new K40 chinese laser only fires if I press "test" button
. i have a brand new chinese k40 laser.. blue and white version.. no water sensor or door switch.. i was able to use the 'test' button on the panel and inside on the power supply and the laser will fire.. i did the alignment using the 'test' button on the panel.. then i installed all the corel and corel laser draw software and the USB key on my laptop.. i made a quick box and tried to send it to the laser cutter.. the laser cutter head moves as if it is working but the laser does not fire. I can hold down 'test' button during this and it will fire.. any suggestion?
Re: new K40 chinese laser only fires if I press "test" button
If you have a multimeter, check the voltages first. Please be extremely careful with the probes as they are generally fat and you can easily bridge something if you're not careful. I believe you should find both 5 and 24 volts on your controller board. The connector opposite of the USB should be the one that tells the power supply what to do. With the machine off, and unplugged, check continuity on both ends of this cable. It's labeled GND-YL-XL-GND-NC on the board -- it may be four or five wires, I don't recall what the harness looks like. Verify that all the wires pass continuity and are seated properly in the connector. They used hot glue to hold them in place, carefully work them free, don't yank them from the socket. The test button is directly connected to the power supply so that should work unless the switch or wiring is broken.
Since that machine is poorly made, there are absolutely no interlocks. It will operate regardless of the lid being open or closed. Just because the beam isn't pointed in your direction doesn't mean it can't reflect off something. There are also some very, very high voltages in it. Use caution when you have your hands in it.
Around the board:
(EX+ EX-) (TL GND) -- these are connected to the two limit switches on the XY stage.
The 2 four pin sockets <X Y> are the XY stage stepper motors
LO 5V GND 24V (power from the power supply)
GND-YL-XL-GND-NC (this controls the power supply)
Beyond that, I'm not sure what could cause the problems other than a faulty board. Unfortunately, I have not found very much support in various forums on the K40 machines. I have one (currently torn apart) -- was going to rebuild it with much better electronics but opted to purchase an Epilog in the near future.
Re: new K40 chinese laser only fires if I press "test" button
<x y="">thanks.. i actually worked thru the night and the next morning a guy on facebook group offered to help me by sharing pics of his machine and voltages.. we found the lead wire going to the mainboard bad.. i pulled the mainboard and wire to power supply to test continuity and found the green wire showed no continuity.. upon further inspection after de-pinning the wire from the connector.. i found they had cut the cable when they crimped the connector.. i cut the wire off and cleaned it up.. soldered on a new wire (red) and then proceeded to check voltages again.. this time everything looked good.. installed the mainboard back and sent a file from corel and boom it worked.. :)
i will probably rewire the whole thing at a later date as i am going to be doing a few more mods but atleast it is working :D
thanks for the offer to help.. i found numerous people who had the same problem but never got an answer.. so maybe if they search and see this.. they will have options..
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Re: new K40 chinese laser only fires if I press "test" button
i also have a brand new chinese k4060 laser engraver machine... mine is and black and grey with a bit of blue version.. i was not able to use the 'test' button on the panel as it dose not work but inside on the power supply and the laser test button works.. then i installed all the corel and corel laser draw software and the USB key on my laptop.. i made a quick box and tried to send it to the laser cutter.. the laser cutter head moves as if it is working but the laser does not fire. I can hold down 'test' button during this and it will fire.. but if i dnt hold down the test button it dose not fire. Any know how to fix this issue as the machine is all brand new and just opened????