Well, I was still not satisfied with the belt-driven Z-axis. It’s doesn’t firmly hold its Z-position when trying to position the laser for a run… and focus is too easily lost. So, I downloaded 3DPRINTINGWORLD’s V2 printed screw-driven stepper slide and printed it off. Unfortunately, a couple of the parts have been revised and inexplicably no longer fit properly. Thankfully, the previous version of the slide shares those same parts and so I was able to download parts that fit… and finish assembly of the slide. No current video, here’s an old video of a previously-built slide that currently resides on my daughter’s laser engraver…
There are two different screws provided with the download… and I used the most aggressive pitch
Finally convinced that a belt-driven Z-axis wasn’t a good Idea because it didn’t hold its Z-position – and thus laser focus – firmly enough while positioning the toolhead… I’ve simplified the X-carriage plate and mounted the new BB-bearing, printed screw-driven, V1 stepper-slider. That, in turn, carries the Eleksmaker 2.5W laser module and danowar’s laser air-assist shroud that I’ve used with this laser module on several machines in the past.
The inexpensive (< $2) hobby stepper is hard to take seriously but with a simple unipolar to bipolar conversion actually works quite well for this application. The blue plastic cover is pried loose to expose the small PCB inside…
and the four remaining wires rearranged in the connector to match the stepstick driver pinout… in this case, orange-pink is one coil, yellow-blue is the other.
The two Charles Bronson image engravings and profile cuts used the exact same gcode file… before (right) and after (left) installing the air-assist shroud.
My neighbor got a laser engraver from universalengraver.com recently & he really needs a better case cover for it since it is in his wood shop. Thought I would see if I could design & print him one. Before starting from scratch, thought you might know a good starting point case for this or what board this is using. Here is what it looks like.
I don’t know that particular board but it appears to be a stripped down Chinese (guessing from the characters printed on the board) knock-off of the Nano/Grbl-based Eleksmaker Mana SE v3.2 2-axis CNC controller…
In fact, that whole machine appears to be a non-Vslot knock-off of the Eleksmaker A3 laser engraver machine that is available almost everywhere online. I got one of those a couple of years ago and my daughter is currently using it. I swapped the 2-axis board shown for a 3-axis board and added a 3d-printed, BB-bearing, screw-driven, Z-axis stepper slide assembly, just like the one on miniFR above. If you need more information about his machine, the similarity is so great I wouldn’t hesitate to use the Eleksmaker A3 documentation as reference and guide.
Thanks for all the help. Doing a google search on “Dingqi Laser” that Jamie found gave me some links on banggood with one board pretty close to this, but dimensions were different. I will just start with a simple flat cover for the top with some long standoffs to see how that suits him.
Funny that you should mention that… I hadn’t noticed that the Eleksmaker board photo I posted before has the board still on its mount and long standoffs still in place. All that’s missing is the clear plastic/acrylic plate that covers the whole thing…
That is a lot of dust on that board. I will have to print that photo & show it to my neighbor. I remember someone telling me years ago (probably a lazy repairman) that not to clean the dust from inside CRT monitor as that was keeping it from failing.
After Mike (@dart1280) gave a link to some super-inexpensive laser modules about a month ago, I ordered not only a 3.5W laser module (which later had to be subbed for a 6W unit) but also a cheap (~$215) laser engraver machine that sported a 20W laser. After “delivering” my TX-bound order to an address in MD, they resent my order and it was delivered just yesterday. I feel as though I"m somehow cheating now – with the sudden appearance of this machine – as @geodave is currently in the throes of designing a similar “cantilevered laser engraver”…
A few minutes putting the pre-assembled axes and laser module together with about 6 thumb-nuts and I had a brand new machine. Thankfully, I decided to see if the firmware (which I suspected was proprietary) was already loaded and sure enough it connected first try… and greeting me with a familiar generic-looking Grbl v1.1f header. So I simply hijacked the USB connection to my miniFR 's Pi3b+ and in moments had a machine that seemed to operate perfectly. I roughly focused the laser on a piece of chipboard and ran a handy test file I had on hand… and immediately started a small fire on the chipboard with the same file that cuts normally with my 2.5 watt laser. So, it does appear a bit more powerful, judging by this simple test.
So now I’m replacing the 2.5W laser on miniFR with this new laser and going to see how well I can focus using a fully-implemented Z-axis and Ryan’s focus script.
Looks as though it should be a straight-forward substitution and I hope to start testing it later this evening or in the morning. Or, I may just kick back in the recliner and celebrate my good day…
The machine is compact and seems quite sturdy… easy to pick up and carry around. The longer Y-axis rail is ~425mm and the cantilevered X-axis rail is ~350mm… and at those dimensions and even with the larger, heavier, laser module affixed it doesn’t seem at all “tipsy”…
A raster engraving run at 2000 mm/min and just 12% power yielded this cool dithered image on cereal-box chipboard that has an almost “bleached” look to it in the lighter areas…
Commandeered the “20W” laser module from the new laser machine and fitted it to miniFR…
The laser module has a familiar 3-wire connector (+, -, S) and cable and the little Nano-based 3-axis Keyestudio CNC controller I had originally put on miniFR didn’t… so I dug around in my stash and found an “old faithful” 3-axis Eleksmaker controller that had a 3-pin laser output. Set up the Grbl $-parameters to match my previous controller and made the swap. The laser cable matched up perfectly with the laser output on the board and the laser operates normally.
Well, it was fun while it lasted. The “20W” laser played out this morning and now only puts out the very weakest of beams. I had cut a few rulers and was trying different feeds/speeds/focus and all of a sudden it decided it had had enough. It still responds to intensity and on/off control commands but no longer has the power, even at 100%, to mark the material. While it was running it was indeed more powerful than my little 2.5W laser but missing the finer spot of the lower powered unit. Still usable, however… until it wasn’t. There was no overheating or visible signs of damage but, thinking back, it is quite probable that I killed it… there is considerable static electricity this morning and I’ve gotten “bit” numerous times, touching various things around the house; i.e. doorknobs, light switches, engraving machine , etc. Oh, well… you’d think at this late date that I’d learn and/or know better
That is a shame. I have an SKR 1.3 board that I might have fried one Mosfet this winter with static & replaced it with a SKR 1.4 board. I still kept it in case I can use it for something that does not need that Mosfet. I am just contemplating ordering my laser now or waiting a couple weeks, but probably will order the 6W version.
Ship it!
