[ahren]

Cstmwrks,

That could work. However, to be clear:

1) This will NOT work for people who are using a 5th drive in their control boxes, as the DB-9 cut-out is then populated by another motor phase adapter. I shudder to think of people referencing this thread and plugging in their J-Tech laser into the 5th axis port by mistake. This will almost certainly fry the J-Tech board. While this may work for 4 axis setups, we have more and more people getting extra drivers in anticipation of doing rotary axis stuff, so you may not want to rule this out.

2) There are no DB-9 ports available on our NEMA 34 CRP800 packages, so people with these will need a different external port.

For dgage's project and the other lift table I mentioned, we used a panel mount RJ-45 port and just popped another hole in the side of the enclosure for it. Ethernet cables are cheap and can also be easily unplugged.

Best regards,

Ahren
CNCRouterParts

[cstmwrks]

That could work. However, to be clear:

OK.. YES. Every body will have to take into account there model of break out box and if they have already used the 5th spot for a rotary table or what ever cool gadget they already have. At this point I'm only looking at my situation and the hard wiring part of it. Or more to the point, for those with a NEMA 23 box and do not have a 5th driver in place using the ( for me ) empty DB 9, you have a pretty easy path. No need to cut new holes if you don't want to.

As much reading that will be required as well as a special saved XML file for MACH3 to run the CNC and the laser, I doubt anybody is going to read this thread and start jamming serial cables in the wrong spot. The J Tech driver does not come with a hook up cable, let alone being a serial cable. Your on your own to wire it as it is a kit. So you would have to spend time figuring out the pin outs, wire them to mate with the outputs that YOU would have wired to the DB-9, if that was they way you chose. As I said, it can be a very clean adaptation. Plug and play it is not.

Some thing that would be of more useful info would be to know the strength of the 5 volt signal that comes out of the break out board. I'll ask Jay at J Tech to quantify "strong" 5 volt signal. By that I assume he means the amps.

[LeeWay]

Where can I see some results of these little lasers? Did I miss that somewhere?

[cstmwrks]

Where can I see some results of these little lasers? Did I miss that somewhere?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJjHBUXykJs

[ahren]

Cstmwrks,

Thanks -- I'll just say you'd be surprised how far some people will go without having any real idea what they are doing

Back to the "will it work?" topic -- the breakout board is just passing the 5V signal through directly from the Ethernet Smoothstepper. From Warp9's website (second paragraph):

Documentation: ESS (Ethernet SmoothStepper)

"The ESS has drivers that are capable of driving opto-isolators directly. This permits it to be used without a breakout board, or with a simple breakout board that connects the ESS’s I/O signals to screw terminals without going through any buffer ICs."

This has proven to be the case for most applications we have seen. We've driven optically isolated motor drivers and solid state relays directly off the ESS, so as long as the input on the J Tech is high enough impedance, the ESS should have sufficient current to drive it. According to the ESS manual, it looks like they use the NXP 74LVC8T245, which is capable of sinking or sourcing up to 24 mA, which is quite a bit.

74LVC(H)8T245 :: NXP Semiconductors

I'd run this by Jay, or just try it out. Worst case is you don't have enough juice to enable the laser, in which case you just need to put a solid state relay in between the J-Tech and the inexpensive BOB.

Best regards,

Ahren
CNCRouterParts

[cstmwrks]

Cstmwrks,

Thanks -- I'll just say you'd be surprised how far some people will go without having any real idea what they are doing

OK.. sad but true.

Back to the "will it work?" topic -- the breakout board is just passing the 5V signal through directly from the Ethernet Smoothstepper. We've driven optically isolated motor drivers and solid state relays directly off the ESS, so as long as the input on the J Tech is high enough impedance, the ESS should have sufficient current to drive it. According to the ESS manual, it looks like they use the NXP 74LVC8T245, which is capable of sinking or sourcing up to 24 mA, which is quite a bit.
I'd run this by Jay, or just try it out. Worst case is you don't have enough juice to enable the laser, in which case you just need to put a solid state relay in between the J-Tech and the inexpensive BOB.

Best regards,

Ahren
CNCRouterParts

Sounds like a solid state relay would be needed. Just got a message back from Jay, the 5V needs to be backed with 70 ma to trigger the DAC relay.

[jeffery926]

Where can I see some results of these little lasers? Did I miss that somewhere?

This is what the DAC is intended for when using Mach3 with a Laser Diode to engrave photos with varied intensity. The laser in this video is the 2.8W J-Tech Photonics laser kit.

[LeeWay]

Cool stuff.
Thanks guys. A comment on the last video's subject matter. Shouldn't they have had a steel wheel as the spare?

[cstmwrks]

the breakout board is just passing the 5V signal through directly from the Ethernet Smoothstepper.

"The ESS has drivers that are capable of driving opto-isolators directly. This permits it to be used without a breakout board, or with a simple breakout board that connects the ESS’s I/O signals to screw terminals without going through any buffer ICs."

This has proven to be the case for most applications we have seen. We've driven optically isolated motor drivers and solid state relays directly off the ESS, so as long as the input on the J Tech is high enough impedance, the ESS should have sufficient current to drive it. According to the ESS manual, it looks like they use the NXP 74LVC8T245, which is capable of sinking or sourcing up to 24 mA, which is quite a bit.



Best regards,

Ahren
CNCRouterParts

24 ma may be quite a bit, but risks being not enough. I checked with Jay. Some components on the current DAC need 70 ma to trigger. Have no idea of the release date but I understand a next generation DAC will need less power and be able to trigger from 24 ma.

[jbvries]

OK.. sad but true.


Sounds like a solid state relay would be needed. Just got a message back from Jay, the 5V needs to be backed with 70 ma to trigger the DAC relay.

So is that the definitive answer to using with CNCRP electronics?

[ahren]

We sell some solid state relays that the ESS can definitely trigger, so that should certainly work -- cstmwrks, just give us a call if you'd like to buy one of these and/or one of the simple BoB's I mentioned to get this going.

Best regards,

Ahren
CNCRouterParts

[cstmwrks]

So is that the definitive answer to using with CNCRP electronics?

That should be correct. From what I now understand you bypassing the relay on the DAC and driving the on off trigger to the laser controller with a relay that will operate with 5V 24 ma. That way your not using a relay to drive a relay to turn on the laser.

[cstmwrks]

We sell some solid state relays that the ESS can definitely trigger, so that should certainly work -- cstmwrks, just give us a call if you'd like to buy one of these and/or one of the simple BoB's I mentioned to get this going.

Best regards,

Ahren
CNCRouterParts

I'll give a call soon. Have to bug Jay with yet one more question so I'm sure all the parts will play nice with each other.

[cstmwrks]

We sell some solid state relays that the ESS can definitely trigger, so that should certainly work -- cstmwrks, just give us a call if you'd like to buy one of these and/or one of the simple BoB's I mentioned to get this going.

Best regards,

Ahren
CNCRouterParts

Ahren,
What is the rating on the solid state relays that you sell? The one on the DAC is rated 1 amp 24 volts and would be replaced by the one you have.

[ahren]

The ones we have are larger, and are able to switch AC loads up to 15A.

Best regards,

Ahren
CNCRouterParts

[cstmwrks]

The ones we have are larger, and are able to switch AC loads up to 15A.

Best regards,

Ahren
CNCRouterParts

So your talking about the same relays used in the CRP800 to turn on a vacuum or spray pump motor then?

What kind of response time? 5 to 10 ms ?

[ahren]

These are different (and separate) from the relays on the CRP560 board. The relays we have are standalone, and have a response time less than or equal to 10 ms. I can send you one and you can give it a shot -- if it doesn't work for you, you're welcome to return it.

Best regards,

Ahren
CNCRouterParts

[cstmwrks]

The relays we have are standalone, and have a response time less than or equal to 10 ms. I can send you one and you can give it a shot -- if it doesn't work for you, you're welcome to return it.

Best regards,

Ahren
CNCRouterParts

OK.. sounds like what you have will fit pretty well with the J tech. I'll try and get a call to you guys before this week gets away from me.

[cstmwrks]

Just ordered parts from CNCRP and J Tech.

[cstmwrks]

Both the 2.8 w laser and the ribbon / BOB are here. Connecting the ribbon and BOB inside the CRP800 is pretty simple. Right now I just have the BOB velcrowed to the power supply. Just copied my XML file and gave it a new name for the laser set up. Went through all the instructions from Jtechphotonics.com and for the most part it is all easy. Only issue for me is not being 100% sure that in changing the set up I've created some other pin out conflict.

They look like this:
Attachment 297186
Nothing was changed from my set up to the laser version.

Then this:
Attachment 297188
The only thing I wonder about is showing all the step ports being "1" in the laser version and on the spindle version it is a "2"

This one I'm not sure about:
Attachment 297190

I have not changed anything yet on the laser version. It shows pin 17 in use for output 1# and I'm not sure what that is connected to.

This one is just changes for PWM running the laser:
Attachment 297192
Attachment 297194

I'll be in touch with both Jay and Ahren to see if I've missed / messed some thing up.