Miniature open source laser cutter

[Doug Griffith]

I just ran across this project from across the pond and it's got me thinking about cranking up the Arduino.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1008225922/the-microslice-a-mini-arduino-laser-cutter-and-eng

[Rolf Randby]

I just ran across this project from across the pond and it's got me thinking about cranking up the Arduino.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1008225922/the-microslice-a-mini-arduino-laser-cutter-and-eng

The Laos laser controller uses a Arduino board and is completely open architecture with a lot of hardware and software support. I am currently assembling the electronics to control a 50 W no-name Chinese CO2 laser. With a few parts on hand I think I will have it operating shortly at the cost of approximately $150.
I think this is a little known secret and I'm just trying to get the word out.
Here are two links to get you started:
http://tuxic.nl/webshop
http://jeelabs.net/projects/fab/wiki/HPC_LS3020_Laser_Cutter

Added: I forgot to mention there are also room on the PCB for three Pololu stepper motor driver cards (2A -35v less than $5 ea.) Certainly enough to drive the steppers in the above project :-)

[Jeff Woodcock]

There is an image to Gcode program that can be used to raster engrave a photo for using on an Arduino with the GRBL Gcode interpreter Contraptor.

http://www.contraptor.org/grbl-gcode-interpreter.

The program PicLaser Lite will also generate Gcode to run in Mach3. It's capable of generating code for analog modulation and TTL modulation.

[Rolf Randby]

There is an image to Gcode program that can be used to raster engrave a photo for using on an Arduino with the GRBL Gcode interpreter Contraptor.

http://www.contraptor.org/grbl-gcode-interpreter.

The program PicLaser Lite will also generate Gcode to run in Mach3. It's capable of generating code for analog modulation and TTL modulation.

You did not to mention the G code interpreter is for a Linux system not Windows. I don't know of any other open architecture controller for a Windows PC than the Laos

[Jeff Woodcock]

You did not to mention the G code interpreter is for a Linux system not Windows. I don't know of any other open architecture controller for a Windows PC than the Laos

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=windows+grbl+gcode+interpreter+arduino

;)