Improved Cooling for the K40 Laser Cutter
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- Опубліковано 27 лис 2024
- Active cooling and arduino control: In this video we improve the cooling of the
K40 laser cutter and monitor the water temperature and flow rate with an Arduino.
BLOG: wayofwood.com/i...
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Tools/Supplies Used:
Hose clamps: wayofwood.com/...
Radiator: wayofwood.com/...
Silent Fan: wayofwood.com/...
Temperature sensor: wayofwood.com/...
Arduino Nano: wayofwood.com/...
OLED Display: wayofwood.com/...
Flow Sensor: wayofwood.com/...
Passive Buzzer: wayofwood.com/...
Hose adapter: wayofwood.com/...
Resistors: wayofwood.com/...
K40 Chinese laser: wayofwood.com/...
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wayofwood.com/
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Use a blob of blu-tac to hold your boards when soldering, save chasing them around the table. Thanks for sharing your hacks
That’s a good tip. Thank you!
Great video showing the mods you made. However, a lot of people are just not able to do all these mods to just not having enough knowledge. This could pose a very severe safety issue if someone did something incorrectly.
It would be great if we could buy these mods and just be plug and play. This could minimize or eliminate the possible errors being done and safety would be compromised.
Keep up the great videos.
😎
👍👍👍👍👍
I already thought about offering some kind of „kit“ but even then the stuff would need to be connected to the electronics - which would also be a risk.
But if anything in unclear have a look at the website articles and in doubt please just ask in the comments. 👍
There are so MANY safety issues you would need to address if making a kit. The inadequate frame grounding, the interesting wiring colour choices on the mains wiring, the twisted together mains power wires in the supplied cooling fan... the list goes on. Releasing a kit would potentially make you at least partially responsible for anything that happened to anyone trying to use that kit with these dangerous machines. Better to keep that liability as far away as possible.
Great video
It would have been nice with some comparison test results showing if it was actually worth adding the PC cooling parts. Did you conduct any to see just how effective it was ?
That display is crying out for a 3D printed bezel :)
I did not do a systematic test with and without cooling. But before using the cooling I had to switch off the laser after 45 min of usage as the water got too hot. This is no longer the case since using the cooling.
@@WayofWood thats definitely a good improvement then, I think adopt the same, thanks for the reply 👍
Great work! I do appreciate your ambitions to document your K40 hacks properly :-)
What is the cooling power of this passive setup, if I may ask? I have seen multiple people stating quite disappointing results from a similar setup that includes peltier elements so I am wondering if the all-passive setup might be even beneficial?
Thanks. I think it depends on how intensive you plan to use the laser cutter. For us running it 1-2 hours is the absolute maximum. Over this time the setup helps to keep the temperature reasonably low. I don't know if this method would be good enough for production runs over an entire day -- but honestly there would be many other elements that would most likely fail beforehand. :-)
Can you, please, also provide links to the radiator and the three pc fans? What was the total cost of these components? Looks like a cheaper alternative to CW3000.
Good catch. I added the links.
The cost should be around 50€ and change for the cooling setup. The electronics might be another 20-30€. Especially for the electronics it depends what you have at your disposal. We tend to buy arduinos in 10packs, resistors, cables, perfboard, etc. is already available. If you don't have a soldering iron and have to buy one for this project it's more expensive than if you have a well equipped electronics space.
What is the average water temperature after a lot of use in the loop?
ps there are also out of the box flow sensor/temperature solutions that would be better
It seldom gets higher than 25 degree C
Thanks for the video and pics but I am having a problem. I uploaded the sketch and it went fine but the screen does not come on. When I look at the serial monitor I see " 0LFlow rate: 0L/min Output Liquid Quantity: 0mL " ( water pump not on so zero flow would be OK )I see no temps being displayed. I think I got the right display. I got it from Amazon here in Canada " OLED Display 128x64 Pixel 0.96 inch - I2C Bus - Compatible with Arduino STM32 NodeMCU ESP32 " Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance
If you google „arduino oled ic2 example“ and pic one of the examples - does it work to display something on the display?
If not double check which pin goes to which port on the arduino.
Thanks I got it to work. But the schematic on your site Shows SDA=A3 SCL=A4 but the example sketch I got shows SDA=A4 SCL=A5 and the example sketch worked. I uploaded your sketch back onto the Nano and it is working and showing Temp and Flow rate ( It is really small ) but it is working. Just need to figure out how to make it bigger for my old eyes to see 8) . Thanks again!
@@rolandrosilius8631 Thanks a lot. This was indeed a bug in the picture. I fixed the picture on the website.
Use a car rad and fan?
Good idea. Would be worth a try.
Civic rad
omg i advice to buy some 10l tan and some ice packs its way cheaper
connect terrain That’s what I did for quite some time. It is just inconvenient to change the ice packs frequently. But if you look for the cheapest solution ice is the way to go. 😏
@@WayofWood if you opt for ice packs you have the risk of uneven water temperature, which could break the tube if a drastically colder bit of water goes through a very hot tube.
I'd be curious, op, what is the effect on water temperature when your machine is running? If you turn the fan off vs having the fan on?
Thanks!
Stephen Owen When I used ice packs I used them to regulate the temperature to around 20 degree Celsius - by exchanging ice packs whenever the temperature is raising.
I didn’t yet tried the cooling in a 1:1 comparison / experiment but there is a substantial effect in how long I can run the laser without the water getting too hot.