Laser Engraver CNC Project

Laser
1

One of NTEAA electric car guys sent me the following email, asking for help with a project. Can anybody help him out?

Stan,
      Hey do you know anyone at DMS who knows a lot about Arduino and CNC's?  I wanted to make a CNC Laser Engraver.  I've gotten a few electronics and been playing with it but having problems controlling the stepper motors and figuring out what to use to interpret the GCode.  I bought an AdaFruit Arduino and Motor Shield but I later found out that GRBL isn't compatible with the AdaFruit Motor Shield so I have been trying to figure out something else to use.  Anyway if I could talk to someone who has used Arduino's and the motor shield and figure out how to program it, I'd really appreciate the help.

      Here is what I have bought so far:

Adafruit Arduino
Adafruit Motor Shield (V 2.3)
Aixiz Laser 150 mw constant and 400 mW pulsed (When heat sinked should be able to do 250 mw constant)
Aixiz Laser Driver 80 mw to 500 mw W/ TTL
2 Scanner Beds with Stepper Motors
Printer axis with a DC Motor
Several Misc DC motors

Jared

jleverington [email protected]

1 Like
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There’s several DIY laser engravers/cutters from salvaged parts, this one uses an arduino and EasyStepper drivers http://www.instructables.com/id/Pocket-laser-engraver/

3

yeah, he screwed up and bought the AdaFruit Motor Shield which was almost 1/2 the cost of the EasyDriver boards.

4

You can try Marlin. It’s and open source control software for Arduino. I use it for a 3D printer based on a Arduino Mega and a Ramps controller.

Marlin software: GitHub - ErikZalm/Marlin: Reprap FW with look ahead. SDcard and LCD support. It works on Gen6, Ultimaker, RAMPS and Sanguinololu

Configuring Marlin: Think3dPrint3d: Basic Marlin Configuration.h modification