Benbox Laser Machines/CO2 Lasers/3D Printers

The controller has a buffer much like a printer, pressing pause stops sending G-code immediately but the machine will finish what it has already stored. You can reduce or not use the buffer at all (settings) and providing the computer is fast enough it won't be noticable, however it only takes something like anti-virus, indexing or a backup to start on your PC and the laser will stop momentarily causing a dark stop and ruining the engraving. To be honest, pausing can do this also so perhaps it's worth the risk for more immediate control.

Issue was resolved. The license key was sent almost immediately to the email address provided by PayPal but got lost somewhere along the way.

You can always contact me from my website https://t2laser.org/contact or direct by email (click the envelope on my website or see the bottom of the support page).

The defaults are what you want:
Microprocessor = Nano
Postprocessor = Grbl

The configure Eleks Mana menu is only applicable to the Eleks 0.9j firmware and only necessary if you need CoreXY or Servo (which 99% of people do not).

Does the control board have a 3-pin laser output?

The older 2-pin does not have a TTL signal which is required for most laser modules, so either you can manually wire it to D11 on the Nano or get a replacement controller as well as a new laser module. The controllers are cheap and then you would have spare stepper drivers.

There was an alternative to the Cohesion that was also a drop in replacement but half the price, not sure if that's still available or what the current price is. If I remember it was an Australian supplier but they had a US reseller, I want to say it was called the mini-Grbl or something like that. I just used an Eleks controller and removed the connectors from the old board, more work but very cheap solution.

I miss my K40, makes these diode lasers seem like toys.

12" x 24" sounds like a great mod as size was really the only limitation.

Do you plan on a Grbl based controller or something else?

The voltage should be constant, it isn't switched. The TTL/PWM is what controls the output.

If you are getting 15VDC on the LD output then the laser diode would be fried as the voltage from the constant current driver is supposed to be around 3.5~4.9VDC.

Yes that's what I do, just move Z to the height of the block and change bits.