Do you know whether the new AVID Mach 4 laser upgrade 2.5.5 will work with any Opt laser setup on an Avid cnc machine? You helped me previously to set up my laser for both engraving and laser rastering and after checking out the new Mach 4 upgrade, I would like to install it on my machine to see how it would work with my setup. Thanks again for a great video.
The 2.5.5 release is still based on Mach4 4908, and ESS 298, so there isn't anything new from that perspective (unless you are currently running something older). What they've added in the release is more geared towards supporting the actuation mechanism and such. However, yes, it will still work fine with your laser, and one thing that you might like is the way they convert a standard Gcode file for a end mill into a laser file. This eliminates the need for special post processors in Vectric or F360. However, since you already have the post processors all working and everything, its probably not really worth it to switch to the newer release.
Do you have any additional information on your magnetic mount for the 15w and 30w opt laser -or where did you source your “pogo” pin connectors. You have an awesome setup thanks for sharing
Yes, I have a google drive with all my laser setup files, mach4 screens, post processors, etc. drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xB6J0RZIU1j8g951NkP-8HXC1swC2C-B?usp=drive_link In there is laser set power point file, and on page 5 is an embedded document for the magnetic mount with part numbers. If you are going to use it with the heavier 30W laser, I would recommend moving up to a 0.5" diameter magnet size. I also have added the base design for the 30W laser in the vectric file.
Thanks I just ordered it he 30W laser - I love the magnetic mount on my 6w opt laser and after seeing your mount I’d like to make something similar. Such a great concept and I appreciate the inspiration
Thanks for all the good videos! I have a question about Rastering Bitmap Images Directly in Mach4 with ESS. I want the air assist to run also during the image raster, but I can't see to turn it on with the Air assist toggle button. I read somewhere that during Rastering, ESS has assumed full control and is not listening to Machs assumed full control and is not listening to Mach. Could I use the macros to active the air assist?
During the rastering process it does take over control, however, you have to run a Gcode file to setup the parameters for rastering, and to actually start the rastering, so you can turn on your air at the beginning of the file and off at the end just like you would do with laser vector work, or with a spindle gcode file. If you need help getting it to work, just email me at jnwdwks@gmail.com
Hi Jim, I recently added a laser to my Avid machine and using your screen set I was able to get the laser to test fire. Then I came across your testing files and the laser actually worked for me. My question is, how do you process the gcode to have the m2003 and m2004 commands along with the m62 p5 and m63 p5 code? I use vcarve for my projects and I did just buy the laser module but not sure I needed it. Thank for all the material you have posted!! Edit** I figured out how to choose your No z .PP from the vcarve software and I got my first project to work. Thank you for all the work you’ve shared with the community.
Hi Jim, I am struggling to get mine to work correctly. I use vectric aspire. If I were to just set up a profile cut with toolpath 99 I can use the Mach 4 post processor? Also if that is how it works then how do you change laser power in aspire+how do you do pictures correctly? Sorry I’m a little lost with the laser portion and feel stuck.
Jim, I'm curious why you mounted the Opt Laser adapter on the gantry beam? I guess it makes the wire run to the laser head shorter, but is there more to it? How did you run the DC power from the power adapter up to that Opt Laser adapter? I'm about to wire up a new machine now and want to consider the options.
Hi Scott. Good questions. First of all, I had several of the stand alone lasers before I got the whole AVID kit to play with, so that location is there from before I had an AVID control box down below that has the Opt adapter box mounted in it. However, I do like it up on the gantry because I can see it to tell if its armed, armed or firing, or key switch turned off, from the status of the 3 LEDs. I also like having quick acess to the red power button so I can power down the laser easily. The fans on some of the lasers are pretty loud, so I will frequently turn it off to give my ears some relief. The last reason is that my AVID gets a lot of use as a test bed, so I am frequently switching things out, hooking up oscilloscope probes, etc. so I like having all the connetors up top and accessible for that reason. As far as routing, I put my 24V power supply down in the control cabinet, and then when I got the AVID laser kit is is now moved to the laser control box. I brought power and the ESS control wires up through the first run of e-chain (along the Y axis) to the control box mounted to the gantry (making sure the mess of stuff that is hanging on my Z axis can not contact the box when moved to the full right X position). Then I just had to route from the output of the Opt adapter box along the X e-chain and Z echain the rest of the way to the laser. BTW, you may have noticed that control box I have is surrounded in a black plastic box. That is the 30W adapter box needed for the two 30W lasers I have. Opt is re-designing that box to have a similar footprint of the original silver part, but will handle the extra power internally. I believe they are adding a little LCD display as well, so another reason to have it up top and visible.
That is very helpful Jim! I'm hearing that your situation is a pretty special case, and now I understand why you've done it that way. It sounds like I can just mount the laser adapter down near the motion control box (I'm running Centroid Acorn) and put the power and PWM signal to it there. Then run the regular adapter wire up to the laser module head. I didn't know if there were any particular considerations like noise, signal loss, etc. The new laser kit is pretty cool. It's too bad it's Mach-4 centric.
@@scottgrossman6148 The laser kit hardware is not mach-4 centric. lf your controller has laser PWM support, and two spare outputs and an input, you can run everything in that box just fine. The only thing thats Mach4 related is the screenset and software that AVID wrote, but you can live without that (I'm not using it because I had been using lasers for a couple of years so I already had my own workflow and laser screen that I wrote). I did look at the PWM signals at the adapter box input with the o-scope just to make sure they weren't too noisy. I don't know what the acorn's I/O's look like, but most CNCs keep the controllers isolated (power and ground wise) from the chassis and other I/Os. Usually the PWM is a bit too high of a frequency for the typical opto isolators used on CNC controller I/O, so in my case and AVID's, the PWM signal is connected directly to the ESS board, but Opt has designed the laser and control box to be fully isolated, so this still keeps the ESS's internal power domain isolated from the chassis and other power. I will say that the ESS does have very good laser support. The ESS plugin itself supports rastering directly, and there are ESS m code macros for tight power control timing with the motors.
@@JNWoodworks Oh, that is very good to know. I'm not sure how I got that impression, but I'm glad to hear I'm wrong. Thanks for clearing that up! The stock Acorn is a bit limited in I/O, six of each. This can be expanded in a couple of ways. I'm going to seriously consider how I can make it happen. Thanks so much for the very helpful information Jim! Scott
@@scottgrossman6148 You're welcome. I looked at the acorn site briefly and they mention they have proportional velocity control, so they must have pretty good laser support. Looks like there are a lot of different versions of the board, but it should work well for you. Then you can hook up an input to the air pressure sensor (i would call that optional, its just a safety check to see that there is adequate air pressure), and an output to turn on the air assist solenoid, and another to control the air deploy mechanism. If you were only doing laser on your machine, you could also run these two things with one output, but if you are wanting to use an air nozzle for spindle work (I recommend that for some things it really helps clear chips and cool the bit and material), then you'd wan to keep them seperate.
Thanks for sharing your knowlidge with us. Thank you. Best Regards from Germany Markus
Another very informative video Jim. Thanks.
Great stuff! Would love to see an update with the EX Controller.
I'm working on that 😀
@ awesome!!
Subscribed.
Do you know whether the new AVID Mach 4 laser upgrade 2.5.5 will work with any Opt laser setup on an Avid cnc machine? You helped me previously to set up my laser for both engraving and laser rastering and after checking out the new Mach 4 upgrade, I would like to install it on my machine to see how it would work with my setup. Thanks again for a great video.
The 2.5.5 release is still based on Mach4 4908, and ESS 298, so there isn't anything new from that perspective (unless you are currently running something older). What they've added in the release is more geared towards supporting the actuation mechanism and such. However, yes, it will still work fine with your laser, and one thing that you might like is the way they convert a standard Gcode file for a end mill into a laser file. This eliminates the need for special post processors in Vectric or F360. However, since you already have the post processors all working and everything, its probably not really worth it to switch to the newer release.
😊Thanks for your valued opinion Jim.
Do you have any additional information on your magnetic mount for the 15w and 30w opt laser -or where did you source your “pogo” pin connectors. You have an awesome setup thanks for sharing
Yes, I have a google drive with all my laser setup files, mach4 screens, post processors, etc. drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xB6J0RZIU1j8g951NkP-8HXC1swC2C-B?usp=drive_link
In there is laser set power point file, and on page 5 is an embedded document for the magnetic mount with part numbers. If you are going to use it with the heavier 30W laser, I would recommend moving up to a 0.5" diameter magnet size. I also have added the base design for the 30W laser in the vectric file.
You can always email me with questions at jnwdwks@gmail.com as well.
Thanks I just ordered it he 30W laser - I love the magnetic mount on my 6w opt laser and after seeing your mount I’d like to make something similar. Such a great concept and I appreciate the inspiration
Thanks for all the good videos! I have a question about Rastering Bitmap Images Directly in Mach4 with ESS. I want the air assist to run also during the image raster, but I can't see to turn it on with the Air assist toggle button. I read somewhere that during Rastering, ESS has assumed full control and is not listening to Machs assumed full control and is not listening to Mach. Could I use the macros to active the air assist?
During the rastering process it does take over control, however, you have to run a Gcode file to setup the parameters for rastering, and to actually start the rastering, so you can turn on your air at the beginning of the file and off at the end just like you would do with laser vector work, or with a spindle gcode file. If you need help getting it to work, just email me at jnwdwks@gmail.com
Hi Jim, I recently added a laser to my Avid machine and using your screen set I was able to get the laser to test fire. Then I came across your testing files and the laser actually worked for me. My question is, how do you process the gcode to have the m2003 and m2004 commands along with the m62 p5 and m63 p5 code? I use vcarve for my projects and I did just buy the laser module but not sure I needed it. Thank for all the material you have posted!!
Edit** I figured out how to choose your No z .PP from the vcarve software and I got my first project to work. Thank you for all the work you’ve shared with the community.
I was just about to say, if you found my laser screen, then you were only one directory away :-) Glad you found it.
Hi Jim, I am struggling to get mine to work correctly. I use vectric aspire. If I were to just set up a profile cut with toolpath 99 I can use the Mach 4 post processor? Also if that is how it works then how do you change laser power in aspire+how do you do pictures correctly? Sorry I’m a little lost with the laser portion and feel stuck.
I can help. Send me an email at jnwdwks@gmail.com. It's easier to work through it there.
Jim, I'm curious why you mounted the Opt Laser adapter on the gantry beam? I guess it makes the wire run to the laser head shorter, but is there more to it?
How did you run the DC power from the power adapter up to that Opt Laser adapter? I'm about to wire up a new machine now and want to consider the options.
Hi Scott. Good questions. First of all, I had several of the stand alone lasers before I got the whole AVID kit to play with, so that location is there from before I had an AVID control box down below that has the Opt adapter box mounted in it.
However, I do like it up on the gantry because I can see it to tell if its armed, armed or firing, or key switch turned off, from the status of the 3 LEDs. I also like having quick acess to the red power button so I can power down the laser easily. The fans on some of the lasers are pretty loud, so I will frequently turn it off to give my ears some relief. The last reason is that my AVID gets a lot of use as a test bed, so I am frequently switching things out, hooking up oscilloscope probes, etc. so I like having all the connetors up top and accessible for that reason.
As far as routing, I put my 24V power supply down in the control cabinet, and then when I got the AVID laser kit is is now moved to the laser control box. I brought power and the ESS control wires up through the first run of e-chain (along the Y axis) to the control box mounted to the gantry (making sure the mess of stuff that is hanging on my Z axis can not contact the box when moved to the full right X position). Then I just had to route from the output of the Opt adapter box along the X e-chain and Z echain the rest of the way to the laser.
BTW, you may have noticed that control box I have is surrounded in a black plastic box. That is the 30W adapter box needed for the two 30W lasers I have. Opt is re-designing that box to have a similar footprint of the original silver part, but will handle the extra power internally. I believe they are adding a little LCD display as well, so another reason to have it up top and visible.
That is very helpful Jim! I'm hearing that your situation is a pretty special case, and now I understand why you've done it that way. It sounds like I can just mount the laser adapter down near the motion control box (I'm running Centroid Acorn) and put the power and PWM signal to it there. Then run the regular adapter wire up to the laser module head. I didn't know if there were any particular considerations like noise, signal loss, etc.
The new laser kit is pretty cool. It's too bad it's Mach-4 centric.
@@scottgrossman6148 The laser kit hardware is not mach-4 centric. lf your controller has laser PWM support, and two spare outputs and an input, you can run everything in that box just fine. The only thing thats Mach4 related is the screenset and software that AVID wrote, but you can live without that (I'm not using it because I had been using lasers for a couple of years so I already had my own workflow and laser screen that I wrote).
I did look at the PWM signals at the adapter box input with the o-scope just to make sure they weren't too noisy. I don't know what the acorn's I/O's look like, but most CNCs keep the controllers isolated (power and ground wise) from the chassis and other I/Os. Usually the PWM is a bit too high of a frequency for the typical opto isolators used on CNC controller I/O, so in my case and AVID's, the PWM signal is connected directly to the ESS board, but Opt has designed the laser and control box to be fully isolated, so this still keeps the ESS's internal power domain isolated from the chassis and other power.
I will say that the ESS does have very good laser support. The ESS plugin itself supports rastering directly, and there are ESS m code macros for tight power control timing with the motors.
@@JNWoodworks Oh, that is very good to know. I'm not sure how I got that impression, but I'm glad to hear I'm wrong. Thanks for clearing that up!
The stock Acorn is a bit limited in I/O, six of each. This can be expanded in a couple of ways. I'm going to seriously consider how I can make it happen.
Thanks so much for the very helpful information Jim!
Scott
@@scottgrossman6148 You're welcome. I looked at the acorn site briefly and they mention they have proportional velocity control, so they must have pretty good laser support. Looks like there are a lot of different versions of the board, but it should work well for you. Then you can hook up an input to the air pressure sensor (i would call that optional, its just a safety check to see that there is adequate air pressure), and an output to turn on the air assist solenoid, and another to control the air deploy mechanism. If you were only doing laser on your machine, you could also run these two things with one output, but if you are wanting to use an air nozzle for spindle work (I recommend that for some things it really helps clear chips and cool the bit and material), then you'd wan to keep them seperate.
will our videos go viral?
Mine probably won't 😊