Has anyone tried this eBay item:
Usbcnc 3 Axis Stepper Motor USB Driver Board Controller Laser Board for CNC E | eBay
Would insert picture but for some reason it does not work.
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Has anyone tried this eBay item:
Usbcnc 3 Axis Stepper Motor USB Driver Board Controller Laser Board for CNC E | eBay
Would insert picture but for some reason it does not work.
No, but it is really close to what I have been (slowly) designing, though. But with an Atmega168 or 328 (it doesn't specify which version of nano it comes with) your software options might be a little limited and you will need to customize at least the pins file of any standard firmware.
There really does need to be a laser specific control board made available for sub $50 price range. Obviously there are 3D printer boards out there in this price range, and those have much more features than you would need for a laser controller.
I'd be tempted to pick one up just to play around with, but it says epacket from China (meaning 1 to 2 months for delivery, especially with Chinese New Year coming up.) If I must order from China, I try to find a seller that ships EMS or DHL. Much faster.
My technical skills are so outdated ( having been retired for so many years) that I have many problems understanding what is going on today. It is therefore I'm hesitant
to buy electronics that requires a lot of software skills.
I have been tempted to buy a 3-D printer controller for my CO2 laser but I have been unable to find documentation of anybody having done this. Has anyone converted a 3-D printer driver to be controlled by G code or or is this the way they operate? I would love to be able to control my machine from VisiCut or Inkscape.
If you're serious about playing around with the eBay $32 controller board, I will be glad to buy one and ship it to you, if you're located in the USA. My purchases from China usually arrives in a couple weeks, how much the Chinese New Year's celebration extends this is of course an unknown.
I am in the process of adding the RAMPs1.4 controller in my laser (you can follow my build thread in this forum). Lansing Makers Network already modified the Marlin firmware to work with a CO2 laser cutter, and also created a plugin for Inkscape.
equipment:buildlog_laser_cutter [Lansing Makers Network Wiki]
Here is one guy pretty far into it already:
WeisTek Engineeing
Now, the Ramps is not as cheap as the one you linked to. It is also quite overkill for a laser cutter. But you do gain a nice LCD panel, menu controls, and the ability to load your G-Code from an SD card instead of being tethered to a computer. And of course you can send G-Code to it regardless of what software you used to generate it. The SD card, open-source firmware, and LCD menu are the main reasons I chose RAMPS. Not to mention someone else already figured out the firmware customizations. ;)
What's really needed is something in-between the RAMPs and the controller you posted. Domestically, there is the GRBL CNC shield which is not much different than this Chinese one.
The controller that you linked to would either not be capable of running Marlin firmware or only a very scaled down version of it (if it is the Atemga328 version) and would require customizing the firmware.
I do appreciate the offer, but I couldn't accept. I tend to tinker at my own risk as there is no guarantee of success or that my attention span will last long enough to complete it within the next year. lol
I would recommend reading the links above, following Weistek engineering blog, and also keeping an eye on my threads to learn how to do this.
Oops forgot this link, which is a completed build as well:
Adventures in DIY Engineering: 40 Watt Chinese CO2 Laser Upgrade with RAMPS & Arudino
I have seen that before. That thread plus so many others are not sufficient instructions for novices like me. Take for instance the firmware that it consists of ZIP folder with about a dozen directories and at least a hundred files but little to no information of how to use any of it.
I get the feeling that most instructions posted online are directed towards other programmers, this is probably unintentional because the authors have no training in how to write in an informative way that would more understandable to novices like me.
Oh come on now. It's not THAT bad. lol
As I told Ralf, I will do my best to provide instructions with the novice in mind. Ralf is correct that most of the information out there is not detailed enough for someone completely new to all this. But it really isn't that bad. And when you are done you will understand far more about your machine and gain full control over it to get the most out of it.
With an open-source controller and open-source software, you have access to every little detail. If you find something limiting, you can change it. It is worth the steep learning curve.
Retroplayer, you statement: " If you find something limiting, you can change it. It is worth the steep learning curve. " This is exactly what I am talking about, we can't even get the software working and we are expected to learn how to change it!
In my younger days this might have been an option, but now that I am 85, a config.sys is about the limits of my understanding, anything else is Greek to me in and I doubt I will ever learn how.
Well, you will get enough from me to get your laser up and running, I think. If necessary, I would even offer to program it for you so you only need to install it. But I think you will be surprised how simple it really is when I get those instructions up. The RAMPS is based on Arduino, which means you don't really need any special tools. You plug it in to the USB and use a simple program to tell it to upload the code. The 'harder' part is compiling all those files you seen into one file. That one file is all that you send over to the RAMPS. I could do that part for you.
I have been dealing with a bad sinus infection, so my motivation has been really lacking lately. I did finally get my ATX power supply all prepped, so I should be getting to the RAMPS install here shortly.
When we get to it, I will need to ask you to take photos inside your laser cutter to help you wire it up.
I know it seems overwhelming, but I really think you will be surprised. I have no doubt you can handle it. It's just a matter of 'don't know what you don't know.' I always have that when starting a new project as well.
I've seen this apparent *gap* an awful lot over the years, Mach3 was the same when it started out, and while it has evolved a *lot* it can still be a steep learning curve for a brand newbie to the whole thing.
Generally speaking I found there were two broad camps of people.
Group A - they had at least as much fun building the machine and getting to it work just so as they ever did actually producing anything with it.
Group B - they only reason they were building was because they could not either afford or justify the outlay on a fully set up does everything plug and go machine, they had little or no interest in the build.
I have never really seen much successful bridging between these two groups, and if I found myself in Group A I tried to find a Group A guy to go to and pester, and if I found myself in Group B I tried to find a Group B guy yo go and pester.
Some of the most frustrating times I had where when I was in Group B and the only people I could find were in Group A, and no matter how helpful they seemed to be or tried to be at the time, those in Group A who suggested that all I needed to do was take an existing open source linux driver for a very similar piece of hardware and re-write it to work with the hardware I had, which with my coding skills was like asking me to fly across a river by flapping my arms.
Eventually I came to a conclusion that I didn't like much, so it took a long time to accept, if I find myself in Group B nowadays I go and find someone in Group A who is actually producing and selling a product that I can just buy and solve my problem, inevitably it costs a lot more than I wanted to pay to solve my problem, but a lot less than the true commercial alternative I couldn't afford at all.
I just wish I could have all the hundreds of hours back that I spent trying to avoid spending ten bucks....lol
Sorry about the sinus problems.
Don't have any trouble with the wiring, I think I know it by heart, having installed three controllers. It is the software installation that gives me problems.
Attachment 265096
It was working a short time with the Solustan controller until my hard drive crashed. Did not want to pay $200 blackmail for a new access code.
Currently I am trying to get a Laos controller working, without much luck :-(
Attachment 265104
Picture of the Laos controller, the hardware and the firmware( open architecture) and the nice thing is that it is controlled from Inscape or VisiCut..
So why can't some or all this information be applied to a 3-D printer controller?
PS. Are there anyone in my neck of the woods ( East Tennessee USA ) that has successfully installed a Laos controller?
"Hi. My name is Buddy and I'm a gearhead"
I like the philosophy part of this thread and there is nothing like the elements of a K40 to bring this out. I am on the other side of this when discussing the electronics portion of these (the "A" group" and I have to admit I have to check my feelings when trying to help someone struggling with a short circuit, saying they are doing the tests but then you realize they don't really have a grasp of what you are saying and it seems sooo easy to me. Very arrogant on whose part (rhetorical question)? On software, I had the second computer in my county back in the 70's. Radio Shack model 1 (a teacher "part time summer" employee had the first one and turned me on to the concept). When it came home I don't think I slept for 20 hours. Self taught the basic language, worked through syntax suddenly becoming the most important thing in my life. Over the next ten years worked on integrating computers into my business's Spent a fortune on all kinds, hired programmers (actually only two), Fought with my partner (wife (now ex) who had no vision about these things), Crash after crash, long hours backing up after work every night, finally selling the businesses and retiring. Humans can develop prejudices. Those are not excuses but they are reasons I have no passion for the "behind the screen" part. I love what these things do, but it's what they do I like. I am busy building a super cub and the most important thing to me "today" is completing the process of riveting the leading edge to the little forming ribs in such a way that the shape over a 5 foot long flap is perfectly symmetrical. If I don't get it right I will spend the rest of my life having to push slightly one way or the other when deploying the flaps. I am focused on getting it as right as I can. The application of the laser to this problem has really helped me to zero in a tolerance level that I would not have attained otherwise. I have a passion for that.
I entered two way radio in the late 60's and we were "god's" a lot of the time. If the dispatch radio quit in a tug boat they would come get me and there would be people to carry the equipment. If a local repeater went down at a paper mill I got woke up in the middle of the night and there were people waiting when I got there. If the local sheriff's repeater went out in a snow storm, there was a helicopter to take me to the mountain top. As you became a better troubleshooter you were assigned to more and more important outages. The cell phone came along and I saw the writing on the wall. I no longer care what happens in my smart phone. I do have an extensive collection of pre 1920's commercial and amateur radio equipment.
Gutenberg would have just printed advertisements if he had had the modern printer. At home he would have found a different hobby!
The bridging of group B into group A is "passion". With passion a person of normal intelligence moves from B to A in about twenty consecutive hours.
I can definitely relate to the "hours spent trying to save $10". I grew up in a lower middle class family with 5 siblings, so we didn't have a whole lot of money. This meant that often if I wanted something, I needed to either salvage it, repair it, or modify it. This is where I learned. Started at 8 years old. I shocked the neighbor who was in college for electrical engineering when he was moving and gave me a broken 13" color monitor (those were like gold back then) and I fixed it within 10 minutes. I was about 11 or 12, I think. So, I have been in the realm of the A group for many years. I am 41 now.
It became natural to me to get something cheap and add functionality to it of a more expensive thing. Or to buy something not at all intended for the purpose I wanted it for and modify it. Then I went to college to formally become an electrical engineer (which actually made me dumber in some ways!)
Like Buddy, I kicked butt in computers. Had an Atari 800XL my sister bought me when I was 10, and then a Commodore 64 until they went out of business. I then went on to make a lot of money selling PCs when they first started the 'computer in every home' craze. Now, I HATE working on my computer. I just want it to work.
But, anyway, nostalgia aside... I actually don't regret those hours spent trying to save $10 because in the end I learned things far cheaper than a college education. Things I can apply to the next project.
The wandering point is that it really depends on what is important to you. To me, half the fun is in the building, customizing, and tinkering. If you just want a laser cutter that works, you will spend the money on it. And that's the catch for you, Rolf. Any controller you find is unfortunately going to require you to get in there and tweak things to install it. I can't think of any real exceptions to that. You could pay someone else to install it for you, perhaps. Or you could cut your losses and succumb to the blackmail from the vendor to get your software (making a backup this time.)
All I can offer is to try to help. I can't offer to do it for you because I am far from an expert in this as I am just learning as well. I couldn't guarantee success. Perhaps after I finish mine and deem it a success, I could.
And of course, our examples show it is possible to transition from Group A to Group B as well. For example, I know HOW to fix my own car, but now that I am no longer a poor college student, I usually pay others to do it. Cheaper for me than to maintain the tools and honestly, I just don't enjoy working on my car. lol
Obviously there are 3-D printer controllers used as CO2 controllers, check the link below:
GCODE M104 processed with delay?
However any further information I have not been able to find.
Regarding the blackmail and backup, the software was somehow linked to the computer footprint, of course that changed when when the new hard drive was installed, which rendered my backup useless.
Yep cars the same thing. One of my businesses was a Honda motorcycle dealership and I loved the old bikes. I have 20 odd some 60's Honda's in my grody collection. I was a mechanic as a kid and worked my way through my 2 years radio technician degree (got the paper which Motorola wanted. The rest was mostly a waste of time). Always troubleshot my own cars. Still do if the dealership doesn't know what they are doing (Last time was a control problem on the 4 wheel drive 1997 F250. "Mr.Buddy you need a new 700$ computer". Didn't fix it of course and had to finally figure out what was really wrong. I digress. I don't even open the hood on my Prius.
Like you Retro No money as a kid (Did find the old family had had money but my father pissed them off in the late 40's and got ex communicated from the family). I grew up thinking I only had one set of grandparents and that hiding from debt collectors in the closet was a "normal" thing! I often think how grateful I am for my experiences and that I had no expectations except those I created for myself. Weird parallels when at 60 I discovered my "other" family from Boston and their influence on America.
OK so maybe Rolf and I need to start from the beginning. Man up, swallow prejudices and bite the bullet. First you type something into a keyboard into a program like laserDRW or openscad. It makes it's way through the software,sequences etc. and arrives as a digital word called a "G" code. I bet I can find a list of G codes on the net so that's just a lookup table. It presents itself "G code turn on beam" at the USB connector (or parallel, we get that I bet. Where does it go next ? Ramps, shield (isn't that just an interface board? could be wires and connectors?), Arduino? something else?
Yes, of course. The RAMPS board I am using is a 3D printer controller. In a laser cutter, you need to take the G-Code, translate that to stepper movements and turn the laser on and off when appropriate. So a 3D printer controller is fully capable of running your laser. Just about any 3D printer controller will work hardware-wise. Even the cheaper GRBL CNC shield. The secret sauce is, once again, the code running on that controller.
The reason it needs to be customized is because the controller doesn't know the size of your movement stage. It doesn't know the steps/mm the steppers require. It doesn't know which pins you have the laser on/off attached to. It doesn't know if that signal needs to be HIGH or LOW Etc... These are all things you need to change in the config.h before uploading the code to the controller. That's the hardest part to it.
It just not plug and play. With commercial controllers, you pay for that plug and play. But you also are stuck with whatever evil limitations the vendor forces upon you like requiring a software key tied to your computer that doesn't work anymore when you change a hard drive.
So your options are:
1. Commercial solution: Plug and play. Easy to install. Get support. But you are at their mercy
2. Open-source: Not plug and play. A little harder to install. Has a sometimes steep learning curve to set it up for your machine. You are at nobody's mercy and once you get this far, you know enough to customize things how you like.
G-code is a text based set of commands. Like this:
M104 T0 S230
M104 is the command, T0 is the tool, and S230 is the parameter to set. In this case, I just told Extruder 0 to set the temperature to 230 degrees.
It is fairly standardized. However, the controller determines which codes go to what tool and what parameters to take.
In this case, this text string is sent to the controller (RAMPS in our example) over the USB serial connection. The code within the controller parses the string and then activates the appropriate output based on the tool, and moves it or sets it to the parameter.
So, in your laser cutter, you have X and Y steppers. So, you need movement g-codes, an axis for the tool, and the position as the parameter (G1 X100 = Move X axis 100mm). You also have a command to turn the laser on and off. The laser is the tool. A parameter of 0 is off and 1 is on.
But you don't really need to know this as that is all handled by the controller. And you use a program (like the slicer you use for your 3D printer) to convert the vectors or raster images into a set of G-Code commands. In our case, we use Inkscape and the G-Code plugin to do this for us.
The software G-Code generator does need to know some things about your controller. It needs to know what commands do what, what the names of the 'tools' are, and what parameters they expect. Again, though, all YOU really are involved in here is to use a matching software with a matching controller. You really do not need to know how it works.
As I mentioned, the hardest part is just changing one file in the source code for the controller to set it up for your machine. Things like steps/mm. This is how many pulses to the steppers are required to move the axis 1mm? You can either calculate that the hard way by pulley diameter, belt pitch, etc... or you can give it some default then command the movement 100mm, measure how much it actually moved, and use one of the numerous calculators on the net to find the real number. The Marlin firmware that goes in the RAMPS controller has the ability to set these things later. So you don't need to know it at the beginning and you can change these things whenever appropriate without going through all the firmware customization again. It stores this information within the controller memory.
Thankfully, for the K40 at least, someone else has already added the RAMPS to their K40. So they have already modified the firmware for you and set all this up. All you need to is upload it to the RAMPS and go.
Is marlin the program you use to set the firmware? If so how does it get from your computer into the ramps? Do you move a jumper to program position or something? What is the arduino and shield?
Also thank you for taking the time for this.
Marlin is just the code name for the firmware. When you download Marlin, you get a directory with many files with names like config.h, main.cpp, etc... these files are the actual code that runs on the Arduino. The Arduino is a microcontroller board. Arduino - ArduinoBoardMega
This board has a bunch of expansion headers on it that allows to you to connect various hardware and then you write programs to control the hardware. A shield is a board that plugs into those expansion headers. In this case, that shield is RAMPS RAMPS 1.4 - RepRapWiki
On the RAMPS board, there are more headers. These are for the Stepper driver boards. The A4988 is the popular choice and allows up to 16 microstepping (meaning 16 pulses per step - so a stepper that has 200 steps per revolution will have 200*16 actual positions) Microstepping increases the resolution as well as increases holding torque because the stepper is receiving current during mid step.
An ideal drive for a stepper is a sine wave on each coil exactly 45 degrees out of phase from each other. Since a true sine wave in the digital world is not possible, we use microstepping. The more microsteps we have, the closer it is to an actual sine wave.
In my system, I will be using the DRV8825 driver boards. These do 32 microsteps.
So, a recap: You have the Arduino. You connect the RAMPS shield on top of the Arduino. And in the shield, you insert the stepper drivers boards. All plug in.
The Arduino connects to the computer via USB. Already on the Arduino is a piece of firmware called a bootloader. This allows the Arduino to communicate with the computer over USB. The bootloader just sits there and waits for a an upload command to program the main firmware.
We use a program called Arduino IDE to load the Marlin source code and tell it to compile (make a single binary file) and upload to the Arduino Mega board. When it is done, you now have a controller board that accepts G-Code and controls steppers, extruders, monitors temperatures, etc...
You don't need to move a jumper to program because there is special sequence that the bootloader waits for to enter programming mode. If it doesn't get that sequence within a certain amount of time, it just transfers to the main program (Marlin in our case.) Because of this bootloader, you can load and reload the firmware whenever you want over USB to update it. For example, if you tweak the code to add some feature. You just compile again and upload the new firmware.
The RAMPS shield also has connections to add on an LCD screen with a buzzer, a knob, and an SD card. This present a menu interface to the user to perform some actions like jogging the motors without needing to use the PC. The SD card allows you to place G-Code files on it and print/cut without the computer.
Sound overwhelming? Well, realize this: The Arduino is already built for you, the shield is already built for you, the driver boards already built, and the LCD etc... already built. The Marlin firmware is already written for you.
All you are doing is plugging everything together, loading up code you don't really need to understand to get started, and uploading it to the Arduino. And you have a fully functional Laser controller.
Step by step:
1. I bought this kit: Ramps 1 4 Mega 2560 R3 12864 LCD Controller 5pcs DRV8825 Driver | eBay
Which includes the Arduino mega, the RAMPS 1.4 shield, the LCD screen with SD card, and 5 pieces of DRV8825 stepper drivers (we only need 2 - 3 if we add a Z table).
I plugged the RAMPS shield into the Arduino, installed two of the stepper driver boards in the X and Y sockets. I connected the cables going to the LCD board.
2. Download the Arduino IDE: Arduino - OldSoftwareReleases (version 1.05 is known to work) and install it to C:\Program Files\Arduino
3. Plug in the Assembled RAMPS controller to your computer using USB. It will find and install the drivers for it.
4. This guy: Adventures in DIY Engineering: 40 Watt Chinese CO2 Laser Upgrade with RAMPS & Arudino
Modified the Marlin laser cutter firmware created by Lansing Maker Network to fit the K40 laser cutter.
You can download it at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8S...oxaVBJNjQ/edit
Unzip it to a folder. Remember where...
Inside this folder, you have a folder called ArduinoAddons and a folder named Marlin.
In the ArduinoAddons folder is 3 more folders. You only need one of them. It is named "Libraries". Copy the contents of this folder to C:\Program Files\Arduino\Libraries
Then copy the Marlin folder to C:\Program Files\Arduino\Projects
5. Start the Arduino IDE program. You need to do a couple of things first to tell it which board you are using and on what serial port.
To determine the serial port, you can go to the device manager in windows. It should be labeled "Arduino Mega" or something like that.
In the Arduino IDE, click on Tools, then Board. Select "Arduino Mega 2560 or ADK"
Also in Tools, click on Serial Port and select the COM port that the arduino is attached to. You discovered this above in the device manager.
6. In Arduino IDE, click on open and navigate to the folder that you copied Marlin. Select "Marlin.ino"
After it loads, click the Arrow in a circle icon in the Arduino IDE to upload the code. When it is done, it will reset the RAMPS board.
That's it. You now have a RAMPS 1.4 controller with the customized laser cutter firmware installed. You will notice on the LCD that there is a menu you can navigate with the rotary knob. This provides status information while cutting, allows you to select files from the SD card to load and run, and has some settings you can change including the power of your laser.
7. You need to wire this board up to your laser cutter, replacing the existing controller. Those links I provided earlier cover that or I will be covering it in more detail myself as soon as I get to it.
But, the simple gist of it is that you have two steppers that will get connected to the X and Y connectors on the RAMPS. You have X and Y endstop switches that gets connected to the X and Y endstop inputs on the RAMPS. You have a laser on/off signal to connect between the RAMPS and the laser power supply. A connection between the power control input on the laser power supply and the RAMPS shield. And of course power to the RAMPS board for the stepper motors and the board itself. Not too bad.
These are the guys that created the original firmware and made the plugin for Inkscape:
equipment:buildlog_laser_cutter [Lansing Makers Network Wiki]
This is the guy that started things fitting all this to the K40 laser cutter: Adventures in DIY Engineering: 40 Watt Chinese CO2 Laser Upgrade with RAMPS & Arudino
Both of those links also cover how the RAMPS is wired to the laser cutter. If you are going to use the 24V from the laser PS, there are some things you need to take into consideration. This is also covered in those links.
Just to avoid some confusion about firmware terms:
Marlin is a firmware designed for 3D printers.
The Lansing Maker Network built their own laser cutter and modified the Marlin firmware for laser cutter use.
The Adventures in DIY guy further modified THAT firmware to work with the K40 laser cutter.
So, the K40 customized firmware is 2 levels removed from the original/official Marlin firmware. The official Marlin firmware will not work as-is on the laser cutter.
Unfortunately this also means that the K40 firmware is locked into whatever version of Marlin the author was using at the time. Any future bug fixes or improvements to the main Marlin code will not make it into the K40 code. The solution would be to have a "fork" of the official Marlin firmware. Advanced programmer jargon. This is something I plan to spend some time on once I get everything up and running. I also want to improve the LCD menu code, add some more features, and eventually design a new shield to replace the RAMPS controller that is more special purpose and plug-and-play for the K40 laser cutter. This is not a simple effort and will take considerable time. So for now, I am only interested in getting the K40 up and running and the above steps will do that. It is "good enough" for now.
That's the real beauty of using an open source controller. I can take advantage of other people's work to get a functional controller going, but then take my own time experimenting and improving it. If I fail, I simply reload the code above back into the cutter and I am functional again. No harm.
I also have some plans to further improve a PC program to control the cutter and send G-Code. Some plans for using an Android tablet or similar as the standalone PC and other improvements. But all of these are future plans not needed to get up and running and enjoy the laser cutter.
Excellent post Retro. I think a glimmer of understanding is coming. I have the setup you are describing on my Makerfarm and put the wires together as you described. In a B person way I get it I think. I'll try this:
The whole package (minus drivers and LCD panel) is the "arduino"
Marlin is the firmware (actually downloadable software but resides in prom in the Arduino?)
The shield is an interconnect board equivalent to wires between the ramps board and the Arduino board.
Just went and looked at the ebay parts and there are only two boards. So the bottom board is arduino and the plug in is ramps. Arduino is it house keeping (interface to stepper drivers, regulators, usb etc.).ramps is it the brains? Where the marlin resides,g codes interperated?
After a couple of more questions I will order one of those probably tonight. What software can I run this with that I know? Would there be a way to use openscad (I don't know those other inkscape etc programs)? If this will also work as a spare for my makerfarm it's a done deal. Only 71$ free shipping. When I upgrade toalarger machine I reallylike the idea of this because I want to keep all the same software nomatter how or what the hardware, and NO MORE DONGLES!
You more or less got it, but it got it backwards a bit. The Arduino is the brains. The RAMPS is the muscle. RAMPS has the parts and connections for the steppers, extruders, hot-ends, heated bed, etc... You are loading the Marlin firmware into the Arduino, not the RAMPS. The RAMPS is the "shield." No memory and no brains on it.
That ebay link should have also had 5 DRV8825 boards (the little boards) these are stepper drivers. They have a little pot on them to set the current for your steppers. They are on modules so they can be easily replaced if they blow for whatever reason.
It should have also included the LCD panel. This just plugs into the RAMPS board and gives you a display, a control knob, a buzzer, and an SD card socket. You don't "need" it, but it is very useful and allows you to cut from an SD card instead of always connecting the PC.
Here is what the display looks like running the Marlin Laser Cutter firmware:
Attachment 265268
Now, your specific questions:
1. Can you use Openscad? Hmm. The output of Openscad is an STL file. STL is a a series of defined triangles making up a 3D object. The laser cutter is 2D. It *could* be possible, but would require a program that would generate the G-Code tool paths from the STL file ignoring the Z axis. I don't think anything currently exists to do this, but it is not impossible.
For a laser cutter, remember we are working in 2D. There is maybe a 2.5D argument given the depth of the cut based on power or speed (engraving vs. cutting) but there isn't really a whole lot of tools out there that really handle this for you. One of my future projects.
It is better to use 2D programs for the designs. Inkscape is like CorelDraw, LaserDraw, or Autocad. It is just a 2D drawing program. And it is freeware and open-source.
Your tool-chain for laser cutting is this:
1. Design in 2D, output DXF or SVG or whatever
2. G-code generator (this is like the slicer for your 3D printer. It parses the file and generates the toolpaths and spits out G-Code.)
3. G-Code sender. This is what Pronterface does for example. Pronterface doesn't really care what is inside the G-Code, it simply represents it visually on screen and sends the G-Code over the serial bus line by line.
So, your expectations should be that the actual workings won't be much different than what you are already doing. It's not ideal yet. But changing this up does allow you to work with more formats and use different tools for generating your design. You can use a CAD program, make up your design, export it to DXF and load that into Inkscape. Then use the Inkscape plugin to generate the G-Code.
Once you have the G-Code, you can either throw it on an SD card and plug it in to the LCD board or you can use Pronterface to send the G-Code over USB.
You'll notice that the tool that is the real bottleneck here is the "slicer" or g-code generator. That is what needs to really be improved to make this all a seamless experience. But there are many open-source programs out there which does most of the work and just need to be customized for laser cutting. Again, this is my future plans as well as a custom Pronterface frontend. The end result will be much like ELaser showed you with that controller in the other thread. We are not there yet, but it is very achievable.
(I have a habit of giving too much information, don't I?)
Let me know if anything was not clear.
Wait... openscad does export DXF files and Inkscape imports DXF files. So yes, you should be able to use it.
Ok Retro. The pressure is on! I ordered that unit. $72 with shipping! It fits my makerfarm (great 3d printer!) so a good spare in case something goes wrong with mine, I will play with it and try to learn stuff AND if I can bring it all together replace my K40 board. On that I will want to be able to switch back and forth at will from DRW.Just switch steppers, end stops, laser fire. Should do it.
I tried to download IDE 1.05 as you said above and it does not exist.There are several versions 1.5?
edit: maybe you meant 1.0.5 I'll try that.
edit:ok did it.There is a icon on my desktop. It opens a program which has a bunch of stuff in it.
Iguess now I wait for the arduino to show up and then download something into it from the IDE program?
What is inkspace?
openscad has a 2d function so maybe that can create stuff. Then on to ? the slicer? then to the camera card and then into the arduino LCD like I do with my makerfarm. Anyway to use cura?
Yeah, 1.0.5 is what I meant. The next step would be to download the laser cutter firmware. Step 4 above:
That will get you prepped for when the RAMPS kit arrives. Once the kit arrives, assemble it as in Step 1Quote:
4. You can download it at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8S...oxaVBJNjQ/edit
Unzip it to a folder. Remember where...
Inside this folder, you have a folder called ArduinoAddons and a folder named Marlin.
In the ArduinoAddons folder is 3 more folders. You only need one of them. It is named "Libraries". Copy the contents of this folder to C:\Program Files\Arduino\Libraries
Then copy the Marlin folder to C:\Program Files\Arduino\Projects
Quote:
1. I plugged the RAMPS shield into the Arduino mega (big blue board), installed two of the stepper driver boards in the X and Y sockets (note the orientation). I connected the cables going to the LCD board.They will be labeled EXP1 and EXP2 on both boards.
And then plug it into your computer. Then do steps 5 and 6:
Quote:
5. Start the Arduino IDE program. You need to do a couple of things first to tell it which board you are using and on what serial port.
To determine the serial port, you can go to the device manager in windows. It should be labeled "Arduino Mega" or something like that.
In the Arduino IDE, click on Tools, then Board. Select "Arduino Mega 2560 or ADK"
Also in Tools, click on Serial Port and select the COM port that the arduino is attached to. You discovered this above in the device manager.
The firmware should then be loaded and your LCD will light up and display like my picture above.Quote:
6. In the Arduino IDE, click on File then Open and navigate to the folder that you copied Marlin. Select "Marlin.ino"
After it loads, click the Arrow in a circle icon in the Arduino IDE to upload the code. When it is done, it will reset the RAMPS board.
That's it. You now have a RAMPS 1.4 controller with the customized laser cutter firmware installed. You will notice on the LCD that there is a menu you can navigate with the rotary knob. This provides status information while cutting, allows you to select files from the SD card to load and run, and has some settings you can change including the power of your laser.
Thanks for your generous time on this Retro. I am looking forward to messing with this mainly cause I want to be more in control of troubleshooting these kind of things.
Rolf I stole your thread but is this helping at all with your original problem?
Retro in step 4 above I find the file "librarys" but I don't know how to "copy"it? I right click on librays and I get a window but no copy or "send to" or anything like that. If I click librarys I get 3 more files: Liquid crystal, SPI and u8glib? Don't know how to "copy" them? I', guessing these are the stupid questions like telling someone to "measure the 5 volt line" and they ask " which setting on the meter do I use. AMPS?" !
This might be a dumb question, but are you sure that you unzipped the files? Because windows will treat a zipped file like a folder as far as browsing the contents, but won't allow you to do things like "copy."
Do you have a file called buildlog-lasercutter-marlin-master.zip that you downloaded? If you didn't unzip it, right click on that file and chose extract to buildlog-lasercutter-marlin-master\
Then you will have folders which you can copy.
I bet this is where both Rolf and I have trouble.You were right.I didn't unzip it so I did that via something called extract and I sent that to c users test. I found the library's file but when I try to send it to C:\Program Files\Arduino\Libraries I don't find that file. I tried to make a file called that but a message said I couldn't do that. I did manage to save it (5mb) to my desktop but I don't know how to get it to go to C:\Program Files\Arduino\Libraries which does not exist on my machine?
No problem, I'm learning a lot. Retroplayer's post "Step-by-step" is the type of instructions I have little or no problems following. I am grateful that he took the time.
By the way I contacted the seller of the item in my original post,several days ago, about the instructions he claimed was included with the sale, he has chosen not to reply.
I do have 7. I think my head will explode. This is revisiting the dark place! :-) Ok I found a program files(86) (what the hell is 86 for?). Anyway I opened arduino file and then picked up the library's file from the desk top and dropped it on the arduino file and it acted like it did something but kept asking if I wanted to do something with each file. I said yes each time and it acted like it moved something and then at the end it flashed "Administrater required" or some such nonsense and then ended.I deleted the library's file from the desktop. I was a tee totaler my whole life but I'm gonna go have a glass of whiskey!