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Mega RAMPS Marlin gcode & TTL laser (7 replies)

May 14, 2018, 11:41 pm
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I have been piecing together a machine that I hope will one day become a 3D printer, but for now am just wanting to get the X Y axes to enable a laser engraver/cutter to function. All the framework, steppers, and assorted electrical bits have come from repurposed parts, old scanners, photocopiers, printers, etc.

I did buy the Arduino Mega2650 with RAMPS board and LCD, as well as a laser module, which included the 450nm laser, lens assembly, driver board, with 3 wires for power supply and TTL control.

I've read a lot, on the Marlin pages, gotten the gcode plugin to work with Inkscape, and browsed through this forum, and found many useful tips.

However, I'm now at a loss for how to make the laser work once I give it a file to engrave.

The laser module's power source can use +12V, so it is connected to the RAMPS D9, and the TTL wire is connected to the servo pin 6. I've modified my marlin files to reflect the hardware I've set up. On the LCD module there is a controller that lets me set fan1 from 0-255 and fan2 from 0-255, and the laser comes on at full power. By reducing the value for fan2, I'm able to control the power output of the laser. However, when using a file on the SD card, the gcode is apparently not addressing those pins correctly, and the laser does not light up at all.

I'm not certain if I need to make further modifications to the Marlin firmware, or edit the gcode. Or perhaps I ought to use a different pin for the TTL, and use the M42 function in the gcode file to turn on a pin and adjust the power level there.
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Chosing cheap a laser diode module (3 replies)

March 26, 2018, 3:32 pm
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Hello everyone!
I'm looking at laser diodes for engraving wood/cutting vinyl sheets.
i'm aimed at 445/450 nm laser diodes because it is what i can source for relatively cheap, and we've determined in this thread that it's good enough for what i want to do.

So the question now is how to chose such lasers, are there specific things that i should be looking for?
most of the ones i see comes with a TTL driver board (as an example this one is 2.5W with TTL only), some comes with PWM (example 2 : this one is "true" 2.3W, with TTL AND PWM) on top of that.

On one product page, i saw that TTL was to turn on and off, and PWM was to select the power. I thought that TTL was just a signal type, that could also be pulsed with PWM to select the duty cycle?

I also find products like this one : 1000-1500 mW laser diode in 405nm, which is dirt cheap, but doesn't seem to come with any control board. I supose that those diodes need a very specific tension and current to work. Am i wrong here?

Do you think that it would be better to source such a raw module, and search for a driver board separately? or perhaps go even more DiY, and buy a raw laser diode module such as this one, find a suitable heatsink, add the driver board and go on?
(i think that in all cases, if i can find higher powered laser diodes for cheap i'll consider this route on top of buying a pre-made module, and perhaps design a better heatsink, using watercooling)

All in all, i tend to find 3 types of modules :
  • raw diodes, or diodes with only heatsink;
  • complete modules with a rectangular driver board that goes on the side of the laser module;
  • complete modules with a smaller square driver board that goes on the top of the heatsink fan.

Since most of the times, chinese manufacturers mass produce a few of the same circuits, i suspect that most if not all of the modules in this price range are
those options, or a slight variant. Meaning that i could get some returns for people using those (or knwowing them) : so what do you think of those models, if you have something ressmebling?

And if you don't have any of those, but know the field, what would you recommend? what to look for? any insight at all?

My goal is not to have THE laser, but have something correct enough to get started, learn about it. I feel like that it will be the same as for my aquariums, 3D printers, or electronics stuff :
i'll start with one, and will want multiple ones later on to adapt to more use cases :)

PS : i hope the links are not considered spam, i link those to illustrate what i mean; also those are not necessarily the best ones i can find on chinese provides, but are representative of what i find.
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How about a smart laser? (5 replies)

February 3, 2018, 4:18 pm
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Lets say that I have built a 10W laser. I would like to be able to change the drive current
allowed by the laser thru G-code. The reason being, engraving with a 2.5W laser looks
a lot different than engraving the same picture with a 10W laser. Having a diode driver
board that is programmable thru G-code could make it possible. So then after the engraving
you could change the power of the laser and then cut the material with the same laser.
What say you, design wizards? :)-D
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choosing the right laser module.. pls help (3 replies)

April 15, 2018, 2:32 am
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So I am thinking of converting my old 3D printer into a laser engraving machine. My goal is to be able to engrave plywood and leather. Anodized aluminum would also be great but it is not a must. However, I would also like to be able to cut plywood/MDF up to 4-5mm (no worries if a lot of passes are necessary, speed is pretty much irrelevant).

So what laser would be best for the task? I am looking for something that works and doesn't cost a fortune.. I have read a lot of forum posts on the topic but I still cannot figure out what I need. Some people claim that a Chinese 2,5W 450nm laser is perfect for cutting 5mm mdf in multiple passes, others claim that even 1,6W is enough while some suggest that the quest should start at 5W.

The price difference between 1,6W and 5W is huge, so I am feeling kinda lost here.

So please give me some practical advice - what type of laser do I need to perform simple cutting tasks if speed and number of passes is not a priority? Thanks :)
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how to ttl board with grbl (3 replies)

February 17, 2018, 4:48 am
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i all !
i have this board [www.banggood.com] for driving my 2500mw laser diode, but i can't get good ttl output from it.
I'm send signal fro arduino to the ttl + node (and if i test the arduino send 0 to 5 volt ok to this) but with 12v on this board in input, the outpu can only varry from 10.3v to 10.7v (0v in from arduino give : 10.3v and 5v give 10.7).
Can't understand why. i waiting that output voltage varry from 0 to almost 10/12v.....

Any one cane help me to resolve this or know this type of board ?

Thank's
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Help with nano and GRBL (no replies)

March 1, 2018, 2:43 am
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I have a EleksMaker® ManaSE 2 controller board on a home built laser engraver.
The board has a Arduino nano and has been programmed with GRBL 1.1f
The board has only drivers for the motors and a laser module connection.
It is working fine, but I wanted to add a couple of extra controls for pause and resume, but the board doesn't have any connections for those.
It also doesn't have and limit switch connections which would be useful if they were there.
Can I add my own to the Arduino nano pins directly?
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help with cheap china laser 5.5W (9 replies)

March 9, 2018, 7:25 pm
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A month ago I got a cheap china laser engraver see [www.ebay.com.au]
It had no instruction on how to build it ,but I had built one before (300mw laser), the problem is that the control board get very hot and the solder melts. so I believe its the wrong control board for the 5.5w laser.
I would like to use an Ardunio uno and cnc v3.0 shield, but need to drive the 5.5w laser form it.
Can anyone help on how to do it ?
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PPM vs. PWM for laser control (3 replies)

March 14, 2018, 1:06 am
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I encounter the problem using Marlin Kimbra version for K40 machine. I noticed significant loss of laser power. When I checked with oscilloscope it appears that my pin 6 (standard for laser PWM control) actually has PPM version of signal (pulse position modulation, 2 ms pulses with 20 ms period suitable for hobby servo control). Actually, pins 4, 5, 6, and 11 are dedicated for servo control on pololu shield. I tried standard Marlin and got the same. With this type of a signal you get max 10% of laser power. Any idea on how to change it.
I install Smoothieboard, which works fine except that if I want to do raster engraving it could not do it correctly, so I want to go back to Ramps 1.4 but need to solve this problem.
Any suggestions are highly appreciated.
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Arduino Firmware to Control Galvanometer Drivers (12 replies)

May 4, 2018, 11:53 pm
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Hi,

I am building a CNC Laser Engraver that is operated by galvo mirrors. Kind of like this: [www.instructables.com]. But instead of it being a laser show I want to engrave metal. Also it must take an image as an input and turn that into g-code (I already have that software) once it is converted it needs to be sent to an arduino which will analyze the g-code and send the corresponding signals to the servo drivers.

GRBL only works with stepper motors..

Any help is appreciated,
Marinus
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Cheap China Laser to engrave Anodized Aluminium (2 replies)

July 2, 2018, 12:47 pm
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Hi folks, long time no see.

I have a small project where I want to engrave special Laser Anodized Aluminium: [www.innograv.com]

I'm looking for a small (at least 30x18cm) Laser engraver. So far I found these three quite OK in my mind:

CNC ER11+7.5W Laser 30x18cm:
[www.aliexpress.com]

15W Laser 50x40cm:
[www.aliexpress.com]

7.5W 65x50cm:
[www.aliexpress.com]

Anything against these three? I don't need a Co2 laser or so. We have one in our Hackerspace with 100W Co2. I just want to engrave on my desk.

If you have any other recommendation please tell me. My Budget is 400€ excl. Shipping max. 500€ including shipping and customs to Germany. So if there is any device availible in Germany or withing the EU I will always prefer that one.

Thanks in advance!

Philipp
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Laser Sub Surface engraving of Glass -bubblegram (1 reply)

July 2, 2018, 10:55 am
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Hi all,

Has been a while, I’m sure you did not miss me!

I am working on a project to 3D engrave glass blocks (K9 quality)- sub surface that is
The blocks themsleves are not that expensive
Commercial sub surface engraving machines are expensive, and 3rd party services the same

Is possible to add a 50w CO2 laser to a 3D printer?- if yes, how?
Usually the focus of the laser beam is controlled by a focussing lens, but can this be replaced by a fixed focus and using the
the Z axis to determine the depth

The CO2 lasers are fragile, direct mount?
endurance laser in the US provides schematics for hook up to RAMPS, but max is 10W diode laser

Appreciate any ideas, concerns, links etc etc
Please bear with me, I am just a simple mind ;)))
Attached an example glass block

Thx!

Coolerooney
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Best laser module for cutting acrylic (no replies)

July 2, 2018, 7:09 pm
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I'm about to embark on a journey to build laser cutter. My primary purpose is to cut acrylic up to 10 mm thick. What is the best type of module for this requirement? i.e. wattage output, 450nm or 455nm, color of beam (blue, etc.) and focal attachments, etc.
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TTL on a cheap Chinese driver troubleshooting (1 reply)

July 12, 2018, 1:32 am
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Hello, I recently bought a Chinese laser for my first laser cutter conversion from a 3D printer. The driver has clearly marked pins for the TTL input and the +12v. After researching, it seemed like the most common setup was running the 12v port to the power supply and connecting the TTL pins into a port that has PWM (I used the classic D9 port).

Testing the laser, however, I would plug the board into the 12v supply and the laser would instantly turn on. The TTL port made no difference to the laser.

I understand this is a common issue but everyone seems to take a different approach.Sometimes it's the voltage, sometimes you need resistors, sometimes it's a wiring issue or a bad board. Knowing me, I could have just missed something really obvious.

Does anyone have advice on the next steps I should take?

Thank you
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What are the best TTL drivers out there? (And current settings) (no replies)

July 23, 2018, 10:51 am
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Hello, I am considering getting a new driver for my 1.5w laser.

[www.ebay.com]

I need something that can recieve TTL input from an Arduino Mega (12V instead of 5V) and will operate with PWM. I am considering both of the following:

[www.ebay.com]

[www.ebay.com]

The first one seems nice but specifies a 5V PWM input. Would that require extra hardware and programming? I like the second one but I'm unsure about reliability.
Finally, in the description for my laser, it specifies a 2A input current and a 5A working current. Does that mean 2 amps to the laser itself? I'm still a little new so I'm not sure if there is a detail I'm missing.
Any advice on the lasers I mentioned or any others you have worked with and like or dislike is appreciated.

Thanks.
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Laser_Paper_Resin 3D printer? (3 replies)

September 16, 2018, 11:03 am
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I know there were 3d parts made of stacked paper before, probably cut by laser plotters?
Did they use resin in a vacuum chamber to fix it?

I'm just asking, because I could get rolls of recycled paper for a few bucks. Each roll has ~100m of paper on it and the width is around 1 meter.
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Help needed for pin assignment on RAMPS 1.4 board. (no replies)

October 21, 2018, 9:46 am
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I am using the following: RAMPS 1.4, Marlin firmware V 1.1.8.

Recently I decided to build a Laser engraver/cutter. I disassembled an older printer and ordered parts to build
one that looks like the Eleksmaker A3. Additionally I purchased a 7W diode laser that requires a 5A driver board.
Since I am using a RAMPS 1.4 board I have been using the PWM signal from D9. I would like to continue
using D9 but so far all the 5A driver boards I have found want 0-5V TTL signals. I understand that it is possible
to reassign the pins to a 5V PWM signal.

Will this work? Is it possible to feed a PWM signal where a TTL signal is expected?

I've never reassigned a pin before, so I don't know what the "define statement" should look like or where it should be placed.

I understand that Marlin V 1.1.9 has settings for Laser/Spindle operation.
Would it be simpler to switch versions?

thanks for the help.
Don
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Adding two fans to a RAMPS 1.4 board Laser. (no replies)

October 29, 2018, 5:07 am
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Current setup: RAMPS 1.4, Firmware 1.1.8, Full Graphics Display
Adding hard ware RRD Fan Extender

This extender works by using the 12V pins for power supply and plugging into the servo connector on the RAMPS board.

[attachment 107815 RRDFanExtender-1.jpg]

Pins 1 &2 are the 12V input from the RAMPS board.
Pins 3 & 4 12V fan connection
Pins 5 & 6 12V fan connection

I believe I can use FAN1_PIN and FAN2_PIN for this.

In the "pins_RAMPS.h' file I added the following to:

#if ENABLED(IS_REAMPS_EFB)
#define FAN_PIN RAMPS_D9_pIN
#define HEATER_BED_PIN REAMPS_D8_PIN
// I added:
#define FAN1_PIN 6
#define FAN2_PIN 11

Then I used M106 P1 128
M106 P2 128
to turn on the fans.

This setup only works for #define FAN1_PIN.
FAN2_PIN dose not work with M106P2 S128 or M42 P11 S128
So I'm guessing that for some reason I don't know about I can't use #define FAN2_PIN definition? Or what should the M106 or M42 command look like?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you
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Galvolaser (1 reply)

November 2, 2018, 12:30 pm
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I am studying on Galvolaser for my university finishing project. I find mirrors and f theta lens for 1060 nm but 1060 nm laser module is really expensive and ı never buy it. I can use 450 nm laser module but ı couldn't find the appropriate mirror and lens. So I have to prove can I use or can not use 450 nm laser with 1060 nm's mirrors product. How can I prove it ?
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Galvo Motors (no replies)

December 8, 2018, 7:57 am
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Hello everyone

I have 30Kpps Galvo Scanning motors and drivers like the photos I need to drive it with arduino but I don't know how can I do it ? If someone help me I will be happy.

Thanks a lot
Best Regards
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Laser 5.5watt Connecting issue (3 replies)

December 15, 2018, 5:18 am
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I recently purchased one of these

[www.ebay.co.uk]

I adjusted the Marlin on my MKS Gen Ramps1.4 board to use pin 44 for the TTL+5v Trigger and AUX GND for the -5v

Before attaching the laser, I used a multimeter to test my adjustments
When M106 S255 and multimeter, I get an expected (4.97v) S127 (2.48v)
using M106 S0 or M107 I get 0v

Now the bit thats confused me,

After connecting the Laser driverboard to a 12v supply and attaching the TTL + and - wires. I get a very faint light when sending commands
M106 S50 or M106 S255 or anything else.

If i disconnect the TTL wires I get a full power laser instantly

any ideas???????
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