has anyone else seen this?
- How do I keep this from happening?
Thanks in advance!
Shane
Same here. It also pulses before each print.
That happens to everyone. I don't slide my workpiece to home until that is over with - keeps the nasty burn dot off the finished piece.
You can use a park zone and use the pull off parm ($26) to set a safe zone. Also it's not recommended to leave the laser switch on permanently. Only switch that on when you have homed the machine.
So what you're saying is that there is not a way to keep GRBL/Gerbil from pulsing the laser, correct? If there is, I'd love to know how to rectify it. Why exactly does it pulse when it's either first powered up or upon connection? If I understand why, I might hack something so it doesn't do that anymore. For example, is there an unused pin on GRBL that I could use to enable or disable the LASER SWITCH pushbutton using gcode and a relay? This would keep the laser switch open until enabled via gcode during a cutting session. For example, I'm not seeing anything attached to either the Z-STEP nor Z-DIR pins (D4 and D7 respectively).
I understand that the laser shouldn't be turned on until you're ready to start your work; however, it is a safety issue in case someone forgets to switch it off. Anyone?
Hi, the best solution is to disable the port via software. When i have some time i will look into it since it is an annoyance. People leave the laser switch permanently which i can understand.
After a fix you will need to upload the firmware via the arduino ide which requires you to add the 328pb chip set since its different from the stamdard 328 chip set. On the Gerbil controller board, you need to swap two jumpers to use serial port 0 for uploading firmware since opto boot uses serial port 0. Default position is serial port1.
Disabling the initial alarm state at start up removes the toggling of the shared pwm pin with the opto boot led status. I will post the updated firmware on the download menu so users who are keen can reflash the firmware of their controller.