Issues with Laser Mode

gSender ❓ Question
1

Hey guys I have version 1.5.6 installed and have been working to setup my laser as well as the spindle so I can go back and forth. For the most part it all works well but there is an odd quirk.

So in my setup I had the default spindle set to my H-100 VFD over RS485 and it has been working great.

I added the laser and setup Spindle 1 as the SLb_Laser and when I would switch to laser mode nothing would work at first.

I had to go into settings and Enable PWM in the spindle section to enable the PWM output for the laser, odd but okay.

However with that enabled and a default Spindle as the H-100 and Spindle 1 as the laser had issues. Things would work at first, my spindle would work and then I would switch to laser mode and the laser would work. Once I switched or tried to switch back however to Spindle then the H-100 would no longer work. The Spindle would read as the SLB_spindle despite picking the H-100 from the list. Rebooting the controller would get it to work again until the next time I turned the laser mode on and back off.

The work around that I found was set the Default Spindle to be the Slb_spindle, set Spindle 1 to the H-100 vfd and set Spindle 2 as the laser.

With these options set then changing from laser mode to spindle and back and forth would allow me to pick the H-100 when i need the spindle and it works and the SLB_laser when Olin laser mode and back and forth and it all work properly.

is this expected behaviour or is something broken or did I miss something

This video goes over the settings I used that worked:

gSender Laser mode question

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2

I have been having the same issues with my Jtech Laser and Gsender.. Going to try this and see if it helps. Thanks.

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3

Yeah, it’s been working great with my machine so far with the settings. But make sure you remember to change your spindle when you first power up the controller. By default it’s going to go to the SLB_spindle, which is a bit of a pain in the ass.

4

@Sparky1 as far as I’m aware, this is a bug in the SienciHAL firmware that we never found the issue source. Instead of trying to further troubleshoot, alongside some other niche quirks, we’ve undertaken a nearly year-long effort to switch back to mainline grblHAL while also pushing all our unique plugins that we made to gblHAL as well. We figured this would be most beneficial for both us and the rest of the community, and it’s finally nearing completion which means it should be able to be flashed onto any of our existing hardware, remove these existing quirks, and add even more functionality in the process.

In the meantime though, it’s certainly a frustrating issue, so I’m glad you found a workaround. Others I’ve worked with have elected to power off their machine when switching back which is also non-ideal but is still a valid workaround.

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5

Thanks for the update Chris.

If you are looking for testers of the new firmware let me know, Happy to be a Guinea pig

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