K40 Laser custom control panel - Digital + C3Dmini

thingiverse

Another K40 digital panel upgrade. Some K40s come with a potentiometer and a mA meter, but others like mine have a "digital" version that's supposed to be better, cheaper or more reliable - it isn't. You really need a mA meter on a K40 to avoid blowing up your CO2 tube. The digital readout goes from 00.0 to 99.9 with no units, so I needed an analog meter to determine what numbers matched the 15mA Max suggested for my K40's tube. (25.0 on the scale equates to 12 mA and 30.0 is 15mA at least on mine). I was fed up with the stock nano board that requires a pirated version of Windows XP, CorelLaser and a pirated USB dongle - even after throwing out the supplied software and using K40Whisperer (a great free program!), I wanted something better. I found it with Cohesion 3D's Mini in a K40 upgrade friendly package. It's a smoothieboard clone that's orders of magnitude faster than Whisperer, and is supported by Lightburn - a great layout, editing and control software package. As a bonus, the C3Dmini can control lightobject's Z-table stepper with just a couple extra parts and a power supply! I also added an extra on/off switch for the power outlets so I could turn on and off the add-on air compressor (new laser head/optics via lightobjects). Unfortunately, I ended up with a mess - meters and GLCD panel and an extra power switch all flailing about, causing trouble! The end result is this design that packs as much as possible into the old control panel's space without requiring any case/sheet metal modifications. The files are all the same thing in AI, DXF and Lightburn formats.