Would like to upgrade CMA-535

[Allingtoe (Eric Allington)]

Hello all, I’m new to the page and the entire laser community. I picked up this machine a week ago its a CMA-535 70 watt C02 system, original sold by Jamieson’s laser. The software for the machine is Smartcarve 4.1 (not good). I have a photo of the control board.
The machine is 220VAC

I would like to upgrade this system to the Cohesion3D LaserBoard along with proper motor drivers and maybe a camera. I just don’t know where to start or what to get…?

Just want to say thank you in advanced
Eric

[Cohesion3D]

Yay, fun. Please send a lot more pictures, of everything.

[Allingtoe (Eric Allington)]

Okay!  Here we go! 

[Allingtoe (Eric Allington)]

[Allingtoe (Eric Allington)]

A couple questions I have from my current setup.

1. Will I need to change out the power supply from 37v to 24v?
2. Will my current steppers work with C3D board? Or will they need to be upgraded as well?
3. How do I verify my laser driver is capable with the C3D board?? Or is it a PWM signal that is all that is needed??

Im thinking my shopping list would look like this…C3D board, stepper drivers, wire harnesses for stepper drivers, camera and maybe a 24v power supply???..

Thank you
Eric

[Allingtoe (Eric Allington)]

Wondering if anyone has any comments or input. Thank you.

[Cohesion3D]

Sorry for the delay, in high gear here preparing for a trade show this weekend.

From your pictures, I have no idea what the green PCB or the black box thing with yellow wires going to it is.

The main question is what kind of motors does your machine have and are there external stepper drivers (black boxes typically) already installed driving them. This is what I do not see from your photos, but is indicated in the wiring diagram you provided.

To answer your questions:

Will I need to change out the power supply from 37v to 24v?

Depends on above, but C3D Board comes with 24v power supply for itself included.

Will my current steppers work with C3D board? Or will they need to be upgraded as well?

Depends on what they are, see above.

How do I verify my laser driver is capable with the C3D board?? Or is it a PWM signal that is all that is needed??

Is there a laser power supply that looks like this anywhere? If so, we can control it.

Fundamentally, all we care about is driving an X and Y motor, reading some switches/ sensors to home the head, and telling the laser to fire.

Please do some investigative work to identify more details about those aspects of your machine.

[Allingtoe (Eric Allington)]

No worries. Thanks for getting back to me.

So the laser does have a power supply (sorry I forgot to attach the photos before). It doesn’t look anything like the one you posted.
It’s got power in 220vac
A SubD9 connector utilizing 6 wires (R,BLU,GRN,Y, BLK and shield) I have also attached a close photo of the controller board termination. The termination points are in Chinese. I would assume if we could figure out what it says, wiring the new board would be simple…
It also has power and ground out to the laser.

I assume this is driver board for the steppers…

I’m not sure what the yellow wires are attached to either. Maybe resistors…??

So the system has two different sized steppers. One is a 57HS09-15 (nema23) “X” and the other is a 42HS03-15 (nema17) “Y”
Not sure what the -15 means. Both are Leadshine motors

Google says both are 2 phase 8 lead motors.

(https://www.cloudraylaser.com/products/leadshine-2-phase-stepper-motor-42hs03-nema17)

I’m okay with gutting this thing if that’s what’s needed to make it work with other software. My concern is figuring out the laser PS.
Thanks
Eric

[chaoticmind (Isaac Barbary)]

It looks like you can use the existing stepper drivers if you want. They appear to use the same 3-wire control scheme as most others: +5V, DIR, and STEP. It also appears that the end stops are routed through the same board and connect to the controller through the white ribbon cables as well.

I cannot make out the wiring scheme for the laser power supply. The labeling is cryptic at best. At the moment, this is the show stopper.

Maybe resistors…??

Yes

[Allingtoe (Eric Allington)]

Thank you for the encouraging information. I have sent the the original sales persons a message asking if they would have a schematic with more details on the CB to LPS. I’ve also reached out to a few of my Chinese colleagues for help in translation.
Fingers crossed… hopefully I’ll have some more information.
Thanks again
Eric

[Allingtoe (Eric Allington)]

Success!!
I was able to get the board layout from the sales rep. Please see attached photos.
I feel this will help out immensely.

[chaoticmind (Isaac Barbary)]

You should be able to control the laser PSU with the Laser Board. Translating the datasheet above we get:

pin 49 laser switch control 1, this should be the same as the “TTL” or “TL/TH” signal in the Laser Board install instructions
pin 50 LGND, this is just the ground or common connection
pin 51 laser power control, this will be labeled as “IN” in the Laser Board install instructions

Just make sure you thoroughly document the existing configuration before you start tearing it apart. Also be sure to read through the install instructions while looking at the current setup. Plan everything out ahead of time. We can only do so much over the internet to help you.

[Allingtoe (Eric Allington)]

Thank you Issac. Sorry I’ve been radio silent. Works been crazy, lots of travel.
Anyways. My plan is to document the current setup, meter out voltages and such. The LPS current setup has six wires controlling it I just want to make sure what the other three are doing. Should be able to get to it this weekend.
Looks like the board is backordered for now anyways.
Again thank you for the help

[Cohesion3D]

The board is in stock, there was a 24 hour period last week where I thought the next shipment was going to be delayed but then it arrived the following day. If you see somewhere on the website that indicates the board is on backorder, please let me know where.

[Allingtoe (Eric Allington)]

Cool! I was was just going off from what I seen last week. Thanks

[Bonser (Rick Bonser)]

Hi, I too would like to upgrade our laser at work. It’s, the same brand as Eric’s but different model. It uses the very same controller board and other components are simular if not the same. I would like to know how Eric gets on with this upgrade. I am starting to get some photos and info together, so should I start another thread for this?
Regards,
Rick.

[Cohesion3D]

Hi Rick,

My advice would be to follow this thread, and start a new one with your own pics. This way we can keep the helping threads separated to avoid confusion, and by following progress in the other thread actively, hopefully I will not have to repeat myself.

Following settings:

[Allingtoe (Eric Allington)]

Machine: CMA-535 80w CO2

Board: _Stock board replacing with C3D

Firmware: _Smoothie

Original Post

Received my new C3D board yesterday, along with a display and camera for lightburn.
I have created a pin out of my current CB. I have searched the forum board looking for a schematic that calls out each of the terminal on the C3D CB. For example how does Driver X a1 a2 b1 b2 correlate to my pin out? Thanks in advanced. Eric

[Cohesion3D]

For example how does Driver X a1 a2 b1 b2 correlate to my pin out?

It doesn’t.

ECBD365F-1504-4633-9AA6-F2305849BC7D.jpeg1232×1615 488 KB

You identified separate external drivers here, and your pinout diagram supports that claim with mention of signals like Dir and Step. Isaac talked about this before.

Those are separate signals broken out from the board by means of a set of cables, see here:

LaserBoard Connecting External Stepper Drivers

Wiring is pretty straightforward when using the recommended external stepper drivers and stepper driver cable pack: the pinout is labeled on the bottom of the board, but you just plug the cable into the LaserBoard (it should only go in one way) and run 6 wires straight down to our driver, as shown below. [image] Other external drivers may have a different layout for the signals so take care that they’re wired up to the correct pins. [image] The driver will require a voltage source to VCC and…

I still have no idea what/ where those motor driver modules are in any of your pictures. They are the wires that are hooked up to pins 27 through 30. Where do those trace to?

IMG_2553.JPG4032×3024 2.63 MB

Right screw column of the distribution board, toward the bottom, that’s where pins 27-30 are located.

[Allingtoe (Eric Allington)]

Ray, Thank you for the reply.

the motor driver is this I am assuming.
The ribbon cable for pins 16-30 trace back to this board. At the upper right top there is a ribbon cable that runs to the Y axis 42HS03-15 (nema17). On the upper top left White, Blue, Green and Brown trace back to the X axis 57HS09-15 (nema23)

In this case, do you think I need to replace the “Driver board” with external stepper drivers?

Blockquote
It looks like you can use the existing stepper drivers if you want. They appear to use the same 3-wire control scheme as most others: +5V, DIR, and STEP. It also appears that the end stops are routed through the same board and connect to the controller through the white ribbon cables as well.

Issac did talk about using my existing driver. Utilizing +5v, DIR, and STEP. Wouldn’t these would be pins (26, 27, and 28 for X) then (29,30, and 31 for Y)

Blockquote
pin 49 laser switch control 1, this should be the same as the “TTL” or “TL/TH” signal in the Laser Board install instructions
pin 50 LGND, this is just the ground or common connection
pin 51 laser power control, this will be labeled as “IN” in the Laser Board install instructions

The only instructions I have found for Laser Board install are for the K40, Is there a Laser Board install instructions for non-K40 builds, that specifically call out terminal board locations?

Thank you as always.
Eric