I want to add a laser to my LR2. I purchased this one that I had seen in this video, that was before I realized there were different boards.
I found this , this, this and the post here kind of sounds like the SKR Pro V1.2 board now has the firmware supporting laser function, but I have no idea if it does for sure or which pins to connect if it does.
So, can someone tell me:
does the latest firmware support the laser function?
if so which pins do I use PC9 or Fans(0, 1, 2)?
can I then turn it on from the BTT screen labeled āLaserā?
and how to correctly activate it when setting up Estlcam for my gcode?
Just in case anyone else is trying to do the same, Iāll post my findings here.
I attached the laser to the FAN0 terminals after verifying with a meter that they work in conjunction with the laser screen on the BTT TFT35 E3 V3 found in the V1 shop with the SKR PRO V1.2 here from 0-12vdc.
I did have to install a 2.2k ohm resistor between the terminals on FAN0 + & - to get it turn down low enough at 1% to not burn anything. Without it, the laser is full power no matter what you have the laser percentage set to. @Tuco mentions that here (thank you).
Now, I wait for my mount to finish printing and get everything mounted. Then Iāll try to play around with the laser functions in Estlcam and see if the laser responds to the gcode generated.
If anyone has any advice, Iām all ears.
Also, I did purchase these glasses and they do a great job (IMO) of blocking out the laser. Stupidly I connected power to the laser when I first purchased it and just the brightness gave me an immediate headache. These lasers are NO joke.
I found that in Estlcam under Setup --> CNC Programs --> Texts --> Laser, Plasma, Waterjet, Etc
Start Cut M106 (Enter a number between 0 - 255, 255 being full power and 0 being off)
example half power would be entered as:
M106 127
End Cut M107 - turns off laser
āSome Old Guy Codingā shows this in a Youtube video here
In Repetier Host, the Fan button (found under the Manual Contro tab) will manually turn the laser on and off. Power will be set to whatever you have the slider set to.
Remember to wear the proper glasses. Do some research and get the best ones for your laser wavelength.
I have a laser showing up tomorrow, and I am trying to figure it out too. Did you try PC9? This looks to be the PWM output enabled in the V1 firmware (at least for the MPCNC). I havenāt looked at the lowrider, but I would expect them to be the same.
By default, PC9 will be 5V. FAN0 plug will be 12V. What kind of input does your laser take? If I understand correctly, they will also be triggered differently. Using the laser with the FAN0 will use M106 and M107 to control the laser. PC9 will use the āSā parameter in the G0 and G1 g-code commands. I believe that PC9 can also be controlled using M3/M4 commands. Note that PC9 was only enabled in the latest release of the V1 managed Marlin firmware.
According to a datasheet someone shared that seemed to be the same laser I had, indicated it accepted 12 or 5 vdc PWM/TTL. FAN0 is what is controlled by the Laser buttons on the laser screen of the TFT. I saw M106 and M107 activating in the terminal of Repetier when I turned the fan on and off, which also turned my laser on.
Would you have to remap the buttons on the TFT to get it to work with the laser at PC9? Iām not sure how to do that.
I donāt have a TFT, so I donāt know if/how to edit the g-code attached to the buttons. Iām not sure of your software pipeline, but since you mentioned Repetier-Host, you can attach code to the five custom buttons as an alternate to using the TFT to turn the laser on/off. I donāt have a laser yet. Keep saying Iāll get one, but other projects get in the way. But Iāve following laser information on the forum to prepare. So far no one as indicated a benefit of one method (fan control) vs another (laser pin) for controlling the laser, so if you have it workingā¦
A lot has changed since this two-year-old post. For many laser modules, it is plug-and-play to get them up and running. The latest V1 maintained Marlin firmware has laser support enabled by default. If you know what laser module you will be using, there are several people on this forum that are willing to help you walk through the process.
I purchased my laser module in September of 2021, and have hundreds of hours of use.
In terms of laser modules, I have a 5.5W Genmitsu laser on my CoreXY laser engraver and I really like it for engraving, but itās not a good cutter.
I have a NEJE A40640 that I had set up for the LR3, which I plan to replace with an E40 module, maybe make another CoreXY machine for the A40640. Iāll need to make some edits for the larger heat sink, but it should make a nice all-purpose laser.
Neither is running on an SKR Pro though, so I canāt help much there
When i had my laser connected to my lr2 using the original skr pro 1.2 board i used this one: Link to post
Thats for a neje module to be installed with the skr pro (i didnāt used the key) you could even use it directly with light burn (wired to usb obviously)
Of Late I hear good things about XToolās laser modules (between $500 and $1,500) being actually worth the $$. My Diode Laser is definitely less powerful than it was back in 2020ā¦
