This is Part 2 of a 3-part blog, where we shall look at the newly launched K60W/40W/20W Power Switchable Laser Module from Lasertree.
Observations
On a closer inspection of the laser module, we noticed that the outer casing can be easily slid off, by removing four screws with the Alan key provided. This is a great advantage, as you can easily access the two fans either side. This is essential, as over time they will become clogged with soot when cutting wood and you really do need to service them from time to time. With the XTool 40W laser, it was impossible to do so and unfortunately one fan had stopped working on our laser module resulting in it overheating.
Installation Prepartion
In this post, we will be discussing how to fit to an XTool D1 XPRO 40W Laser. If you have another laser, there will be obvious differences, but the principle will be the same. Now firstly we need to somehow find a location to mount the control board and manage the cables coming from it. For our XTool laser, the gantry seemed to be the most logical place. The control board is very exposed and does not allow for a neat way to mount it, so we designed, and 3D printed a small box to contain it and make this easier to mount. The STL file is free for you to download.
Please note only the XTool port is accesible for this case design. Leave a comment if you require a different port to be accessible.
This is the STL file, which allows the control board to neatly slide in position and provide access to the cable sockets
We removed the power cable and air assist hose from the old XTool 40W module and then slid the whole thing off its mounting plate. We cleaned the gantry with some alcohol in readiness for the control board in its new housing. Now if you do have the same set up as us, the K60 will fit perfectly on the XTool 40W mounting plate, so you don’t need to worry about fitting the accessory mount plate that comes with the kit.
Fitting The K60W Module
We slid the K60 module onto the XTool mounting plate.
We placed the control box on the gantry as shown and with the power cable fitted at both ends, we made sure we found a position where the power cable had freedom of movement when the module was moved along the axis. When we were happy, we stuck the control box to the gantry with double sided sticky tape.
The compatible cable for the XTool D1X Pro (not supplied with the kit and is a separate purchase from Lasertree) is fitted to the middle connector as shown.
You can now connect the original wire harness from the XTool to the connector. You will see that you have a small connector from the harness that has no socket to fit to. This is the flame alarm signal you had with the original XTool laser module, but does not come with the Lasertree, A little bit of a disadvantage and a feature we never really used on our XTool, so not a major issue on our part. You can just leave this unattached, and the module will still work fine. With this all-in place, we added a cable tie as shown and one to the hanging unused double fire alarm connector, just to tuck it away.
On the control board, you have a switch to set the laser module in one of 3 modes. Either use the power from the existing laser equipment (INT), Take power from the external power adaptor supplied (EXT) or an OFF position.
Now when we had the new module running, we firstly ran it off the internal power source. When the laser was running at 60W, it would randomly glitch and become interrupted in the Lightburn software. An error on the console said the laser had disconnected. We are assuming that there was not enough power from the internal source, when the 60W module peaked. When we ran at the 40W and 20W mode, no issues were experienced. We added the external source and tested the laser again at 60W, without any problems.
Finally with your air assist and external power source connected, the hardware and electrical side is done.
As a footnote, you really need to make sure your cable management is set right, to avoid any snagging when x and y motors are in motion. We just moved the module in various positions by hand, to make sure everything moved freely.
Thoughts and Findings
The module worked fine first time out of the box, except for the small issue with the power glitches.
If you have limit switches, you will need to address this, as the larger size of the module will impact them. We have not addressed it in detail in this blog and it is something we will look at in the future. Currently we have our limit switches turned off and rely a lot on framing and the print and cut feature in Lightburn.
We set the Y offset at -38 mm for the cross line locator as instructed in the manual. Now this may be unique for our machine, but we found the Y offset to be +38 mm.
To go from 60W to 40W or 20W, we found you need to hold the switch on the top, for 2 or 3 seconds and it will toggle between the settings. The front panel shows you the temperature of the module.
The whole process was easier than we thought, the most difficult part was creating a bespoke box to house the control board and managing all the cables.
We have already run a few trials and must say it does pull a hefty punch and can cut through thicker plywood much faster than the set-up we had before. It also runs a lot quieter than what we are used to.
So far, we are impressed with Lasertree, who have put together a powerful laser. In our next blog post, we will look at the cutting performance on different thicknesses and types of wood and sum up all the pros and cons.