Part 1: The first thing we’ll do to get this laser controller working is to plug in the power, which is 24 volts. We’ll use a standard extension cord to hook up the mains to the power supply. The extension cord has 18 gauge wires inside. We’ll also use spade terminals, which we will attach to the wires with a crimper. Strip the female end of the extension cord to expose the bare wire. You should aim for about ¼” or 7mm length of bare wire. Then crimp the spade terminals onto the wire. Make sure the spade terminals are securely fastened. Once the live, neutral, and earth ground wires have been crimped, we can connect them to the terminals on the power supply. The black wire is live, the white wire is neutral, and the earth ground is green. Make sure the power supply is not on when you attach the wires. Also make sure that you aren’t touching any of the terminals while the supply is live. Check the power switch to ensure you have 110v or 220v mains selected. Once this is done, you can connect the plug from the power supply into your outlet. Once connected, you should see the green LED lit up. This verifies you have power to the power supply. We will now test our outputs with our multimeter. Using two leads, we note a voltage of about 24.18 volts on each terminal. Now we are ready to connect the power supply to the laser controller. We will now connect the V+ to the 24V terminal and the common to the ground terminal. Crimp the wires and attach the spade terminals as done before. Once this is done, connect the spade terminal to the power supply and the opposite end into the terminal block on the laser controller. In the next part we will illustrate how to attach the stepper motor drivers to the laser controller. Click Here for the Next Part in the Series
