So I have a spare 5W laser and arduino board. I was hoping to connect this laser to my Xcarve (1000x1000, with the Xcarve controller box), but all the forums are for the JTech upgrade. How can I use my existing components to do this? I am new to the electronics side of the Xcarve.
Thank you!
do you know how your laser fires? (need this to wire it correctly)
is it PWM or analog? (need this to know what type of engrave you can do, is it on full power all the time or can you control the power by changing the pulse rate).
other than that you just need to mount it, (3D print a holder) and write g-code to fire it to create your designs.
Kenneth Thanks for the response!
I have to re-review the specs when I get a chance. I believe it is analog. The mounting won’t be an issue. Once I find out more about the laser, will I need anymore hardware?
that will depend on the laser, it will need a driver and power supply. the driver will control when the laser fires and for how long by a signal.
also you can check all the post that have been made in the laser cutting section of this forum Laser Cutting - Inventables Community Forum
Ok, finally got home to look over the laser some more. It is 445 nm/12v laser. It is analog. Here are all the specs:
Is there a way to setup this up similar to the Jtech laser? Cause I want to be able to use this attached to my xcarve.
Thanks.
from a previous post which has links to explain what each type of connection is.
l guess the real challenge for me here, is that I want to continue to use the x-controller to drive the motors still. While I understand is that I have to setup a separate driver for controlling the laser (turning it off and on). Since my x-controller is GRBL then it is essentially, a driving that tricks the machine into thinking it is the spindle mount (I believe that is what the j-tech laser is doing). So how do I go about building the new driver?
My laser has a small board already installed on it. I tested it the other day, and it is working fine (laser and fan). However, I plug it in, it immediately turns on (laser and fan). Now there are 2 other wires coming off of it (black and yellow). I assume this is the “controller” portion of its board. Thank you for your input, I do appreciate the help. I want to understand this better.
do you know what type of laser you have. if so then I would try to find the schematics for it. from that you can determine if you need PWM or voltage to drive your laser. and with that you can determine what connection would be best for you.
My guess is it is voltage driven. Nothing indicates that it is PWM. There are no schematics to pull from either. I plugged it in with its power supply and there was no delay.
Thank you