Month: February 2021

My machine has had one since I got it as I didn’t want to cut my laser metal work i designed a box for it to sit on top of the machine.

I am now going to embed it in the metalwork of the machine with some other switches and water temp digital meter.

The Design:

I know the width of the area I am going to install this panel so in light burn I have the assets from the box I made and have imported them to the 200mm wide box. I know the dimmer switch diameter I have cloned the other switches I have coming as don’t know diameter I have a feeling they will be the same. as 16mm switches are common in automotive switches. 12v voltage 5v voltage is being used on these can be any 12v switch.

I have slightly changed the original design after the first fit the gauge was too close to temperature gauge so spread it out a little more.

Test fit of all the components got to label them as well so i don’t get confused when i thread them though the machine. so time to brake up my box and remove components will test fit to template.

all fits fine.

Installing the hardware:

Time to start hole punching and drilling will do small hole first before enlarging them to appropriate sizes the mA I have a 40mm hole drill I will use. Also have scored the Rectangle for the temp gauge. will cut this out with Dremel.

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I figured out when you buy a hole cutter off amazon even though it says metal cutting there not always telling the truth as blunted my 51mm hole cutter in the first 2 mins of cutting had to go to a local DIY shop to get a new one. but al cut and fitted now. just the buttons to wire and then I will then will do some cable management as gong to hardwire the air assist.

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The wiring:

Thermomitor Guage:

I will use 5v form the laser power supply to power the the temperature gauge as its not used on my machine.

I have extended the wiring as comes with 10cm of cable so have soldered and heat shrunk the connection so won’t short on anything then connect directly to the laser power supply as shown below. have hidden the wiring back in the cable tidy track

the other 2 cables from the unit I have made extension leads up and extended to the water bucket and output tube.

The Dimmer switch:

in an earlier project, I installed led light tape in my machine with an external power supply and a wireless dimmer switch. it’s ok but don’t always have my phone on me to control it. When I was looking at buttons I found this dimmer switch connects to 5.5 x 2.1 connector male and female is the power in and the male goes to the led chain. As the laser does not have a 12v power supply I had a think and remembered i brought 6 x bucks convertors for a project that never happed so going to look at my parts draw as this is perfect for my needs.

What is a buck converter? well, it’s a small PCB that allows you to put 24v in one end and then adjust the output voltage with a screwdriver.

so will take the 24v from the 24v power supply through the bucks convertor which I will adjust with a multimeter to 12v this will connect with a male 5.5 x 2.1 connector which will go to the power input of the dimmer switch. i will next attach the female connector to the led wiring. lighting will only work when the laser is on.

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mA meter wiring:

Wiring up the mA meter. to do this you need to find the wire coming off the low voltage end of the tube will be a thinner wire in my case was a black wire I traced it back to the power supply. I then disconnected it from the power supply and ran it to the first pin of the mA meter or the + side of the meter I then ran a wire from the other pin back to the power supply put the wire back where I had removed it. this is usually connector L on the low voltage side of the power supply. I then powered on the machine and did a test pulse and worked.

if you meter goes backward you have the wires the wrong way around,

Wiring up my illuminated buttons:

these are a 4 pin set up I run 24v in series so will power the LEDs

Now to wire up the switches, I will run a positive and ground wire from the 24v power supply. power will go in on the + then the – will come out and link to the + on the other switch then out of the – back to the power supply. as shown below in the diagram.

Switch 1 Gantry led lights:

one wire in one out wires out of the switch as illustrated below. ground will run separately to the bucks convertor this will be fed from 24v the turned down to 12v output. i might add a dimmer switch internaly if too bright.

Right switch wired now to wire up the led tap 2 solder joints later +&- then to feed the wire through the small bit of cable chain on the laser gantry then the back and forward cable chain back to wiring loom then to run it across the machine to the bucks connector I will then run the ground back to the laser power supply and the positive up to the switch and back to laser power supply 24v output.

So to start as i don’t know how much wire i am going to use i am going to work backwards i am going to solder a jst connector to led tape and to the wiring i will then thread the wire throught the machine. i have used 3m of thin gauge wire for this as have a lot of it. will cut off access cable later.

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Now the wires have made it back into the control box area, I will install the bucks convertor here turn it to 12v so set ready for use. going to wire from laser PSU to bucks then feed the positive side up through the switch and back to the led positive wiring.

right all done will now test it works.

Switch2 aim assist marker on/off:

The same principle as above but with wires taken from the 5v on the 24v supply see diagram above. i have taken the positive feed from the power supply up to switch then back to the laser marker wiring.

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Now to tidy up the wiring got a load of these double-sided sticky pad wire holders from Maplin before they when bankrupt so cable ties and snips let the wire tidy commence.

Label the buttons as like to keep things tidy. Jobs is done, time to put the wire covers back on then it’s on to the next project as doing 4 projects back to back to make up for the last few months of absence.

Parts:

• 2 x bucks converters.
• 5m of wire Red and Black live and negative.
• 12/24v led switches.
• Touch dimmer switch.
• 1 x male 5.5 x 2.1 power connector screw type
• 1 x female 5.5 x 2.1 power connector screw type.
• 60cm 12v LED tape

Still got to add the air assist override switch but been having issues with this hence why I added a gantry light instead but this will happen after 3 days of messing I abandoned it as the led switch does not like it was causing the relay and solenoid not to close after was requried. got to dig through my parts draw and see if I can find an on/off switch to try this with will add a post once I have figured it out.

Video of it all in action:

Next Project:

Adding a 50L compressor to the air assist inline so can dual run both electric at night and the compressed air during the day. This will require some airline plumbing and re-jigging to fit it in the workshop.

There are a few videos about this but i thought i would do my own guide as some of them are a little vague.

I brought the kit off cloudray through their AliExpress store. in the kit, you get everything you need to install the kit. there are no instructions included in the kit but on the cloudray website, there is a circuit diagram. As not everyone understands circit diagrams this guide it to walk you thought how to install the kit.

What’s in the kit?

Wiring the mains power relay:

going to start by mounting the Power relay. disconnect all power from the machine as this is the mains voltage. Now on my 50w whole panel is removable with 4 hex screws making this quite easy to do. the air pump is powered on by the bottom plug I will be replacing these in the future but for now, unwire the bottom plug negative and place it top left side of relay wire clamp. I then have taken some 13amp mains cable and cut a length of it will use only negtive wire out it. negative wire from oppersit of negtive to the plug socket as negtive as pictured below. I then drilled 2 holes to mount the relay through the bottom of the machine and bolted it to the machine. now on to the low voltage end of the relay through pin bottome pins with red tap you will need to place a diode between these 2pins a pictured below then place the 2 wires these will go back to the connector block in a bit. I have labeled the 2 wires so I can identify them later.

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Wiring the switch:

Now to wire the switch you will need to wire 2 pins together for ground connector’s on one side of the switch then on the opposite side of the switch you need to solder 2 wires one for controller board status and one for wind connections. you then need to drill and mount the switch. see below.

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Wiring and setting up the pneumatic solenoid valve:

the metal block has A R and P initials stamped you will need to place the following connectors in the collaborating letters.

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you will then need to remove the top screw from the solenoid and remove the lid with 2 plastic tabs remove and wire Positive and negative wirings a diode will need to be placed in-between with the line towards the positive terminal. then screw back together.

You will then need to split the air assist pipework to go through the solenoid. As I haven’t decided where I am going to place it yet I ordered some extra pipework as I think I will run it into the electronics box. but will decide on that later.

i have temporarily placed it in the void under the laser bed I will be mounting it externally once I add the compressor.

Wiring up 6 pin connector block:

this might differ if using different types of Ruida controllers. mine had some wires in 24v+ and ground wire might move them later to next port on the board might also trace them to see if where they go.

• pin 1 = ground swich ground
• pin 2 = out2 not used
• pin 3 = out1 not used
• pin 4 = status +switch & A1 from power relay.
• pin 5 = wind +switch & negtive solinod .
• pin 6 = 24v+ A2 relay & postive connection solinod.

pin 1 place the ground side of the switch then pin 4 then place one of the wires from the other side of the switch and connection A1 from the low voltage side of the power relay this is the connection further away from the diode line shown below.

pin 5 place the other wire from switch and negative wire from solenoid in this pin

pin 6 place positive side of relay and positive low voltage side of relay A2,

wiring done.

Time to test it works:

Power on all working. first going to test manual override turn switch off air pump comes on. Nothing dam it. checked the wiring still nothing. decided to short the switch out and override came to life, It’s a good job I am replacing it with nice 24v switch.

So over to light burn quickly drew 2 lines and put them on 2 layers did 1 with air assist enabled.

I then ran the program and works perfectly will do a video at a later date showing it all in action.

Next project:

Adding mA meter to the metalwork of the laser and adding some buttons and temperature gauge and some cable management. as looks like a big mess of wringing in my junction in my control box.

This is one of them projects i have been meaning to do for some time.

I know that my honeycomb bed is ruffly 8mm in diameter in each hole. So using light burn I made 3 x 8mm circles and 1 x 12mm circle. cut them out of 3mm acrylic i had kicking around from the laser alignment project.

Looked in box of M3 bolts had a load of 30 x M3 hex bolts in my box and some square nuts.

to assemble

put 2 of the 8mm circles on the bolt, then put the 12 mm circle on the bolt and finally add the last 8mm circle tigten down with square nut.

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perfect for projects that need to be stood of the bed and stops micro fractures in acrylic.

Next Project:

Installing the Cloudray ultimate air assist

The problem.

the 50watt Co2 laser cutter is a great machine but does need modifications to make it great. the aiming led diode is as more of a line than a dot and with no focus its not adjustable. I was one of the laser Facebook groups. were a saw a post on modifying laser pointer to form a crosshair. so I asked for a copy of the designs. and started on this journey.

So I have removed the current diode that interestingly was not soldered. so I will be swapping leases I have added a jst female connector to the led wiring. I will also be adding a switch so can turn it on and off. I have soldered the male end to the lasers.

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theses will be placed at 90 degrees to the tube in an acrylic holder then aligned under the nozzle. the reason for the jst connector is I can then swap it over to each tube lens.

tested last night and figured out they had sent the wrong pointers so crosshairs. (note to self, test things before soldering them) not worried will use for some other projects i have in my list of things to make or design.

I decided to hedge my bets and try 2 laser cut designs first one did not work with the line lasers fingers crossed on the second one. have changed the measurements slightly on the design to make it a tighter fit will test fit this design later don’t line up might be thickness I going to do some more testing and do one more design as well to see if I can get it lined up.

Argh another bust time to look for 3d printed files.

right thingiverse design attempt number 3 and away it goes.

Another non-working idea as designed for smaller led diode modules. so that again was for smaller diode laser dot it replicated standard hardware. after had metal and printed version, I inverted the 2 diode holders and lightbulb moment.

So i made a sketch of the part and then modified it using some 3d modeling.

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Right now to test it. out and see if it all fits will publish the files if so. wish me luck. little loose but concept works have changed the inner dimensions from 13mm to 12mm reprinted it now to test fit and tighten it all down if it works might re design the center as well.

I have published the remix here you will also need 2 x of the centre the tube mounting off this design by billkaroly from Thingiverse available here. You will also need some 3mm bolts and nuts.

Next modification will be moving and permanently mounting mA meter temp gauge upgrade. adding some button for lighting, laser marker and ultimate air assist on / off.