K40 Laser - Latest GRBL controller board from Monport V2.0 - Lightburn compatible - See Description 

Glad I could help!

Yesterday I received the Montport v2 motherboard, and when I assembled it and connected it, the same thing happened to me. Everything turned off: source, light, air...... I realized that there was a fault regarding the laser control cable (cbi). As I received it, in the JST connector the red cable would connect to the 24 volt pin on the motherboard, when in reality it should connect to PWM (input control signal) while the black cable connects correctly to GND. I have changed the cable in the connector and it now works perfectly.

Air assit out not working whit lightburn... bad board

@@JaimeOrtix i was looking at it to replace my M2 because 225$ for a Cohesion I think it's too much, but I maybe have to go look elsewhere

It has an air assist option (has to be enabled via firmware update).

It’s probably the limit switch wiring. In the video it’s shown incorrectly but the description is correct. NOTE - In the video i state that the limit switches should be Normally OPEN - this is incorrect - they should be Normally CLOSED

​​@@pingers622'm not overly tech savvy I pretty much just followed the video exactly, in saying that I've no idea what I'm supposed to change that was incorrect. what am i to change for the limit switches? Only thing i did different was cut the plug off the CBI cable because i obviously didn't have the connector you made.

​@@ashleedavis8417hi Do you solve the problem because I have same problem?

if you dont have a ribbon cable then you probably have the mechanical style limit switches and you should have a 5 way connector for your limit switches (only 4 pins used) - this would connect into the right hand side of the v2 board (vertically mounted socket) (1min 40sec in the video) - hope this helps

In lightburn you can use the ‘fire’button. I set mine to about 12% then click the fire button on then off quickly you could also program one of the macro keys to doa quick low power burst.

Hi, Reinstall the Ch340 driver. Can work

It means. Unplug all usb cables from your computer and just leave the monport board connected via its usb c cable. Then restart lightburn. If it still does not detect your board check device manager on your computer and see what com port has been allocated to the board. Maybe try to re install the 340 drivers.

Hi , do solve the problem because I have same problem

I purchased mine from monport web site a while ago.

No sorry I use my laser for cutting only at the moment.

Yes - without that link it would not fire unless i pressed the test fire button and held it durintg the run - so linking these 2 connections means i dont have to touch the test button at all - as all of the controls on the panel are onsolete when you use Lightburn anyway

@@pingers622 hi ive put the links as on your diagram but but when i turned the power on the laser was on, so disconnected the link from the cbl and laser not, do i need to config using lightburn (on trial run at mo)..thanks J

Didn’t try the air assist. I am away from home for a few days. I will have a look when I get home.

Air assist has to be enabled via a firmware update. I am currently waiting for a remote session with monport after sales team to update my board. Will post back here when this has been done.

​@@pingers622 wow, that's good news, waiting for your new post. greetings

Ok monport sent me the bin file and an upload utility. Utility is all in Chinese but I used google translate to work out what to do. Monport remoted onto my pc to do the upload for me but it looks like my board is faulty so they are sending me a new one with air assist enabled. I should get the new board soon and once I have it installed I will play with the upload software again. It might be worth contacting monport after sales asking for assistance. I will post here if I manage to get the upload working.

@@pingers622 Did you manage to get the upload working? I'm looking at getting a K40, but I want Lightburn support. Your video has been helpful in my decision making so far, just need to know how air assist works with this mod.

Ammeter will still work and the general consensus is to keep the ma below about 15. Experiment with lightburn percentages for power keeping an eye on the ammeter to peak at around 15ma.

I’ve had the machine working today on the new board. After following your diagram, adding the control wire, removing wiring for the potentiometer, laser switch and fire button the machine did not work. The console was scrolling through errors, one for homing I recall. I put the wiring back, without the new control wire and it’s ok. I’d really like to control power through Lightburn though. Any ideas what could be wrong? My machine does have optical limit switches.

Hope you got your system sorted out - sorry for the delay in responding - see my latest comments if you are still stuck

@@pingers622 Not yet. I am not able to control power with Lightburn.

The air assist should output 5v dc BUT it has to be enabled bya firmware update. Contact monport after sales and explain that you want to enable the air assist feature.

@@pingers622Good luck with Monport support, been waiting 2 weeks for response, don't reply to emails and posts to official sites don't get past moderators

@@Appleguru looks like i was lucky then monport got backto me and have have enabled the air assist over a remote session. I am now controlling my air assist from within lightburn.

I am away from home do a few days but will see what I can do when I return.

My board seems to be working OK - i have left the GRBL settings unchanged. For the PWM connections - the board is supplied with a short black cable marked CBl - this cable has a 3 pin plug on one end (this end is plugged into the PWM connector on the Monport v2 board) - for the other end you have 2 options - Option 1. Cut the 2 pin plug off and connect the red and black wires as follows... on the 6 way green connector connect the BLACK wire to terminal 4 and the RED wire to terminal 5 when viewed from the front of the PSU - (terminal 6 has nothing connected to it) - note that for Lightburn to fire the laser you will also have to install 2 link cables on this same connector - Firstly link terminal 1 & 2 (this is normally already linked unless you have any security switches installed. Secondly link terminals 3 & 4 (This is where the test fire button is connected). Option 2 is to make up an adaptor cable like i have done to convert the 2 pin plug to 2 wires - either way for PWM you only need to connect the BLACK & RED cables to pins 4 & 5 respectively. Hope the above helps.

Brilliant, thank you! I had previously used a mini gerbil board and that had.been quite good but with shipping it's nearly double the price of this one, should be here in the next few days, thanks!

@@pingers622 Well board arrived today and as you described installed without any problems. But got an error when trying to get it to work with lightburn, going to uninstall lightburn and set up a fresh tomorrow, seems to be revolving around the limit switches, any chance of you posting your GRBL settings so I could compare?

The fault in GRBL is "homing fail " could not find limit switch within search distance. Defined as 1.5* Max travel on search and 5* pulloff on locate phases"

Yes they are for optional limit switches etc. if you connect as per diagram you-should be ok.

Let me see if i can get all the connections documented tomorrow and i will-reply again.

If you number the middle block connector pins left to right as 1,2,3,4,5,6 then pins 1&2 would be for a safety switch (lid open, water flow etc) and need to be shorted (so if you dont have a lid or water flow switch just short out pins 1&2. Pins 3&4 are used for the Laser test switch - this is NOT used when controling the laser via Lightburn so these also need to be shorted out. Pins 4&5 (yes 2 wires go in to pin 4) these go to the output connector of the Monport Laser connector (pin 4 is the black lead (gnd) and pin 5 is the Red lead (PWM). Pin 6 isd not used - if you are still unsure please send me a close up photo of your Power supply showing your connections and i will see if i can assist further.

@@pingers622 seems to be connected alright but getting error 9 with exceeding linit switch? dont know how to send a pic thanks for your help

@@DSSFIRE sounds like a homing issue. Enter $22=0 into the console to turn off homing and try again. You may have alimit switch problem.

@@pingers622 got it fixed up didnt have the home on startup disabled working fine now just have to figure out some laser settings now thanks for your help