L-Cheapo Laser

[heathenx]

That's awesome! I haven't learned how to do photo/picture engraving yet (where one burns a fill rather than a stroke/outline). Can you teach us how you are doing it?

[bubbasnow]

That's awesome! I haven't learned how to do photo/picture engraving yet (where one burns a fill rather than a stroke/outline). Can you teach us how you are doing it?

My delta is running linuxCNC so its a bit different compared to your reprap. I would image that you could just use a fill instead of a perimeter only setting in your slicer.

[heathenx]

Oh, I see. Well, I don't use a slicer to produce my gcode but perhaps for things like that I should. MatterControl can convert 2 d images into 3d files rather nicely. Maybe I'll try that.

[mkx]

That's awesome! I haven't learned how to do photo/picture engraving yet (where one burns a fill rather than a stroke/outline). Can you teach us how you are doing it?

My delta is running linuxCNC so its a bit different compared to your reprap. I would image that you could just use a fill instead of a perimeter only setting in your slicer.

Bubbasnow, are you using CRAMPS or BeBoPr++ for LinuxCNC? I haven't gotten my CRAMPS board yet, but am wondering if its difficult to get the laser to work with Linux CNC?

[bubbasnow]

That's awesome! I haven't learned how to do photo/picture engraving yet (where one burns a fill rather than a stroke/outline). Can you teach us how you are doing it?

My delta is running linuxCNC so its a bit different compared to your reprap. I would image that you could just use a fill instead of a perimeter only setting in your slicer.

Bubbasnow, are you using CRAMPS or BeBoPr++ for LinuxCNC? I haven't gotten my CRAMPS board yet, but am wondering if its difficult to get the laser to work with Linux CNC?

I got a bebopr++, im cheating a little bit by turning on the laser with a fan M206 P255 code and just using simple profile/pocket cnc tool paths

[jesse]

The L-Cheapo inventor is selling his remaining stock.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/XZEwYe3.png[/img]

[jesse]

I spoke to another seller of UV laser equipment. He mentioned that the L-cheapo is, in his opinion, being overdriven. He recommended running it at 1.7 watt max. at peak and 1 watt normally.

In the Smoothieboard firmware, it's possible to enable laser cutter mode with a PWM (0.0 to 1.0) duty cycle.

[bubbasnow]

any luck cutting clear plastic?

[jesse]

I have some clear 1/4" acrylic scraps left over from my Indiegogo v1 Rostock Max. Acrylic is supposed to be opaque to the laser beam.

If I laser cut it, I'll post the results.

[bubbasnow]

Alrighty so my neighbor wanted this burnt into some wood.

[img]http://ezblog.sakura.ne.jp/hp/wp-conten ... ddha_1.gif[/img]

I took it into MSpaint and saved it as a black and white .bmp

i took that B&W into WINTOPO Free and converted the drawing into a vector .dxf

I took that .dxf and placed it into cambam and made a profile path, here are the results on some cardboard

[img]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-C4Tr ... 062319.jpg[/img]

[heathenx]

Soooo...I've been away from my laser for a while. Next up on my list was to figure out how to engrave a filled shape as opposed to only engraving the perimeter of a shape. Doesn't look like I can do it as easily as bubbasnow (linuxcnc) but I got a couple successful attempts. I'm basically just filling a shape with hatch lines via the Eggbot "hatch fill" extension for Inkscape. With it I can control the density of the hatch pattern. My first test was the small square on wood. It came out rather nicely since it was an easy shape. The second test was a logo. It didn't come out as well since it was more complex. I think the amount of nodes that one has on a shape affects the hatching in some way. Regardless, it filled it. Just not the way I liked it. More tests.

[jesse]

Soooo...I've been away from my laser for a while. Next up on my list was to figure out how to engrave a filled shape as opposed to only engraving the perimeter of a shape. Doesn't look like I can do it as easily as bubbasnow (linuxcnc) but I got a couple successful attempts. I'm basically just filling a shape with hatch lines via the Eggbot "hatch fill" extension for Inkscape. With it I can control the density of the hatch pattern. My first test was the small square on wood. It came out rather nicely since it was an easy shape. The second test was a logo. It didn't come out as well since it was more complex. I think the amount of nodes that one has on a shape affects the hatching in some way. Regardless, it filled it. Just not the way I liked it. More tests.

I recommend using a slicer if you want solid infill.

[heathenx]

Soooo...I've been away from my laser for a while. Next up on my list was to figure out how to engrave a filled shape as opposed to only engraving the perimeter of a shape. Doesn't look like I can do it as easily as bubbasnow (linuxcnc) but I got a couple successful attempts. I'm basically just filling a shape with hatch lines via the Eggbot "hatch fill" extension for Inkscape. With it I can control the density of the hatch pattern. My first test was the small square on wood. It came out rather nicely since it was an easy shape. The second test was a logo. It didn't come out as well since it was more complex. I think the amount of nodes that one has on a shape affects the hatching in some way. Regardless, it filled it. Just not the way I liked it. More tests.

I recommend using a slicer if you want solid infill.

I wasn't able to control the rapid feeds with a slicer. In other words, I can't turn off the laser when it's doing a rapid feed and then turn it on again when it's ready to burn a path. Have you managed to do this? What slicer do you use for your laser? I was using Repetier/Slic3r.

Update: Alright, so I'm trying a slicer again. How do you prevent the EZStruder from running while the laser is running a job? I suppose I could leave it running and just pull out the filament.

[jesse]

Update: Alright, so I'm trying a slicer again. How do you prevent the EZStruder from running while the laser is running a job? I suppose I could leave it running and just pull out the filament.

The easiest way is to just unplug it from your controller while your controller is turned off. Another way is to use a regular expression to remove all EXXXXX statements from the gcode.

The Smoothieboard x5 uses two different gcodes to distinguish between laser on and laser off.

Here is how Smoothie laser control works : G0 and G1 are exactly the same command, they take positional parameters ( X10 Y5 Z3 for example ) and move the tool to that position.

The only difference is that when using G0 the laser stays off, and when using G1 the laser is on, only during movement.

If there's a slicer that uses G0 and G1 correctly, then that's ideal. Another way is to change each line that has an extrusion (EXXXXX) gcode to G1 and the rest to G0.

http://smoothieware.org/laser-cutter-guide

Also, have you had any success cutting thin aluminum?

[heathenx]

Ah, I see. Slic3r uses all G1's. Let me play around with the G0's for the rapids. I could be wrong (probably) but it looks like my other slicers use G0 and G1 properly. Thanks for the tip.

I've not tried to cut thin aluminum but I got think that it won't work. Is this laser even powerful enough for that? I tried some 1/16" thick rubber gasket yesterday and couldn't get through it either.

[jesse]

I tested the CraftWare slicer and it uses the correct G0/G1 Gcode. KISSlicer only uses G1.

The SmoothieBoard follows the G0-off/G1-on in the laser cutting profile. If you are using something else, you can automatically prepend "M104 200\n" before each G1 containing an E and "M104 0\n" before any G1 gcode line without an E. (Disable retractions and z-hop for simplicity)

Along these lines:

Code: Select all

<pre>
<?php
  
  $fp = fopen("basin-buddy.gcode", "r");
  $fp2 = fopen("laser-output.gcode", "w+");
  
  $laserOn = false;
  
  while(feof($fp)==false){
    
    $line = fgets($fp);
    $comment = "";
    $lineMinusComment = "";
    
    if (strpos($line, ";") !== false){
        $comment = substr($line, strpos($line, ";"), strlen($line));
        $lineMinusComment = substr($line, 0, strpos($line, ";"));
    }
    else{
        $lineMinusComment = $line;
    }
    
    if (substr($lineMinusComment, 0, 2) == "G1"){
        if (stripos($lineMinusComment, "E") !== false){
            if ($laserOn == false){
                fwrite($fp2, "M104 200; @@LASER ON@@\n");
                $laserOn = true;
            }
        }
        else if ($laserOn == true){
            fwrite($fp2, "M104 0; @@LASER OFF@@\n");
            $laserOn = false;
        }
    }
    fwrite($fp2, $line);
  }
  
  fclose($fp);
  fclose($fp2);
  echo file_get_contents("laser-output.gcode");
  
?>
</pre>

[bubbasnow]

Also, have you had any success cutting thin aluminum?

2W will not cut aluminum

[Polygonhell]

Also, have you had any success cutting thin aluminum?

2W will not cut aluminum

Indeed commercial metal cutting lasers are in the multi KW range

[bubbasnow]

Also, have you had any success cutting thin aluminum?

2W will not cut aluminum

Indeed commercial metal cutting lasers are in the multi KW range

150w can do 2.3mm mild steel

[geneb]

Not CO2. You need a YAG laser for that.

g.

[bubbasnow]

Here is a post process executable

I made this program that takes a gcode file, grabs points in the file and writes lines that turn the laser on and off and writes a new file.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByTdMD ... sp=sharing

[jesse]

Here is a post process executable

I made this program that takes a gcode file, grabs points in the file and writes lines that turn the laser on and off and writes a new file.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByTdMD ... sp=sharing

Can you post the source code?

[bubbasnow]

sure, it was done in vs2013 in wfa c#

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing

[jesse]

sure, it was done in vs2013 in wfa c#

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing

Thanks, maybe I'll convert that to Java so it's free to edit and works on multiple OSes.

[heathenx]

Here is a post process executable

I made this program that takes a gcode file, grabs points in the file and writes lines that turn the laser on and off and writes a new file.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByTdMD ... sp=sharing

Interesting. Alright, I've downloaded it. What does "Enter Where you want the Laser ON to Occur" or "Enter Where you want the Laser OFF to Occur"? What exactly are we suppose to put there? I'd like the laser to turn off on all G0 rapids and turn on on all G1 moves. Inkscape gcode handles this wonderfully. Slic3r gcode does not.