Firmly believing I’d never give in and have/use a machine so “touchy” and “sensitive”… I feel almost “dirty” that I seem to be cozy-ing up, just a little bit closer, to becoming “bedfellows” with insanity and ridiculous-ness.
Suddenly, inexplicably, I remembered that un-used 3-legged Jawhorse out in the shed. And I couldn’t resist the temptation…
It looks so neat… but I know that, now that I’ve dragged it into the house (which is already painfully crowded with machines), I’ll find a zillion reasons to use the Jawhorse as… well, a Jawhorse. Never mind that it’s been out of sight, and out of mind, for years… now I NEED it for all those odd jobs around the house.
Such is my dilemna and the musings of a near-74 year old mind. And, speaking of “shaky”… I’ve always had the shakes (I blame Mother…). And, at this late date, I doubt they’ll ever get any better…
About those wheels… I’m insistent about dealing with one problem at a time. First, I gonna deal with “slippage” (between wheel and gear)…
Alright! Leveled up my rolling gantry as best I could and started playing around…
I’m probably showing my age here… but I found this really good old sailboat picture. Ah, the graceful lines of the hull, the height of the masts, the cloth sails, the rigging, the sky, the water, the mountain in the background, and the rock in the foreground…
Really makes me wish I was there… in a simpler time, now long gone.
In the photos above, my X-axis is left-right and the rolling axis is Y… and engraving is horizontally-scanned along the X-axis. So I vertically-scanned (scan lines along the Y-axis) the same photo, with all other settings the same, and, of course, the skew becomes once again apparent.
I actually spent quite a long time trying to get this machine leveled up as best I could… and it amazes me those tractors’ sensitivity to the slope they are traversing. There’s gotta be something I’m missing here…
Well… holiday or no, I hope everyone is enjoying their 4th of July!
Coming to a “command decision” in the middle of the night (as most of my “command decisions” do), after suddenly realizing how easy it would be to “belt up” like LR and FR… I decided that, for my purposes , “bullet-proof” is vastly superior to “touchy” and “sensitive”. So this morning I made the belt conversion…
and reran the skew test that had been so sensitive to “sub-millimeter” changes in “foot propped upped-ness”. The run on the left is done with the machine sitting flat on the floor and the one on the right has a 2x4 slipped under one foot of the 3-legged Jawhorse…
Every machine I’ve ever built – until now – has been pretty insensitive to how level (within reason) it’s been sitting and, as I’ve felt all along, they should be able to operate normally, even on a slight slope. But this one defied me and has had me “bum-fuzzled”… until now. I’m convinced that if you want the machine to accurately move over a worksurface… it needs to be anchored/tethered/referenced somehow to – and not independent of – that worksurface.
It’s no longer a [free-] Rolling Plotter, of course, but I’m pretty comfortable with what I’ve found out… and am ready to move on with my new, alternative, mini-FR gantry/playtoy. I genuinely appreciate everybody’s interest and kicking around all the ideas/suggestions/comments has been great fun… I love this stuff!
As always, please feel free to chime in with anything you have to add or offer up. Thank you all.
Glad you worked thru the problem. My 3d printer is being a little finicky on printing those rubber wheels. I am going print a couple of Z motor couplers before trying to print them again. I am having an issue with getting the Gantry V-Slot close to level with the base. I am about 5mm off from one end to the other & can’t seem to get it anymore level. These couplers will help to at least get the connections the same height on both sides.
Thanks, Barry! The portability thing is not as big an issue with me… though Moebeast’s original Foam Ripper was indeed designed to be a more portable machine than its MPCNC predecessor. Mark was carrying the machine to the annual FliteFest gatherings and needle-cutting RC planes out of foamboard for several days, almost non-stop. And, of course, @geodave’s Rolling Plotter is designed to be portable… but my “take” on it was as an alternative gantry for my FoamRipper machine. My FoamRipper is belted up similar to LR2 and has used spring clamps and, now, printed holders that are easily removed. That did come in handy when I moved last fall to SA, being able to break it down to move and then set it back up in my living room… but largely my machines don’t need to be all that portable. That said, none of them are so large that I can’t move them around pretty easily anyway.
You’ve completely fixed it. But as someone who didn’t have to deal with it, I am going to miss the mystery, and intrigue. Keep the little belts around in case you end up missing the incredible precision with which you can judge a level surface.
Looking cool. You are starting to get me the bug for a laser for my CNC or maybe the rolling plotter. That & the fact my next door neighbor just bought a laser engraver off of Amazon. Do you have any recommendations for a laser diode & wattage? I know you like the eleksmaker controller boards.
I’ve always gotten my lasers off Banggood when they went on sale… a couple of 3.5 watt units and a couple of 2.5 watt units. I’ve gotten them for $60 - $80 IIRC… and they have at least a couple of sales a year. I’ve never had a single problem with anything Eleksmaker – inexpensive and decent quality – and usually the boards and lasers can be had with matching connectors for easy hookup. Another thing, my 2.5 watt lasers seem every bit as “powerful” as the 3.5 watt units… I think the 3.5 watt lasers can’t be focused to as small a spot.
I’ve never bought from this particular outfit but this looks to be the identical laser I have on the rolling gantry and is the same laser sold on the popular Eleksmaker A3 laser engravers. Those engravers only come with a 2-axis controller, however… so rolling gantry has a Keyestudio 3-axis controller that doesn’t have a matching connector and I had to pick off the power and PWM signals with jumpers to individual pins. NBD.
If you are up for making your own controller board I have both 2 and 4 (3 live axis and one cloned off X or Y) PCBS going spare - or the gerbers for you to order your own if that would help.
I have a couple of these laser modules and would recommend them.
I don’t mean to go off on tangent of this thread, so let me know if I am getting too far off topic. What all do I need to add to a CNC machine or my rolling plotter to put a laser on it? I see some of these lasers come with a small controller board. My Sphinx CNC has CNC xPRO v3 that runs GRBL & this writeups says I can hook up a laser to it. https://jtechphotonics.com/?page_id=4697 I would probably get the Eleksmaker controller board if using it on the rolling plotter or a machine not yet built. That aliexpress link Mike gave looks to be very inexpensive, but looks like it does not come any wiring. Is that a JST connector on there? Also what are the best glasses to get. Looks some of those glasses are red or green. Think I have seen https://jtechphotonics.com/?product=laser-safety-goggles-od-6-200-532nm these mentioned as being the best, but a more expensive.
Dang, Mike! I hadn’t seen laser modules for $40 before and shipped from the US to boot… so I ordered the 3.5W unit you linked.
And then, of course, interesting stuff showed up in the side bar. There was a pretty interesting laser engraver machine offered with several different laser modules – 3.5W up to 20W – and since I live well within my means, and already had the 3.5W module in my cart, I opted for the 20W unit!
I’m quite aware of the kinds of “games/tricks” they play to spec these so-called “higher powered” diode lasers so if it turns out to be worthless… I know I can always use the parts and/or modify the machine however I want, so I haven’t lost much. But I haven’t personally played with a diode laser of more than 3.5W before and it’ll be interesting to see what it really brings to the party, if anything.
And, hey! It’s like I NEED another laser machine to play with. This is the kind of stuff that keeps me off the streets and/or out of an institution anyway.
Hey, Dave! You’re not going too far afield at all. The JTech folks are a good source for information and from what I’ve heard their products are first-rate, though not cheap. That Sphinx CNC controller board you mention looks as though it should be easy to add a laser… since it’s Grbl (my preference for laser use) and brings all the appropriate signals out to the board edge terminals. I’m assuming that controller will stay on the Sphinx CNC machine, however.
So, what controller board are you using on Rolling Plotter now? And are you using Marlin? Grbl? You might already be set… just need to know what controller you already have.
The xPRO board will stay on the Sphinx. On the rolling plotter, I am using a MKS Gen V1.4 board with 12v PS running Klipper firmware. I would have used Marlin on it, but could not get the servo Z axis to work the way I wanted it to. For Servo M280 gcode commands in Marlin it sends them immediately instead of waiting for G1 or G0 x/y movements to finish. Klipper lets me define a macro to redefine a gcode command in my case I changed G11/G10 which is normally Filament Recover/Retract to Pen Up/Pen Down movement which makes the machine use it in correct sequence. I got the G11/G10 idea from some source on the internet that I don’t recall at the moment. If I decide to use a normal Z-axis motor for this instead of a servo motor that problem can go away. I have a spare arduino uno with CNC hat and also the keystudio board. I was going to use one of those boards on the Eggbot, but put that project aside when I started the Rolling Plotter idea. Actually I started the Rolling Plotter idea while waiting on parts for the Eggbot. If I use the laser, sounds like grbl is the better way to go. I doubt I will get a laser anytime soon unless I really get bitten by the laser bug. I would like to gather as much info now to help make an informed purchase later.
I might get the glasses sooner in case my neighbor needs some help with his laser engraver. He has zero experience with these, but is doing well with it so far. His engraver came with benbox. I told him about lightburn you mentioned and some other free sources. He seems mostly interested in using it to burn an image of his signature logo in wood products he makes. I mentioned to him that a vector image would be a lot quicker to burn.
I also bought a wood burning tool last year from Sam’s Club & a router speed control from Harborfreight. I really should test that since I have it on hand, before getting a laser. No glasses needed either.
I would recommend getting away from the servo-Z and using a stepper motor. IIRC you said you had one of those little hobby 28BYJ-48 geared-steppers (they’re only a couple of bucks each) that I’m using or a small NEMA11/NEMA17 bipolar (4-wire) stepper of some sort. Is the Keyestudio board you have a 3-axis board? If so, it’s pretty much the same setup as I have. Regardless, the Uno/CNCshield combo is a good choice as well. And both will run Grbl 1.1f or later… so “laser mode” would be available to you. This alone makes Grbl preferable to Marlin for laser use IMO.
I ordered the 3.5W laser Mike linked this morning… at about half the price I paid for the Banggood/Eleksmaker units I’ve bought on sale in the past. Since it ships from the US they’re saying I should have it within a couple of weeks. It also appears to be just the bare module, without cables/wiring, but the required signals are all there in the connector and look proper. I use these Elegoo jumper wires to gender-adapt, daisy-chain, and connect to bare pins on the board when I have to… they’re inexpensive and really handy.
About the glasses… TBH I’m far more careless about it than I should be. I don’t recommend you be as lax… and if you value your eye-sight, JTech’s proper glasses I’m sure will fill the bill. I do have some cheapie glasses that came with a past order and they seem to work when I need to stare directly at the spot… but I can’'t swear how well they are really protecting me.
I am pretty sure the keystudio board is 3-axis, but can’t find it at the moment. I have some jumper wires similar to those, so I could probably piece a cable together. That is a pretty good price for that laser engraver you just mentioned buying. I will save that link & ponder it. Looks like a good footprint & portable. Making a nice little cover using one of https://jtechphotonics.com/?product=445nm-laser-shielding in the front would make it a lot safer to use. Let me know how that new engraver works for you. Have you ever cut leather with your engraver?
When I bought my laser modules they came with a 4 wire pigtail that fits into the connector on the top of the laser module. The requirements to drive it are +12v, GND, PWM (@3v3 according to the specs and I build a 5 to 3v3 level changer into my boards but you would probably be ok with the 5v PWM the Nano puts out) and there is also an output from the internal thermocouple so you can keep an eye on the laser diode temperature with a simple circuit, I never bothered with it so cannot say how it performs. That is it…no external regulator with two or more confusing connectors, no problems driving the PWM.
dkj4linux - the 20Watt module is actually supposed to be a 7Watt output laser diode…although I am not sure there even is a 7watt laser diode made, I thought the highest power laser diode in the 445 wavelength was 6.5 watts… the 20 watts refers to input power…It will be interesting to see what results you get!
My advise to you geodave would be don’t fit a laser to your existing machine…build a dedicated laser machine. The minimum you need for a laser machine is this… . A Nano, two stepper drivers, a logic level shifter, two big caps and a couple of resistors. This gives two axis control and a 3v3 PWM output. Running GRBL with laser mode enabled. It really doesn’t get much simpler than that…even the eleksmaker is more complicated as it has a 3 axis capability!
I documented a build for a simple laser engraver here if you are interested in building one. It was for that build I had the PCB made…
This is the 20W laser engraver machine I ordered… and it’s less $$$ for the whole machine than I’ve seen just the laser modules, especially the “high-powered” ones. The 3.5W version is about $60 less thatn the 20W version… but I wouldn’t recommend the 20W version if it’s your only laser. I hear of many unhappy users over on the LB forum who purchase these cheap machines and can’t get them to run with LB because of the “hokey” software they come with and the disappointing [lack of] performance of the “high power” laser module. I’m not averse to changing out controller boards, laser modules, and/or flashing firmware when/if necessary so I’m always positive I can get something going… but many of those folks lack confidence and don’t have the experience with this stuff that I have.
. A Nano, two stepper drivers, a logic level shifter, two big caps and a couple of resistors. This gives two axis control and a 3v3 PWM output. Running GRBL with laser mode enabled. It really doesn’t get much simpler than that…even the eleksmaker is more complicated as it has a 3 axis capability!