thinking of laser

[jms]

I am thinking of getting the laser attachment for my power route. I think I understand how it gets wired. But I am concerned about this flashing the control box. I bought my PR in 11/2019, not sure if its already flashed or not. I am afraid it will screw up a perfectly working machine. ....and then exactly what does that change? do I have to change things back to do my cnc work?  All that stuff confuses me!!!!

Joe

[S. Ronin McGowan]

Nov 2, 2021 17:17:06 GMT jms said:

I am thinking of getting the laser attachment for my power route. I think I understand how it gets wired. But I am concerned about this flashing the control box. I bought my PR in 11/2019, not sure if its already flashed or not. I am afraid it will screw up a perfectly working machine. ....and then exactly what does that change? do I have to change things back to do my cnc work?  All that stuff confuses me!!!!

Joe

Someone else will help to tell you whether or not you've your board has already been flashed. But I can tell you it's not that difficult to do the Flash nor is it difficult to roll back to the previous build. I'm not that familiar with The power route but I If it runs off of an ardwino Uno the main thing that changes is you have to move your Z let it switch down to the spindle enable pins so that the laser can be used on the Z limit pins.This is because the Pins Can supply PWM For dynamic laser power output.

[jms]

wow, can't believe no help.

[MillRightWes]

Hey,

I am fairly certain that the Power Route comes pre flashed with the firmware necessary to work with the laser. It is the same with the Mega V and, now, with the Carve King 2 as well. It should be the case with your Power Route you purchased back in 11/2019. You should be able to order the laser and wire the laser into the boards. Red to PWM port on green board, black to any GND port.

[S. Ronin McGowan]

Joe, I believe Wes is right, but if you want further help, shoot me some pictures of your control board so I can see if it's an Arduino Uno like my M3 was running, or something like an ATMEGA2560 or something else. It matters a lot, as each board in SOC (system on chip) systems have very specific implementations and firmware needs. For example, the UNO has far less memory and less pins to send and receive signals, not to mention they run on 3.5v (might be 3V?). An ATMEGA2560, while sharing a LOT of similarities with the UNO, it has more memory and more pins. Firmware loaded on UNOs is typically GRBL in version 0.9 or higher (and 1.1h for instance, has some big changes IIRC), and the ATMEGA needs a completely different GRBL version, like coded completely different and is a different implementation (it's a development fork, and allows for things like 6 axes and more capabilities for sensors and relay control). So, that's why we non-PowerRoute users are slow to offer help in hopes of someone stepping in as Wes did finally. Thank you Wes for jumping in, but does MillRight not have a more constant eye on things here? Don't get me wrong, I know you guys have a support form, but counting on a user to remember to go there when you have this forum as well is a bit of a bummer to guys like our Joe here who may not have remembered or just didn't use the support form because he figured on here he'd possibly get other user's input AS WELL as MillRight's input if there wasn't anything coming from the userbase.

To recap, Joe, if you are still in need of assistance and can't get MillRight to get back to you in a timely enough manner, I'll see what I can do. Just PM me and send any information you can glean from that control board, as well as clear pictures of it so I can track down what you need. I'll also most likely want to try pulling a fresh copy of your existing and working firmware, and if you're ok with it, I can help by connecting remotely via a TRUSTED remote viewing/control app (be aware that TeamViewer is DECIDEDLY unsecure as of the last time I checked last summer. There's a backdoor method, and it's widely known by hackers and now even script-kiddie level POS scammer bastards running tired old support/virus removal/online shopping "support" and other long known scams that work largely with inexperienced users such as the elderly, think the new "nigerian prince" scam .

Even if the board isn't capable of or just isn't running GRBL, pulling a copy of your board's firmware down and getting some data from it might allow me to determine what needs to be done. The long and short of things is I'm pretty sure I've seen PowerRoute firmware in the resources section of MillRight's site, but I'm here to help. Do keep in mind, some sort of cash for the assistance would be nice, I won't tell you how much I make, but let's just say an hour working on this for you means a possible loss of at least 3 figures. But, I don't expect that kind of tip, just wanted it known that a little green after we're done helps my feelings about helping people. Oft-times guys like myself and I'm sure that, let's say, Bruce end up helping someone for hours and hours and while it's rewarding to help someone, it's always nice to recoup some of that time in a way other than warm fuzzies.

Sorry-Not-Sorry to any wastes of oxygen meatsack scammers that might be lurking on the forum. If you want a formal apology, PM me and I'll gladly send you lots of info about me to show you why it's a bad idea to even send me a text message. (hint, prior military, COMSIGINT, CyberWarfare before they even called it that, and I still occasionally work contract gigs for places that are primarily referred to by acronyms)...Sorry to the rest of ya, it's 2:30am, I've had a long day, and I LOOOOVVVVVE to bust scammers or if I'm having a particularly nasty mood I have a little fun with em before running a somewhat redacted after action report up the COC, it's one of my "relaxing" activities.