Arduino based Laser Control

[ArtF]

Tweakie:

Wow, thats looking good. Ok, lets debug it one step at a time and see where
Ive screwed  you up..

Lets get diosga running, its the easiest test just so we know all else is running..

Test 1 for any panel: Does it fire in Diags mode? 

1) Set to Diags, set count to 1000, ( 1/5th second).
2) Run button LED should now flash ( if box has one.. :)
3) Pressing fire should count down , PWM should go to power set by the pot.. 100% for test
4) did laser fire during count?

  Ok course, being Tweakie you may already know the pwm firing section works, I ask the above
only so future new users will see an initial test responce..

Second test, NGrave mode. For this Darwin and Mach4 must be setup correctly.
This you will know if the following is true.

StepFlag pulses everytime any motor does a step. Doesnt matter what motor..
Serial Flag also pulses every time motion occurs. This doesnt match step by step,
when a waypoint is sent to Darwin, the serial clock will pulse 16 times each time
changing the state of the Serial data on each pulse...

Test:  Set Darwin to Laser mode in the diags menu of mach4 under darwin. This turns on
the Laser outputs. Ensure Serial clk, serial data and Step flag are enabled and on proper pins.
Setup a PWM spindle in Mach3 and darwin, set it to frequency controlled in Darwins config at 25hz
what you set the frequency to doesnt actually matter in Darwins config, the diags setup in Mach4 will also
ask a frequency and Darwin will fill in the rigth hardware frequency then.

So in MAch4's diags menu setup for Darwin turn on PWM Spindle. Set it to 50hz. In Mach4, set the spindle range
to 0 min and 100max. Set Motor max rev at bottom of tab to 100. (all this is for power scaling).
Execute a S100F1000 in the MDI, then press the SpindleOn button on the screen or execture an M3.

The lcd in the panel should now show 100 in the REM: in the upper rigth corner indicating its getting
a spindle power of 100 currently. It wont shoot till it moves, but the power should show up as 100%

Lets trouble shoot from there.. :)

Art

[ArtF]

Tweakie:

  Just so we're sure we're all on the same page, here's the code I will be running my machine on when testing why
you ( or dan ) may be having troubles. I'll compare to this codes standard .. it has a change you probably dont have, in the FireLaser routine there is a change in the CNCModes power level to the new standard I use. ( Which is the user of Mach sets a power word ( S0 - S100 ) as a percentage demand to the laser panel, which then gives 0-100% of the
dialed up power on the pot. this is true in all modes. It allows one to adjust power at the laser to see effect and judge
actual required power you might need. SO the pot is the master power selection, and the PWM ( cncMode) or DarwinLaserCalc ( NGrave Mode) are slaves demanding simply 0 - 100% depending on circumstances..

Here is the current Darwin I use as well as the current laser box code..

Art

[tweakie]

Thanks Art.

I have been busy with other stuff today but I will test it all out tomorrow, following your excellent diagnostics advice and report back.

Tweakie.

[ArtF]

No Rush, I just tested everything this morning to make sure it all runs as I remember it should. :)

Art

[DanL]

everything working fine for me art I just need to change the pot to a 5K instead of the 10k I have.

pin 9 output is around 2.5 to 3 v so its just half of what it is meant to be

[ArtF]

Dan:

  Doesnt work that way.. Pin 9  is a PWM signal, so if its set to 50% you should read 2.5volts or so.. if set to 90% you should see abotu 5 volts.  Changing the pot would do nothing to the voltage. 100meg or 100K..doesnt matter, it just tells the  arduino what timing for the PWM to use. So while a scope is what should be used to look at pin9, you can use voltage , just consider it a voltage of 0 - 5 volts in 100 increments of the power pot ( in the case of diags mode when firing..).

Art

[DanL]

ok there is something wrong then, the 2.5 - 3v is with darwin set at m3 s100 and pot at 100% the arduino scope I am using does have volts and pwm I will check again just to be sure I am correct

[ArtF]

Dan:

    In Diags mode, at 100% and CW selected as count, ( constant wave), you should get between 4-5vc measured on pin9.. a pwm of 200us in period, and with no fire command you should see about 1us pulses, that go to about 190us pulses at full power..

  Generally though, if you see the voltage go up quite a bit when you press fire, then its probably working fine..

Art

[DanL]

cool will look soon

[tweakie]

Hi Art,

Well I fell at the first hurdle (installed Mach4-2138 and Darwin-2138 and reloaded Arduino with latest sketch).

1) Set to Diags, set count to 1000, ( 1/5th second).

Set to Diags and Pulses set to 1000 - OK

2) Run button LED should now flash ( if box has one..  )

Fire button now flashing - OK

3) Pressing fire should count down , PWM should go to power set by the pot.. 100% for test

Nothing ? no countdown

4) did laser fire during count?

Nothing ? laser did not fire

Its all bit of a mystery ? I will go back and check my Mach4 / Darwin set-up and also check my Arduino wiring etc. and see if I can find what I have missed.

Tweakie.

[DanL]

art I will test the full new code here since test and engrave work properly on my set up to see if it from all the yun stuff probably not but cant hurt to check

[DanL]

the code works fine here diag switching to pwm ok, engrave ok, diag fine

diag and engraving works fine pwm not so much it runs at half of what engrave does so engrave at 4.5 to 5v max at s100, f400 power at 100%.
pwm running about 3v at m3s100g1x50f400 the scope is not that all that good so I put in a led its bright as in diag and engrave mode
just glowing in pwm mode.

I will need to do some more testing in pwm to see if I can get it working better

[ArtF]

HI Guys:

  Sorry for delay, I didnt get notification on this thread for some reason..

Tweakie.. Sounds like perhaps we need to add a display code for fire button being pressed,
sounds like something is messed up there. Yell if youd liek a hand getting a diags message
on that.. Im betting when we find that bug things will begin to run..

Dan, Ensure you use the latest laser code I posted a couple messages back, it fixes a bug where the
CNC Mode was doubleing the S power, so an S40 would give 80% ... last post fixed that ( small typo
on my part.. ).
  Sounds like yours is runnign well Dan.. any idea how to get your laser to fire with the signals?
The LED was a good idea, PWM does make an LED glow brighter or dimmer depending..

Art

[DanL]

I am using everything that is new I will be testing some more tomorrow I will try a do a screen shot so you can what I am meaning if I can`t get it working better

[ArtF]

Dan:

  Cool. Explain an issue and Ill do all I can to fix it up. th eLED is a very good idea for testing though, it will
glow brightly for hi and dimly for low power. BUT , be aware that in engraving mode, it may vary quite a bit as in engraving mode  the fire is limited to 1 shot per step of  a motor....

Art