I have a Reprap Guru Prusa i3 v2 3D printer. To this I added a 5.5 W laser that I purchased online. The board of my 3D printer is an Arduino Mega 2560 board with Ramp 1.4.
I have connected my laser power to the 12 V power supply on the board and the PWM pin to D4 pin on the Ramp 1.4 board. I am now able to control the laser with M42 P4 S0
(turn off) and M42 P4 S255
(turn on).
I have not had any success is being able to burn a grayscale image. Everything I am burning just looks like random strokes. also nothing is ever grayscale. The laser always runs at full power. Here is what I believe my issues are:
- The software I am using is not adding the
SXXX
to control the PWM (I am using Inkscape withRaster 2 Laser Gcode generator
plugin. - Maybe I'm not using the software correctly
- I've tried using LaserGBRL but could never get it connected and I have no idea if my Arduino supports GBRL.
My Questions:
- How do I properly control the power output of my laser for burning grayscale images.
- Is there a "good" software that you would recommend for a beginner?