Will these play nice together?

[Jeff Benson]

Hello laser enthusiasts!

I've been pondering a design of my own for a smallish laser cutter/engraver for use at my local makerspace. So far I've found controller boards like these: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DOK4NWI/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3910CGITFUY5W&coliid=I2I7AEBJ2TTMOJ and some diode lasers like these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HFHPPQ0/ref=nav_timeline_asin?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I've already got some experience building my delta 3d printer, so I assume this will be somewhat similar? However at this point I can't make heads or tails of how the laser hooks up to the board and whether these two things will work with one another. Any insight? 

I'm not committed to these two products yet, so any substitutions would be welcome. Thanks in advance!

Jeff

[Jeff Benson]

Additionally, I just discovered this number. http://www.panucatt.com/product_p/gm1pro.htm

I've had good experience with my Azteeg X1 on my 3d printer. Thoughts?

[TealVince]

Since you have some experience with Azteeg products, I suggest using an Azteeg AZSMZ Mini, which is what I used in my K40 conversion (http://makermonkey.blogspot.com/2016/04/hacking-k40-laser-cutter-buildlog.html).  That way, you'll already have support from Visicut and other open source programs that support Smoothie-compatible boards.  As for hooking up the laser, the Mini has built-in Mosfets that tie the incoming line to ground, so I believe that means you use any appropriate power supply for the laser, connect its ground with the controller board's ground, connect the + of that power supply to the laser and tie the ground line from the laser diode to the switched mosfet line.

[Arthur Wolf]

Note : The AZSMZ is *not* an Azteeg product. They use that seller's name without his permission and without any good reason other than placing better in search results

AZSMZ is not open-source, not made by the community, not supported by the seller, not documented, and the design is one of the worse ones around ( if you want to go with something that's not open-source, not documented, but that at least has tolerable quality, go for something like the MKS SBASE )

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Opensource Laser" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to opensource-las...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/opensource-laser.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/opensource-laser/4fac8ffa-7e14-48a2-8a87-ec001cb3e6fa%40googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

Courage et bonne humeur.

[TealVince]

Okay, geez my mistake.  To clarify, not from Azteeg but uses the same processor as the X5 and Smoothieboard.  I suggest considering a Smoothieboard or compatible for better software support.

[Jeff Benson]

Alright. I was thinking of running it using laserweb and a C.H.I.P. board to make it as wireless as possible. I like the X3 since it has the 12v out like what would go to the hotend, which unless I'm mistaken the M1 does not have. I'm assuming that I could just tie the input of the laser driver right to the 12v rail from the controller board and control the voltage that way in software? Or am I thinking about this in the wrong way?

[TealVince]

I don't have an x3, but looking at the specs, I don't think my first choice would be drive the laser using the 12 volt out from its power shield since it sounds like it is stepped up from 5v.

Instead, my instinct would be to go the other way and use a 12 power supply and a board that can power itself off the 12volts using an on board regulator that steps down to 5v or 3.3 or whatever it needs.

Fwiw, I don't think the mosfets care either way since they switch ground.

[William Steele]

I'm confused by this post.  According to: http://reprap.org/wiki/AZSMZ_Mini it is GPL licensed and all the design files are right there.  Am I missing something?

Bill

[Jeff Benson]

I agree. I really like what the smoothieboard has to offer, especially the onboard sd card reader. And the price is not too bad either for the x3 model. As far as lasers are concerned how difficult was the setup process?

[TealVince]

I found it really easy to set up.  Everything pretty much plugged right in, including the endstops, and the Smoothie site has a nice laser section with help for setting up the config.  The only question I ran into was where to connect the laser-enable line, since it has to be a PWM-capable.  After checking the schematic for the Mini, I found that the heater lines have Mosfets that tie those lines to ground, and since the laser-enable line on my power supply is active low, this worked for me perfectly.  But I don't see any reason you can't tie the ground side of a laser diode to the same point if Mosfet can handle the power requirements.  If not, you can always have the controller board switch a solid state relay which controls power for the laser.

[Arthur Wolf]

On Tue, Apr 26, 2016 at 4:00 PM, William Steele <wjst...@hotmail.com> wrote:

I'm confused by this post.  According to: http://reprap.org/wiki/AZSMZ_Mini it is GPL licensed and all the design files are right there.  Am I missing something?

That's actually just from copying another webpage as the template for theirs. When asked directly the seller essentially says : any form of copying and modification is forbidden.

They provided the files only after being told many times they couldn't be on the wiki if they didn't. They even engaged in an edit war with the moderators before giving up.

But they files they provided are not the ones they were asked for, and are not useful ( they are not the original design files, just schematics and board layout "pictures" ), you can't make a derivative from those.

So no, not Open-Source at all : not under an Open-Source license, and can not be derived from by the community.

Bill

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Opensource Laser" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to opensource-las...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/opensource-laser.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/opensource-laser/798e53fc-55dd-49b8-947d-f516d62b6f6d%40googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Jeff Benson]

True I can do that, but according to my research I should be able to tie it into any pwm controlled 6v rail, which the mosfets will help to supply like they normally would do for say a hotend or bed heater. Does that sound about right?

[TealVince]

Not sure I understand you here, but maybe this will help. 

The PWM lines on the X3 and Mini don't switch a power rail (5V, 6V, or 12V) at all.  From the schematics, they use a mosfet to switch the ground line instead (see schematics below).  The connectors may provide a power source for convenience, but the power line is constant; it's the ground line that is PWM controlled instead.  So for boards with this setup you can really use the switched ground with any power supply you want as long as you tie the ground line of the power supply to the ground line of the controller board.

The Mini takes anywhere from 12-24V as input, and I believe the X3 is similar.  It derives its own 3.3/5V power from that.  Whatever power source you give it is also what is available on the constant power line for the extruder and heater bed connectors, but you don't have to use it.  It's handy if you need to use 12-24V to drive the laser, but if you need another voltage (6V?) you can just use a separate power supply (whatever is appropriate for the laser) and control the laser with the switched ground.  The ground line of the laser power supply would tie into the ground line of the controller, the plus side would go to the laser's + input, and the - line from the laser connects to the switched PWM ground line.

X3:
http://buildlog.net/forum/download/file.php?id=4676
Mini:
http://reprap.org/mediawiki/images/c/c3/AZSMZ_2.1.png

[Jeff Benson]

Ahhh. I see the issue. I think I'm looking more at the Smoothieboard than the other boards now, since its open source and has great documentation for laser cutter setups. And the price is about the same across the board. According to this page: http://smoothieware.org/laser-options it references the coding options for laser control and makes reference to several of their pins which have large MOSFETs attached.

Additionally this page: http://smoothieware.org/laser references how to wire up a power supply unit for a CO2 laser, which since I'm using just a diode with it's driver built in I should be able to wire up that PWM signal directly to the driver. From there I can vary the voltage to adjust power since the laser diode will take a range of voltages. 

Hope this helps. Thanks for your patience.

[TealVince]

For an actual smoothieboard, it looks like you can give it a separate power supply or link it to the board power with jumpers:
"

• Each of the two Mosfet couple can take its power from either its own 3.5mm screw terminal, or SMT power jack connector, or be connected to the main stepper driver circuit using jumpers.

[Jeff Benson]

Exactly! I did a similar thing with my 3d printer where I have an xbox 360 power supply fed into the 12v in on the board (it's a surprisingly clean signal that's readily available). I'm thinking pin 2.5 will suffice, and it's already defined in the code. 

[jbaz]

Could you use a new open source board for an old lasercutter? If so, where are codes for it?