Trying to add a Laser

I have the same laser and driver that Andy installed. My issue is the laser is on all the time even when its not connected to the LongMill Controller. Has anyone else experienced this and solved it or is it a bad driver? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

@Eddie203 What happens when you plug it into the pwm terminal on the long mill controller?

Hi Grant, Thanks for trying to help. There’s no change when I plug it into the LongMill Controller. The laser just stays on. I’ve also tried all of the different parameters ($30, $31, &$32) in GBRL with no difference. I’m starting to think I have a bad Driver.

@Eddie203 Unfortunately, you’re likely right. Make sure that all your connection polarities are right, but if they are, then there is not much else to do with these things.

I went through the “defective laser” routine with my first one. A nightmare! I finally did get a replacement, but it was not easy.

Good luck, Eddie.

Thanks for your help. I guess I should have spent the extra $90 and bought from Amazon…
Have a great day,
Eddie

@Eddie203 You never know, Eddie. Your experience may be better than mine. In my case, Banggood wanted me to pay to send the defective unit back. They said that if it proved to be defective, in their opinion, they “may” pay for the shipping. Paypal was no help at all, essentially saying that Banggood was breaking the rules, but that they would not do anything about it. Then, they offered me $30 toward sending it back. In the end, Banggood did sent a replacement without me sending the bad one back.

WOW, I consider myself lucky that mine actually worked. Same laser from Banggood that @gwilki bought.

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I contacted their customer service and they did email me back. I’ll send them a video tonight of what it’s doing and hopefully they will make good on it. I did find one on eBay just like the one Amazon sells for $60 less. The drawback is 5 weeks to ship. They claim it will cut wood 8mm thick. I’ll see what Banggood says.

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@Eddie203 - Many of us had similar issues and a pull down resistor fixed it. My unit seemed to work well with a 1k resistor. Another reader who has the same model as me tried a 5k and had luck. I just got a scope for Christmas and used it to look at the signal and found a 10k made the signal even better.

If you read the “Adding a Laser - My Journey” you’ll see a lot of chatter on it. Might get you going with the older unit (or even the newer one).

Thanks Jay,
Actually the problem ended up being a faulty driver. Banggood actually replaced the laser and driver after I told them neither of us wanted a lawsuit from a laser being at full power all of the time and possibly injuring someone’s eyes. It just took a while to get it shipped from China…

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