Been using my MPCNC for a year and half (thanks to everyone especially RYAN! for this awesome forum!) and am now attempting to add the 5.6w L-Cheapo MK4 laser to my setup (http://3dsupplysource.com/LCheapo/LCheapoMK4).
I am an absolute newb technologically and after reading all sorts of posts (djk4linux, ryan), I am still unclear on what I need to actually do to set this thing up! I’ve got it mounted where I want it, but for wiring…
I’m holding the L-Cheapo in my hand, see the wires coming off of it… do I buy some miniRambo terminal blocks, run some extra wires between the mounted L-Cheapo and my miniRambo 1.3… and plug it where? And do I need to add a 2nd power source? Arrrgg!
Any help is appreciated, this forum has been awesome! THANK YOU
Are there only 2 wires to hook up? Several years ago, I had a friend’s L-Cheapo 2 watt laser and it only had the 2 wire setup. IIRC I simply hooked it up to the D9 Fan terminals on a RAMPS board… and controlled it with the M106 Sxxx and M107 gcodes.
Thanks David. The 5.6w L-Cheapo I have had three short wires coming out of it - red black and yellow. Assuming I get some wire to extend the length, and some miniRAMBO terminal plugs, any clue where I put these three?
Thanks a ton and if anyone has successfully upgraded their MPCNC with an L-Cheapo laser, even just a picture of your setup would be appreciated!
I am interested in this laser. I was looking up how to connect my Endurance laser 5.6 watt. Looks like they might be similar. At a glance it looks like you are going to wire up the three wires to your Extruder Heater pins. Two wires will connect to the positive and one will connect to the negative.
This is different from many other laser types out there but that is how it appears to be setup. Then they suggest you tweak the firmware to control that heater like a fan. By reassigning the pin from a heater to be a fan.
That way you can use a fan command like M106 Sxxx to set the power level.
The laser will be powered up through your main control board. Most lasers use a separate power supply.
Interesting. Because like I said I will be doing the same thing when I plug in my Endurance laser.
Anyway here is the link to your laser instructions.
Finding info on hookup for the L-Cheapo is extremely confusing IMO… as it appears it was originally designed, and is most often used, as an attachment to an actual 3d printer. As such, most designs I find are a 2-wire connection… some hooking it to the extruder hot-end wires (M104 control) and others connecting it to the part cooling fan (M106/M107 control). Then, further adding to the confusion, there’s now a 3rd wire (which I’m sure is a PWM input)… but, for the life of me, I’ve yet to find anyone using it this way.
CAUTION: Safest, contact the L-Cheapo folks and ask for specific hookup directions for your specific board (miniRambo), laser module, desired use model (CNC vs 3dprinter, M106/M107 gcode control), etc.
That said… I CANNOT GUARANTEE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING WOULD WORK.
But I found this PDF to be most sensible (to my sensibilities) and would take this route if I were doing this. I think this would be the safest – and probably easiest – way to go…
I’m sure the red and black wires are for laser power (this color scheme is usually pretty “sacred”) and the yellow is a PWM input… but it’s unclear to me (can’t find it documented anywhere) what voltage levels it is designed to take. So, in this document, the PWM input (a gray wire vs. your yellow wire) is simply connected to the red power wire (continue now to call it the “red wire”)… making it a simple 2-wire connection, similar to other, more common, L-Cheapo 2-wire hookups. [This connection is also suggested (using a “white wire”… go figure!) here… http://robots-everywhere.com/re_wiki/pub/web/Main.LCheapo.html].
Now, connect these “two” wires to the Fan output (red to +, black to -) on miniRambo… and control it with M106 Sxxx, where xxx=0 to 255.
That’s my best guess. Please take it with a grain of salt…
Thank you kindly David and Aaryn. I’ll reach out to the L-Cheapo folks today and if they send anything useful (sadly, the “instructions” link on their site is not especially useful) I will post it here. If I don’t get anything going to take a stab at something this weekend using that PDF link you sent David… fingers crossed!