Messages

1

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: PMDX-424 PWM control for Laser

« on: February 24, 2020, 09:41:01 PM »

You are correct that I have a separate 12VDC 5amp power supply. My wiring is as follows

Red - to external 12V supply's V+ terminal
Black - to your external 12V supply's GND terminal
Yellow - to PMDX-424 J12 pin 2 (labeled "Output 1")

In the pics you can see I am getting 5V on the yellow IN REF TO the ground you are calling " PMDX-424 J12 pin 5 ("LGND")" . I was wondering how they were grounding the PWM.
I will go back and tie the external 12v power supply GND to the Ground pin on J12.  I guess I was scared hooking up a powerful power supply to the 424 output GND,

Just to make sure I have attached a wiring diagram I am using and have marked your suggestion in RED. I am just worried about hooking 12v GND to the output GND.

I won't be able to try this until Friday night when I get back to the shop.  When I was measuring the yellow wire voltage in ref to J12 GND, i was getting 5V at 100%, 2.5 at 50%, 0.5 at 10%  So the board output1 is correct.

12strings, thank you very much for your input .  Very clear, very knowledgeable and welcoming.

Tripp

2

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / Re: PMDX-424 PWM control for Laser

« on: February 17, 2020, 09:29:34 AM »

12strings.  Thank you for your reply.  I am turning on the laser with the Spindle CW button.  AND I was using the slider overide incorrectly as you guesses.  I hadn't set a speed yet.  Guess I need to get more hands on with Gcode.
So after starting SpindleCW and setting Speed (S50) via MDI, the slider "overrides" and is reporting back the speed accordingly.  Thank you
I also confirmed with a Volt meter it is modulating properly.  However, the laser seems to be at 100% no mater what the speed it set to

Another question, read below from the Laser Seller.  I know his English is bad, its about the pwm frequency I have  question

"When you connect laser to your controller board, please pay attention to the pin positions of 12v+ GND- and PWM/TTL, red wire=12V+, black wire=GND-. Yello wire=PWM+, white wire=PWM-(3-4pin wire). So Red Wire must be connected to the 12v+ pin on your controller board’s interface, Black Wire Must be connected to the GND- pin and Yellow Wire must be connected to the PWM/TTL pin, if you use 3-4pin wire, White wire should be connected to the PWM- pin.
if your controller board’s laser interface pins are in different position, please change the wires position to make it match the positions of + - PWM of your interface. If the wires connected wrong, it will damage the diode and the driver board.
Frequency: <15khz, PWM/TTL: 0-5V"

So, my laser has three wires, red (12v), black (neg) and Yellow (PWM).  have the yellow set to output 1 on 424.  It looks like the pwm frequency only goes up to 1000 Hz on the plug in which should be fine since he says <15khz.  It just seems like the laser is ignoring the pwm.

Any suggestions?  Tripp

3

SmartBOB controllers and dedicated accessories / PMDX-424 PWM control for Laser

« on: February 15, 2020, 03:07:07 PM »

I have been using my 424 on my CNC for about a year now.  I am trying to add a laser.  The 7w laser has red, black, yellow.  Red and Black are for 12v and the yellow is PWM.

I clone my Mach4 profile and created a laser profile so not to mess with router profile

Can the 424 control the pwm thru output 1 without a breakout board?  If so, what are the correct settings in Mach4 and the plugin?

I have Mach4 spindle 0 min 0 max 100 feedback 1.00
on the plugin I have selected Spindle - pwm Output 1 and told it to report Estimate RPM from pwm/pulse frequency.


I measure with a meter on the 424 output 1 voltage is almost 5V.  It doesn't change at all when I slide the spindle speed up or down.  And on the machine diagnostic window, it shows 0 true rpm no matter where the slider is.

I feel like I have missed something in the Mach4 setup not telling the PDMX-424 to control spindle. (Perhaps on the output signals tab)


What else do I need to do? 
Many Thanks
Tripp