Opt Lasers PLH3D 6W User manual

Welcome!
Congratulations! You’ve just taken one of your first steps into the world of 3D Laser
Engraving! This guide will take you through the steps of installing Opt Laser’s
PLH3D 6W engraving laser head onto your X-Carve!
We’ve tried to make it as easy as possible to get you from unpacking your parts to
engraving.
The PLH3D engraving laser head allows you to engrave or cut your designs in a wide
variety of materials such as wood, plastic, rubber, foam, cardboard, leather and many
more.
Bill of Materials
This is all you need to have in order to get your X-Carve upgraded with Opt Laser’s
PLH3D 6W laser engraving head:
From the left:
1) 12V 3A power supply
2) PLH3D nozzle & 43mm spindle holder adapter with screws (optional)
3) PLH3D engraving laser head
4) Additional 400-700 nm collimator

Aside from the kit purchased at OptLasers.com you will need regular 3-core household
wire with a plug for the power adapter and 2,4m (95") of 0,5 mm2 (20 AWG) 4-core
wire to carry power and control signals from power supply and X-Controller to the
laser head:
Getting Started
We recommend to swap X-Carve’s spindle and replace it with a laser for the laser
engraving tasks. It is really easy to do and takes almost no time at all. By doing so you
will minimize the risk of dust getting into your laser head and optics while carving
with the spindle and having the laser head mounted right beside it. It is of course
possible to mount the laser head directly on the Z-axis however, not recommended.
Before wiring the laser up we could cut our own laser head mount using the X-Carve:

The mount's outer diameter is 68 mm (the same as DeWalt’s 611 or D26200 spindle)
The square inside is 40,1mm x 40,1mm and positioned 5mm off-center to account for
aluminum protective can on the laser head. This can protect the laser driver which is
mounted directly on the laser head.
Easel project for this mount can be found here:
http://easel.inventables.com/projects/187_79JZ3KFSCd5ZsAub4A
Here's how the laser head looks with the mount:
To mount the laser head in the spindle holder, loosen 3 spindle clamp screws and take
the spindle out. Insert the laser holder into the spindle mount, push it all the way down,
to the bottom and re-tighten the clamp screws. Push the laser head into the holder. The
holder is designed for a tight fit with the laser head. The opening is only 0,1mm bigger
than the laser head itself. Once installed it should look like this:

Wiring
Feed the 4-core wire through the drag chain and connect it to the laser head using the
terminal block (included):
On the picture, the red and black wires are going to the power supply. Green and white
wires are going to X-Controller.
Recommended wiring:
Laser Head
4-core wire
Brown (12V)
Red
Green (Ground)
Black
Yellow (Analog/PWM Ground)
White
White (Analog/PWM In)
Green
Wire up the power supply. First connect the mains lead: brown to L, Blue to N,
yellow/green to earth. Next, connect red wire coming from the 4-core wire to V+
terminal and black to V- terminal. It should look like this:

Connect green and white wires from the 4-core wire to the X-Controller. Green wire
goes to Spindle (PWM) and white wire goes to GND:

PLH3D nozzle & 43mm spindle
holder adapter
It is recommended to use an additional nozzle while performing cuts with PLH3D
laser head. The nozzle will direct the air stream much better in cases where the laser
head is position more than 50 mm from material surface. Here’s how the nozzle looks
like:
Nozzle attaches directly to the laser head with 4 attached screws. Here’s a photo of a
laser head with the nozzle attached:

The nozzle can also be used as a mount if your X-Carve has the stock 43mm 24V
spindle. If your X-Carve was delivered with DeWalt 611 or D26200 trim router, you’ll
have to either use the mount described “Getting started” chapter of this guide or cut
another one that fits the nozzle only, just like the one on picture below:
Easel project for this mount can be found here:
http://easel.inventables.com/projects/wfSareHaTE4gDrYl2azdKw
This is how PLH3D laser head with the nozzle fits into the mount and the X-Carve:

Setup
Congratulations! Your X-Carve is now upgraded with 3D engraving laser head. Before
you can use it however, you will have to set-up your X-Carve first. In order for the
laser head to work the Spindle (PWM) signal has to be enabled. There is few ways to
do that but we will focus on the most user friendly one.
Go to Easel’s setup (http://easel.inventables.com/setup) and choose the correct settings
for your machine. The setup is probably similar to this:
Change your Spindle from DeWalt 611 to Other and set maximum RPM to 12000 (or
255). Continue with the setup procedure until you get to “Spindle Settings” screen:

Set "Spindle control preference" to "Automatic" and click "Save spindle
preference". Proceed to the end of the setup procedure. The spindle control is now
enabled and X-Controller can control the laser head.
Keep in mind that Easel software is not meant to work with laser heads and it will not
work properly. You need to prepare your g-code using Opt Laser’s G-Code Generator
software (or other software). Once you have your G-Code ready you may use Easel,
Universal Gcode Sender or Chillipeppr to send it to your X-Carve.
First engraving
Finally, it’s time to fire up the laser and engrave something. G-Code commands to
operate the laser are:
1) M3 S<value> - this command turns the laser on and expects a value between 0
and 12000 (or 255 –depends on the RPM value entered during the setup). This
value defines the power of the laser, for example M3 S6000 (M3 S127) Will turn
the laser on with 50% power.
2) M5 (or M3 S0) –this command turns the laser off.
Keep in mind that when the laser is in use, Z-axis should remain stationary to preserve
laser’s focus.
Let’s start with a simple logo:

G-Code for this logo is available here:
LINK to PLH3D_logo.g
Here’s the result on scrap piece of MDF:

Congratulations!

You're all set. Now you can use your X-Carve to laser-cut and laser-engrave your
projects.
Once you're done with the laser head and want to swap it with the spindle, remember
to unplug the Spindle (PWM) connector from X-Controller to avoid shorts.
Safety Note: Looking at the laser beam may irreversibly damage your sight. Opt Laser
offers 445nm protective googles. Always wear protective gear when working with
lasers.