Supporting Laser cutters ?

[Henner Zeller]

Hi,
What if BeagleG supported Laser-cutters ?

I am wondering how laser cutters typically access the laser via GCode.
It looks like typically this is just simulating a spindle-speed that
is then associated with the PWM of the Laser modulation.

There should not be much changes needed except that (a) in the case of
using the machine with a laser, we don't need BringPathToHalt() or do
any waiting for spindle 'spinup'. (b) We want a spindle speed as part
of a G1 block:

M3 S42
G1 X100 Y50 S55

I've added an S-value for moving, but have not wired up to the spindle
yet; but at least I simulated it in the gcode2ps code now; this is the
simulation of gcode generated by LightBurn (a common laser cutting
software):

https://github.com/hzeller/beagleg/blob/master/Development.md#laser-visualization

Since this would require PWM to be synchronous with moves, we
essentially have to add the PWM value to LinearSegmentSteps and
MotionSegment. I hope it is simple to just set the PWM value from the
PRU via some memory-mapped register.

Any thoughts ? What are other concerns we'd like to do ? I could
imagine a (energy per distance) mode, which scales the power with the
inverse of the speed, which would automatically adjust e.g. for the
acceleration.

-h

[Craig Hollabaugh]

I know that Grbl devs went through this topic, have you looked at https://github.com/gnea/grbl/wiki/Grbl-v1.1-Laser-Mode to see their approach (I'm sure you have).   

On a side note, I was excited about Grbl's laser mode for my coil winder because it can now change bobbin winding direction (X) without slowing the spindle (Y), basically fly through 180 degree path change with 0 deceleration/acceleration.  I don't know how BeagleG handles or will handle this yet, I'm just too new to your project.