Lasers! Pew Pew Pew!

So, the other day a large crate arrived on my doorstep.

Hmm, what could this be?

Yep, I treated myself to a new toy. A 40W CO2 powered lase CNC engraver/cutter (Model K40-III). Now, this isn’t exactly a top of the line model, infact it is probably the cheapest you can get one without going down the DIY route. It is a very cheap device from China, with the most basic of functions. Basically an X/Y axis with a couple of stepper motors, a 40W laser, and a very basic controller board. The main drawback (besides all the instructions being in Chinese) is the fact that it will only work with the rather rubbish software that comes with it, and that will only run on Windows XP. That isn’t going to work for me, especially after finding an old XP laptop and trying the software out. To say that it is buggy and un-userfriendly would be an understatement.

Thankfully, I knew this before purchasing it from eBay. There is a great open hardware project call LaOS, which is designed to replace these cheap and nasty controller boards on these types of lasers. So, armed with a PCB from the project, a bunch of components, lots of pictures of the existing setup, and my trusty multimeter, I am going to set about installing a nice LaOS board. The benefits of this new board is the fact that it adds network capabilities. It becomes effectively a network printer, controllable from a linux machine as a Cups based printer. This way, programs like Inkscape to draw the desired output, and send it to the machine. A much easier way to control it.

An LCD display with local controls is also available as an addon to the main LaOS board. All in all it should turn this cheap basic machine into something fairly usable. It should then be able to compliment my printer for making things, and Joy should also be able to use it for some of her arty stuff.

Testing!

So, first stage was to do a few tests to make sure it had survived the journey and was in a working condition before I break it. The front panel has a handy laser test button to let you fire the laser without having a computer hooked up. Needless to say, after hooking up the water pump to cool the laser, I had a bit of fun burning things! 

Seems to be working ok

And with it hooked up to a computer with the rubbish software

About the best I could do with the software supplied

All seems good, so time to take it apart! Hopefully the next post will have a nice success story of a much improved machine

Unboxing!

Unboxed!

Thats a 40W Laser

Second part is here