Has all I/O coupled via opto- couplers to reduce electrical interference and noise. Super Gerbil: a successful Kickstarter project offering up to 5 axis control for CNC, but is also applicable to lasers. The Mini Gerbil has dedicated firmware which optimizes the PWM, speed profiles and the USB communication.

It uses a powerful (but cost effective) 32 bit Arm processor called STM32. Mini Gerbil: a recently designed replacement to a successful Kickstarter project. The small but mighty Mini Gerbil controller for K40 laser Both provides G-code motion and laser power control.ĭSP based controllers use G-code as input, but are expensive specialized circuits that really belong in their own category. Smoothieware and TinyG are open source firmware derived from Grbl. One kind is Grbl, an open source firmware.

One of the key differentiators between controllers is their dialect of G-code. Technical descriptionsįor those interested in the technical details, this section is for you. You may prefer a product that has dedicated support provided by the vendor.ĭetails as known at time of publishing.

Support – some products have no support, and you’re reliant on the goodwill/knowledge of the user community.

3rd-axis capability – for some users, the ability to control a Z axis table or rotary via G-code can be important.

Quality of the engraved images – gray scale looks better than dithering, and 16 bit is much better than 8 bit.

Ease of upgrade (the technical effort and complexity).

The work-around is to use the K40whisperer software which emulates the proprietary G-code so that your K40 can be accessed by software other than MoshiDraw / LaserDraw / CorelDraw.īefore we step through available controllers in this K40 controller review, let’s be clear on what factors matter….

It runs an unknown propriety form of G-code, making it hard to work with.

It’s expensive for what it is – outdated technology.

This simply means it can only switch on/off at one set power level, so you miss out on the improved images that gray-scale engraving brings

It provides only dither-mode engraving.

It has very limited control of cutting in corners, which is likely to result in burnt corner points.

It’s just a motion controller which has not been integrated with the K40’s digital control panel for laser power. It is the standard controller that ships with each K40 laser.

K40 lightburn board