I like the video but have a couple of questions about the power for the laser. Can you please email me at llewis1961@aol.com so that I can send you the questions.

Sorry for the long delay. I was in a serious car accident that took me away from everything and am slowly working my way back again! DO you still have questions?

Yes. You can turn on the M3 command and use the Sxx variable to change that power (ie. M3S20 for 20 %). But I also have enabled the M11/M10 commands for rapid on/off so I don’t get burn in.

@@silverharbourwoodworks6584 I see perfect thanks a lot!

@@silverharbourwoodworks6584 How do you tell Mach 3 what 100% is? Would that be putting 100 in the spindle speed parameters somewhere?

Sorry for the long delay. I was in a serious car accident that took me away from everything and am slowly working my way back again! Yes the wiring is to any pin on port 3 that is free and to Pin 18 (GND). I have a breakout board plugged into Port 3 which makes accessing the pins easier. The power levels are generated by the ESS and Mach4 (I left Mach3 behind because the laser controls are MUCH better in Mach4.

Hi there! I can't remember what the voltage was on the PWM connection (remember, the power for the laser and fans comes from the 12V connection, not from the control box of the CNC). It is not likely very high, as it is simply controlling the on/off signal as well as the laser intensity control signal. The ESS should provide the appropriate PWM signal, which is simply a control for the power level, not the power to the laser itself. If you look at the Warp9 forum (manufacturers of the ESS controlling the AVID), they will be able to tell you the exact voltage to expect with the PWM wire. The VFD for the spindle is not involved at all.

Hi there, I’m very sorry but unfortunately my shop suffered a fire 2 weeks ago and burned completely, including all of my equipment. I will try to help, but with a shop at all it will all have to be from my head. This sounds like the laser has a gateway. In that case, you will set up the 12v to one pin and map that to the Laser Gate in Mach. The PWM will connect to a different pin and will be mapped to the Laser PWM in Mach . The ground, obviously goes to the grounding pin Port 3 Pin 18 typically. I don’t know your breakout board. My suggestion is to do this all in Mach4, not Mach3.

Silver Harbour Woodworks THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! I am very sorry to hear about your shop.

Sorry, I have never used Artcsm. I use Vectric VCarve Pro.

Hi Cristi Cioaba. Artcam 2018 has an option for a Laser-toolpath. But! You will not be able to use it on a common DIY-CNC with Mach3/4 because the output file has a different format. Instead, you can setup your laser as a simple tool in your Artcam Toolbase and reuse it at any time again. Just create a new tool and fill in the needed laser parameters where, if you use spindle control on your machine, the spindle speed will be the output power of your laser. Use something like 0.02mm or 0.03mm tool diameter, 0.01mm for step-down and 0.01mm stepover. The feed rates you have to adjust the same way as you have to do with conventional machining, they have to fit your laser power and material. I'm currently trying to find a way how to use a kind of "virtual ATC" to vary the laser power within one job be able to cut and engrave, or engrave with various intensity without need of seperate toolpaths.... But... that's work in progress....

Sorry. Made a mistake.... it should be 0.2mm or 0.3mm diameter and 0.1mm stepover....

Sorry, I do not have access to that board, so no way to figure out the setup

I was using the Avid Plug and PLay electronics, which uses an Ethernet SmoothStepper. Since the shop fire destroyed it, my CanCam CNC will have a Masso controller

Hi there! I use Vectric VCarve Pro with the laser plug in. Works great!

Sorry for the long delay. I was in a serious car accident that took me away from everything and am slowly working my way back again! I use Vectric Aspire for most things, including laser engraving.

The two wires into the laser control board go to pins 17 and 18 (GND) on Port 3 of the ESS. I use a breakout board attached to Port 3 to make it easier to access.

Hi Galank! You said your spindle didn't turn off...did you mean your laser? Your spindle should not be turning on when you are lasering. If you meant laser, then there could be a couple of reasons for it. Are you using Mach4? If so, what design software are you using to produce the G-code? I suspect a post-processor issue. In Mach4, the M62/63 commands are used to turn on and off the laser. They need to be followed by the port (output port) you have assigned to your laser. FOr example, to turn on the laser in Mach4, you would use M62P5 for me, because my laser is set up on Output#5. To turn it off, M63P5 would be used. So have a look at your G-code. When the move between objects occurs, there should be an M63P? before the move command. If not, your post-processor needs to be corrected. Now, if you are using Mach3, then this does not apply. If you are using Mach3, let me know and I'll change my advice for that.

Hi there! Generally I use Vectric VCarve Pro. I have used Fusion 360 but the learning curve is steep. Both have excellent features.

Hmmm..the laser should only have 2 wires. The PWM is controlled by the voltage. The other may be a gate, in which case you need to have both the PWM and gate defined in Mach. Although I think only Mach4 supports that.

Laser has red.. black.. white.. Person on ebay where I brought it from said white was pmw.. . Isadora part is it came with no documentation as a reference.. I assume pmw connects to an assigned pin location as output ? Or is input... maybe input to tell laser to turn on.. or adjust laser strength

Henry Fitzthum no, it would be an output. It’s really hard to say with an unnamed laser. That’s why I stopped using the Endurance laser, the control board was very haphazard and very difficult to troubleshoot when something went wrong. I recommend OPT lasers now. Very professional, quite a good price and well supported.

maybe something is missing .. either needs extra wiring... or driver which I thought the driver was already incorporated, cause it has a circuit board on top with fan.. it's just sad that the ebay seller couldn't provide anymore details this the link to laser module I brought www.ebay.com/itm/264676809251?ViewItem=&item=264676809251

@@henryfitzthum7563 Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there is absolutely no way that is a 17 W laser. Just the price alone tell you that. The diode alone would be $400-500 for a 17W. There is no control board on that, it is simply the laser itself, which won't work. Unfortunately, you got taken there. Sorry.

Depends on what the thickness is and the material. 3-5 mm, yes. Thicker, no.

@@silverharbourwoodworks6584 thank you

I’m sorry but these are diode lasers. CO2 lasers require a mirror array, cooling, venting and a lot more power. Very different setup and very hard to add to a CNC

D Johnson I don’t use laser web, so I can’t answer that for you, unfortunately. But it should allow export of Gcode somehow

@@silverharbourwoodworks6584 Thanks, it does export g code, but it doesn't have a mach 3 post processor. Just the basic stuff like grbl. I don't know if it will work, but it may. It might not have the correct g codes to do pwm control on mach though. I have yet to attach the laser to my router, I am waiting on some amazon shipments. On another note, what are you using for laser cam these day, and is it any good? I use fusion for milling and my router, but the laser side of it doesn't look very robust compared to something like laserweb.

I actually use Vectric VCarve Pro using the Quick Engrave toolpath with a tool setup the diameter of the laser and a custom Post Processor modified for Mach4. It takes advantage of the newer Mach4 features. My setup uses the Ethernet SmoothStepper, so the controls are actually quite good to control the laser PWM, as they have fully supported that for over 2 years now.

@@silverharbourwoodworks6584 Great, thanks a lot. I will do some research.

See my comment down below about using a Laser Gateway pin and mapping that in Mach. Normally there are only 2 wires from the laser

Absolutely. A clean workshop is the sign of a lazy woodworker.