Questions on K40 Upgrade (Power supply and parts to buy)

[sgopal2]

Hello,

I’ve finally decided to get rid of my crap Moshi board that came with my chinese K40 laser engraver. I’m interested in using the Lightobject Upgrade kit. However I read through the installation manual and had the following questions:

1) Is my existing power supply PWM ready? (photo attached)https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/962 ... supply.jpg. Its hard for me to tell if I need another power supply or not.

2) The instructions provided by Marco state that the contacts of the limit switch should be checked with an ohm-meter before installing it. I have a multi-meter but I’m afraid I have no idea what to do? Could someone explain in basic terms how I hook up the ohm meter to the contacts and what I should be looking for?

3) I’m a little unclear on whether the DSP upgrade kit contains all the wiring that I’ll need or not. In the instruction manual, it says that Cat5 twisted pair cable can be used, and in others it says 3-wire or 2-wire cable is used. Should I go out and buy my own wire from RadioShack or does the Upgrade kit come with everything?

4) I assume that I’ll need a soldering iron, flux and solder. Anything else that I should plan on buying?

I'm quite a beginner with electronics, although I'm quite handy, I had trouble understanding the instructions provided here. Does anyone know of a more basic step by step set of instructions or videos that I can use to familiarize myself with the conversion?

[sgopal2]

Hello all,

I called LIghtobject yesterday and here are some answers (for future readers)

1) The power supply may or may not be PWM capable. I decided to order the kit with the power supply anyway to be on the safe side
2) The kit comes with all wiring needed. All that is needed from me was the soldering equipment.

I'll post here I have any problems during the upgrade. I found a wiring diagram the light object website that goes into some more details. I think I can figure it out

[Tech_Marco]

Actually, no wires were included with the DSP upgrade kit. But... we decided to add 2wires, 3wires, and 4 wires cable with the kit. That way, you folks don't need to search cable for signals or for the motor.


Marco

[sgopal2]

Hello,

I’ve been working on the DSP upgrade the last few days. Many thanks to all of you who have posted previous threads, I’ve learned a lot by reading.

It seems as if my power supply that I posted above is the same as referenced in this thread by lhre052 viewtopic.php?f=70&t=2286. Based on this thread I think I’ve figured out how to wire the laser PSU.

I have been following the wiring diagram sent to me by Marco below:
download/manual/DSPConnection.pdf

However I’ve run into an obstacle. In particular I’m having problems figuring out how to wire the AWC608 controller. As you can see from the wiring diagram above, the X/Y proximity switches are connected to a 6 pin green connector. Similarly the X/Y stepper drivers are connected to the AWC control panel via two separate 3 pin green connectors. Finally the power is connected to the DC24V box via a 2 pin green connector.

I looked carefully at the AWC608 card that was delivered to me and I see the following connectors: 4 x 4 pin; 1 x 3 pin; 1 x 5 pin. I am able to connect up everything except 1 stepper driver and the power. I had several extra 4 pin connectors and it looks like they won’t fit into the 3 pin or 2 pin connectors without breaking something. Is there any other way I can wire these? I took it to the guy at radio shack and he said that I could solder directly to the pin on the controller but I felt uncomfortable doing that.

I am enclosing a photo of the AWC608 card that I received. Any advice would be appreciated.

[sgopal2]

One other question....

In looking at the wiring diagram above, I had a question about how to wire the DEXU unit. This is a tiny device with 6 pins. The 3rd and 6th pin have this strange symbol that I haven't been able to figure out what they mean. I looked on several wiring diagram websites, and none of them had this particular symbol.

It looks sort of like a ground symbol, but its not exactly the same.

Can someone explain what these two pins go to?

[Tech_Marco]

You don't need to use it. It is reserved for something else like compensation or variable or so. I'm not very sure it but you can just ignored those pins

Marco

[sgopal2]

Hi Marco - thanks for your reply. Do you know the answer to my other question (what to do with the missing green connectors on the DSP controller)??

Thanks in advance

[Tech_Marco]

Oh so sorry about it. I totally missed that parts. It was because all DSP was tested before shipped, I guess my staff forgot to include the plug after test. Please email me your address and I'll send you the missing connector by mail

Again, my apology!

Marco

[sgopal2]

Hi Marco - thanks for your reply. I will contact your office and let them know about the missing pieces.

I appreciate your prompt answers.

[sgopal2]

Hello,

I’ve reached another stumbling block, and was hoping that someone could help. I’ve managed to wire everything together.

However each time I turn on the laser, the stepper motors make a loud sound, and move to the edges of the X/Y tray and start vibrating. Once I hit the X and Y limit switches a couple of times, it seems to reset, and then moves to the upper left corner.

Also whenever I hit the X+ or X- keys on the control pad, the laser head moves in the wrong direction (hitting + moves the head left, and hitting - moves the head right). Same for Y+ and Y- keys. I thought perhaps that I reversed the polarity on the wiring that went into the stepper driver, but I tried flipping the polarity around and same thing happens.

I’m including a photograph of my wiring and also a short video that shows the vibrating and loud sound upon turning on the machine. For video click here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/962 ... artup2.mov

Any help would be appreciated.

[sgopal2]

Hello:

I managed to figure out why the X/Y positions were incorrect. Looks like I didn't have the settings set properly (datum and origin). After fiddling with the settings, the head now moves in the right direction.

However I tried to set the 'um setting, but each time I try to print out a square box, the laser prints a strange pattern (looks like an upside down spider and a web). This same pattern is printed no matter what I print out on the Lasercad screen.

And I am still having the banging problem each time I turn on the machine. It vibrates loudly and crashes into the side rail. After hitting the limit switches a few times, this seems to fix it.

I have a feeling that some of my settings are still wrong. Either this or I mixed up the polarity of one of the wires. Can anyone help? I'm including a pic of the settings, and the strange spider/web patterns that keep printing. Thanks

[sgopal2]

Hello:

I'm slowly starting to figure things out. I managed to figure out why the thing keeps banging into the rails. It looks like when the machine is turned on, it will go to home automatically. Even though the limit switches were installed in the top LEFT corner, it kept trying to find home in the bottom RIGHT corner.

I moved the wires that went into the stepper drivers. It looks like I had them in backwards. This was because the stepper motors that were on the machine had no labelling, so I was forced to guess. I was able to figure out which coils were paired together by attaching an ohmmeter and looking to see when the resistance moved to 0 when I touched two wires together (these were the pairs).

So now it looks like the machine can successfully move in the right direction (X/Y) when pushing the keypad or on the Lasercad software. And the home location is now set to the upper left. So this part is good.

My next step is to set the "um" setting. This appears to be critical based upon what Marco wrote in previous posts. However each time I try to sketch a 100 x 100 mm box and send to lasercad, something else entirely prints out. It is a picture of an upside down spider and a spider web (see photos above).

It seems that there is something stuck in the memory of the DSP card and it won't accept something from Lasercad. I know that Lasercad is communicating with the laser because the directional buttons all work.

Does anyone know what might be wrong?

[sgopal2]

Boy, I feel pretty stupid right now.

Turns out that the spider and web image were already pre-loaded onto the DSP card and it simply kept printing what was there.

In Marco's manual on page 33 it says to click "start" to cut the square box. This is not right. First you need to click the "download" button and then a dialog box will open. Within this box you then can click "refresh" and then click "download document". This downloads the document from the Lasercad screen onto the DSP card. If this is successful, then you will hear a beep from the DSP.

Then the main screen will open up, now you can click "start" and it will start engraving/cutting properly.

[sgopal2]

Well actually now that I have the DSP up and running, I have a couple of other questions:

1) It says in the emailed instructions that I might need to upgrade the DSP firmware. However I can't tell if I have the latest version or not? Can someone tell by looking at the screen shot of the System version? (see enclosed photo). Do I need to upgrade the firmware or is it okay to keep as is?


2) I received two small pins with strange looking screws on the end in my conversion kit. I have no idea what these are supposed to be used for. Does anyone know what I am supposed to do with these two things?

[Tech_Marco]

Yes, the OS seems a bit old. You may want to go to download area to download the latest OS for the AWC608
The latest version is: 150906V7 and your is 121226V7 which is back to 2012

Marco