I like your way of thinking and I am pretty much on the same page when it comes to the special parts aspect. I currently have a 40 watt chinese laser that I purchased off of ebay and it does have limitations. I can currently only engrave up to a size of 8" x 10". Your idea here would be great for mounting to the top of my 42" x 18" roll cabinet toolbox. I would of course use all of my current laser engraver internals mounted separately.I have everything needed with exception to this framework. I think the biggest hurdle I will face is mounting the 40 watt Co2 laser tube.

 

PS...anxiously awaiting your parts list.

 

Sounds awesome !!! Many thanks !!!

 

I see your using a Ramps board to run the machine with a DAC and Picengrave software. I assume your going to try the laser version of Marlin to run things? The reason i'm asking is i'm building a laser engraver now and am using the 2w JTechPhotonics Laser/driver combo. I wanted to run the Ramps 1.4 board with a Arduino Mega 2650 but the fellows over at Picengrave said I couldn't due to various Gcode problems and that I couldn't use Picsender with it either. (You'll see my posts in the forum over there) I would like to control mine the way your doing yours that way I can add homing and limit switches as well as a nice on board display and be able to load gcode from a SD card. I have a Uno and CNC shield 3.0 just in case, but from what I understand the Uno is maxed out as far as pins. If you could explain a bit more on your control setup I would appreciate it greatly.

Thanks

Gerald

 

I guess i'm not sure if Picengrave will generate a M106 S# for the ramps board. I have looked through all the info over on JTechPhotonics site about using the laser/driver combo with various 3D printers usings ramps 1.4 and no mention was made of Picsender or Picengrave only on the Arduino Uno/GShield setup. I'm running 2 cnc routers now, both with Mach 3 and pretty good electronic setups, i have yet buy a 3D printer to try out Ramps or Rambo board. The whole arduino/ramps/cncshield combo is pretty new to me.

Here's what I have already to test with, 2 - Arduino Mega 2650's, 2 - Uno R3 boards, 2 - CNC shield 3.0 with 8 - DRV8825 drivers, a Ramps 1.4 board with 4 - A4988 drivers, 12864 LCD screen with SD card reader, and a 24 volt 15A switching power supply. As well as various Nema 17 and Nema 23 motors.

My reasoning for trying a Mega 2650 with a Ramps 1.4 is in addition to being able to use homing and limit switches that from what I understand are commented out of the original grbl laser firmware due to not enough pins on the Uno, you would also have the ability to make the laser a standalone machine with the LCD screen and a SD card slot. I know it can be done due to this is a very popular upgrade for that cheap K40 chinese CO2 Ebay machine so I figured it certainly couldn't be too hard to make work with a LD setup. I never really got an answer on whether or not Picengrave or Picsender would work with a Ramps board just this:

"What commands does the Mega & Ramps require for the laser intensity? M106 S (fan PWM)? If so, PicLaser 3D will not combine that code. Also I hope the streamer you use can run very large, fast changing gcode files. We have not done any testing with that type of control, so you will have to rely on others to support all of your questions. "

I figured when he said "streamer" that was the same as what Universal Gcode sender or Picsender do. Am I correct on that?
I would like to keep my design on the affordable side when it comes to software and electronics..

I figured it might be possible to remap the extruder drive letter in the firmware to A or B rather than E then the Gcode shouldn't be a problem with a DAC or even a stepper with the MA3 connected to axis.

I'm just throwing possible ideas and work arounds out there, just not sure how feasible they are, it sounds like you have more of a handle on the Marlin/grbl thing then I.

I'll be more than happy to help and test things..

Thanks

Gerald

 

That was my plan all along to use a DAC or MA3 encoder. Thats why in the controller thread over there I was trying to find out if you could do that or if it has already been done with an Arduino setup. The only one I could find was their shapeoko build with the MA3 on the Z stepper: Shapeoko laser I like the way it was done with a separate stepper just driving the MA3 (or a DAC run from that same axis) I guess that's what I was trying to getting at in the PL3D forum, if you remapped the extruder letter to B or C would that not work with a DAC or MA3. I guess i'll have to figure that one out on my own.

I'm reading up on Marlin/Ramps/Repetier and how all these things work together. If i can just sort out the work flow i'll be in good shape. Like with my cnc's I design first, the software generates the gcode, I load up Mach 3, home my machines and zero the workpiece then load the gcode and go. I like ramps because of the LCD display and the SD card slot, seems like it wouldn't take a whole lot to make it a machine that could stand alone or be tethered to a PC.

I appreciate the help and i'm going to keep plugging away testing....

Thanks

 

Indeed this is a bright tool.
If you want not only engrave but also cut you can add Endurance 2.1W and 3.5W laser cutter (aslo engraver)
That can be put almost on any CNC router and 3D printer. Looks like this

 

Looks great, nice engravings... Glad to see you got it working... I'm thinking about upgrading mine to a 6 watt laser diode and driver so I can increase the speeds of the engravings and cut a little thicker materials. What version of grbl did you go with? What feed speeds did you use to engrave Yoda if you don't mind me asking?

 

What 6W diode do you use?

 

I haven't purchased it yet, just kicking it around first.... DTR carries it along with a nice driver...

 

Very interesting to see it in acount, what is wavelenght?

 

https://sites.google.com/site/dtrlpf/home/diodes/6w-nubm44-445nm-laser-diode

 

Thanks, appreciate it!

 

No problem...

Gerald

 

That is classy! You really get points for style. Did you use a laser engraver for the Death Star print?

 

Yeah, I have your same problems with ramps, triangles, like the gcode didnt turn off the laser and lines , I switched to grbl too, but I'm trying to get a good pwm control for shades engrave. I'm very cheap too . I build a machine almost same like yours but without Z and just 2 motors for all the machine

 

Can you give me more info about your hardware? specifically your laser driver for 8 bit shade of gray engrave

 

Looks great!!!