Hello,
I ordered the LE5040 Diode kit from Sainsmart and I have been enjoying it.
I feel that i have already met the limits of what it can handle when doing images/greyscale. At least from what i understand the 8-bit grbl controller it can came with is basically maxed out around 400 instructions p/s so doing a 254 dpi photo can only run at around 40mm/s which is painstakingly slow. After some research it sounds like your laserboard would take me to the next level and improve speeds greatly, but honestly i am not super sure what the best way to hook it up would be. (I just now realized this wont let me upload photos.)
This is a link to to the diode manual that came with the kit:
Essentially the current controller on the machine has a 3 pin cable, red, black and white (i believe the red is 12v, black is ground and white is PWM). This cable runs to a separate board to the laser itself that output to the laser head and the fan on the laser head. The board on the laser itself has its own barrel plug as an alternate way to get the 12V in, there are pictures in the manual. (there are pictures in the manual)
So after that long winded exlpanation of guesstimates here is the ask: can i unplug the 3 pin on the board near the laser, use the 12v power brick with barrel connector and plug it in there for power and just run a single wire to the PWM pin to a certain pin on the C3D laserboard? The main controller just has one x and one y stepper connectors, so also just move those over to this board? And then use the included 24v power brick to power the C3D laserboard?
Or would there be an easier way of running the wiring on this?
Thanks for any help