Having difficulty getting the XT8 to turn on at anything lower than 20% power. Over 20% works as it should. Been communicating with Opt on possible issues and they are claiming that the signal that the x carve controller is sending is analog and not compatible with their adaptor. Everything I have found says that it is a digital PWM signal. I don’t have an oscilloscope to test. I have tested the voltage levels that the adaptor is getting and confirm that they are correct to what is being programed. So 10% power = 1 volt, 20% power is 2 volts and so on but the laser does not fire. Works in test mode. Adaptor is set correctly to the right machine type x-carve. All other aspects of the machine work as intended.
Machine is X-Carve Pro 4x4
GRBL is 1.1h-XCPd.20230214a
Sending the Gcode with GSender
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
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Garry,
Not sure if you ever solved this, but I just recently did. Same issue, only I wasn’t able to really get the power to modulate at any point, but like you, nothing below 20%. Here is the fix, at least for me. Make sure you go through the install instructions that opt laser puts out. They recommend you look at a youtube by Last Leg Woodworks “laser add on for x-carve Pro CNC”. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW86IDAvqgY. It is right on except for 1 difference between his version of the xcarve pro and mine (and I suspect yours). When he gets to connecting the yellow PWM wire that inputs into the AI1 Pin on the VFD, for his system (and the ones that opt laser wrote the instructions for) that is supposed to be a 0-5v PWM feed, that is then connected to the opt laser adaptor pro pin #2 (TTL/PWM) on the control connector. When I finally got around to checking the voltage of that wire it was 0-10v analog. I checked with opt laser and they recommended that I connect this to the ANG IN 10V pin on the adaptor pro (pin #6). They also recommended that I switch the adapter PWM conversion mode with base frequency 10khz. This is done on the adaptor pro by entering the programing (key on while holding the arm/disarm button) navigate to the advanced settings, then to the display selecting the frequency and select 10khz. Save and exit.
I’ve attached a short write up of what I did with some pics. Hopefully it will help if you haven’t already got this figured out. Let me know how it goes.
Lynn
Opt Laser XT8 and Xcarve Pro install post.docx (770.5 KB)
Lynn,
Thanks so much for responding on a fix! I had given up on getting this corrected since I pretty much use the laser at full power for cutting. Did not work on the 10V input on the controller as you wrote up but did on the 5V, and adjusted the advanced settings to match. Finally!
Another question though, at low power, see attached image, the laser turns off when it changes direction in the g-code coordinates, but does not at a higher power. Figure this is some sort of setting to ramp down the power after completing a command. Do you know how to avoid this? Using cut2d pro by Vectric to design
and GSender to the machine.
Thanks again!
Garry
