Arduino based Laser Control

[tweakie]

Thanks Art, I will give that a try.

Tweakie.

[tweakie]

It was worth a try?

The modified sketch compiles OK and uploads OK but without the diagnostics / display it is hard to tell what is going wrong. The Step, Clock and Data signals are all present but the laser output (Pin9) remains Low.

It could be anything, even my Leonardo, so perhaps it may be best if I wait a while and see how others fare.

Tweakie.

[ArtF]

Tweakie:

  Id doubt it the leonardo, but as you say without a display its hard to say whats wrong. Probably is better to wait until at least one other has lasing just to make sure
it isnt something simple that Ive missed. It will be easier to troubleshoot such a thing if the other user has a display we can run diagnostics on. Make sure though that
the spindle is turned on in M4, without the spindle on, the leonardo will not engage the laser. ( as a safety). And remember, the laser will only fire once every step pulse
from the step flag..so it can be very hard to see unless your scanning along in a photo.

Art

[DanL]

you could change lcd.print to Serial.print so you can use the serial monitor

[ArtF]

Might print a lot that way though... but it will work.. You could also erase all the code in the SetDisplay routine
and replace them with just a few Serial.print commands to print any important variables like the power with

Serial.print( PWMPower ); , at least youd know the power is coming in properly..

[DanL]

yea that's what I meant to say, my bits will be turning up tomorrow so I will start putting it to together I am going with the screen, pot, buttons and led

[DanL]

Hi all I have received some of the bits need for this project forgot to order a screen.
I have been using the serial monitor the first thing I have found is I have to run the baud rate at 2400 so it works any higher it does not work very well at all.
there are a couple of other things that don't seem to be working right I will play some more and see what happens

[ArtF]

Hi Dan:

  I havent played much with the serial monitor, in the YUN I use the console which works a bit different..

The LCD panels can be found on Ebay pretty cheaply.. but they take awhile to get form China. No rush, dont feel
pressured to catch up or anything... this is one of those long term do as you can type projects for me as well. :)



Art

[DanL]

I have some things not working as expected but cant do anything about to I get the screen that's between 1 week to 4 weeks from now.
I will work on other projects to then.

[Mooselake]

There's always Sparkfun, Adafruit, Digikey, Mouser, etc. if you want to pay more to get one in a hurry.  Get a few extras off eBay anyway; you can never have too many spare parts (which is why the moosecave is packed full...)

Kirk

[ArtF]

Kirk:

Yeah, gotta admit .. I have a few things laying about as well... Helps to have spare parts lying about when your playing..

Art

[DanL]

hi art just an idea it looks like console is a yun function so it wont be needed on other boards so might as remove it correct me if I am wrong

edit it can be change to  Serial.print

[ArtF]

Dan:

Very true, its why I havent initialized it in the sketch.. not required if not a yun..

Art

[DanL]

I had to change some bits to get it to work it seems to be working.

I will posts my changes when I can plug everything up.

this will be so you know you have a Leonardo version working out there (first version) can you put up your changes when ever what I have is enough to play

[ArtF]

DanL:

  Heres the version Im currently using with 100 levels of power for any selected power. The pot selects the power
for the NGrave mode and Darwin always sends 0-100% as the control word, so you use the pot on the panel as
a sort of brightness control for the engraving..

Art