Laser Engraver Software Linux
Delilah Fadden
A program that lists as functional with Linux is Lightburn. It's new to the laser engraving world and supports GRBL type controllers as well as Ruida brand and possibly a few others. If you can determine your controller, you're a step ahead of the game.
Not a native Linux application so I dunno if it matches your use case, but the driver and control software "Laser engraving machine K4 V2.2" that was bundled with the printer on a USB stick works fine with Wine!
I'm running Debian Bullseye/Sid and I'm using version 5.0 of Wine. I started with installing the driver simply by running wine driver.EXE in the correct folder on the USB stick. The control software, however, seems to need .NET to run which it says by prompting you to install "wine-mono". After a bit of googling I found out that installing .NET using the command winetricks dotnet45 worked fine. After this you can simply run the software using wine Laser\ Framework4.exe.
EDIT: I can't find a license for the software on the USB stick, and I also can't find it online so I refrain from uploading it. OTOH, the USB stick is chock-full of logos of different brands so I doubt the authors are even aware of international copyright laws. Maybe I could send the software to you personally but I wouldn't host it since it could even contain malware
I also have one, when you plug it on your linux computer, there is a CH340G usb-serial chip inside, a serial port should be available at /dev/ttyUSB0, and you can send a right BMP file via this serial port.
I have a similar machine and you won't find a Linux software to control it. You won't find a Windows software either, except the one shipped with the machine. I sniffed the traffic on the USB port and the control is proprietary.
The good news is the included software runs on Wine, but I did not get to serve the COM-port to the program. Under Windows, the driver fixes the port to COM4: but I did not find out what the exact name is (capitals or : or other parts) that the program expects to symbolicly link the port to /dev/ttyUSB0. You might have better luck. When sym-linking the port doesn't forget the permissions, that's another trap.
Connection to PC is done by a CH340, so no special drivers will be neccessary. System on board is GRBL (as it comes with the most cheap CNC machines), there is some related software in the AUR and plenty of documentation in this internet.
Thank you for your update! Unfortunately that particular "J Tech Photonics Laser Tool" doesn't work on my computer. It is just grayed out in Inkscape, though I followed the instructions step by step. As far as I know, some NEJE laser engravers do work independently. It would be interesting, weather it would be possible to transfer the Code via FTP to their memory and then just let the laser read it and do the work. From AUR I'm giving heekscad and linuxcnc a try. Just checking, weather I could get the software running. If that works, I'll go for a real laser. :-)
Thanks Mark,
I have set up the laser engraver using my grandsons Win 10 computer.
Unfortunately it only has 1 usable USB port so I have to use the touchpad, something I hate.
It is working ok but needs a lot of setting up to get the engraving just right.
I am going to close this thread and add the Solved to the start.
Thanks for your help
If you see a ttyUSB device appear when you plug in your laser, then your system has correctly identified your laser as a serial port device and you can move on to the next step.Most likely the file will be "ttyUSB0", but it might have a different digit on the end (ttyUSB1, ttyUSB5, or similar).
All USB devices are identified by a "Vendor ID" (vid) and "Product ID" (pid). The "lsusb" listing shows these numbers, so one thing you can try is to google "laser" with those numbers and see if someone else had a similar problem, and what they did to fix it.
You can also ask for help in one of the linux laser forums online or on your vendor's help section. If you paste the added syslog lines when you ask for help, someone can probably advise you.
The "Udev" system manages device creation on linux. When a new USB device is connected, Udev gets a notification: it reads the VID and PID from the device, decides which driver to use, and creates the associated device file in /dev.
As an example, here is a Udev script that matches the FTDI device of my laser and sets the associated group on the device file to be "laserusers". Copy this file into /etc/udev/rules.d (using any name, with extension ".rules"), then whenever my laser is connected the device will be accessible to those users in the "laserusers" group.
With the laser connected, from a command prompt enter "ls -l /dev/ttyUSB*". This will give you the "long" listing of the file, which includes ownership and permissions. (Note: Command is three words, with spaces between).
The first char "c" indicates that the file represents a character-oriented device, which is correct for a serial port. ("b" is a block-oriented device such as a disk, "d" is directory, and "-" is a normal file.)
By default, linux puts all serial ports in the "dialout" group, and also by default linux users are not members of this group. So by default, users are are in the "all other" category and have permissions given by the last three chars: "---" indicates no access.
On linux, this is the most likely reason your software can't access your laser. In the vast majority of cases, simply adding the user to the "dialout" group will allow file access, and the software will work normally.
Linux only checks the groups you belong to when you first log in to the system (at the GUI level), so to update these changes you have to log all the way out and back in again, or reboot the system. Rebooting is simpler.
Enter your password when prompted, then without rebooting see if your software can now connect to your laser. Be sure to type the device file for your laser, if it's isn't ttyUSB0 as shown.
You can place the previous command ("chmod 666 /dev/ttyUSB0") in /etc/rc.local to force permissions at system boot, but this is not recommended: it will only work if your laser is powered on and connected when the linux system boots. Disconnect or power cycle the laser without rebooting linux and the permissions will revert to the original settings.
If you need to set a specific group or permissions, the right way is to tell Udev (the linux device manager) exactly what you want to see. For example, the following Udev script will match a particular USB vid and pid to set permissions and group access:
So for example, if a file containing that line is saved as "/etc/udev/rules.d/Laser.rules" it will be executed whenever the laser connects to the linux system and set the permissions appropriately. The filename "Laser" is arbitrary and can be just about anything.
Another interesting tidbit is that the probe would only go as low as about 2.6 cm about the desk, so I had to cut a cooking tray placed upside down as you can see in the very first photo. Since I was not allowed to use this for cutting, I also purchased a honeycomb working table for which I paid under $30 on Aliexpress.
At the time of the review, I would typically click on the Homing button to calibrate the position, then Corner to make the laser go into the bottom left corner, adjust the position of the material, then click on the frame button that will draw a rectangle around the area with the laser at low power. Once everything is in place I would click on the green button to start engraving, not forgetting to wear protection goggles beforehand.
I carried on with a small steel metal plate. When I first used 3,000mm/s speed and 100% laser power as listed in the table it was really pale, so I changed the speed to 600mm/s, and the results looked nice to me. Somehow I and my girlfriend can even see colors, but it may be a trick from our brains.
I thought they might be a problem. I read that the laser lens may get dirty after a while, and even though the laser engraver was in operation I still cleaned the lens following some of the instructions from the TS2 playlist on YouTube. But it did not help.
For LaserGRBL, it involves loading the TS2-CustomButton.zbn file to add icons specific to the TS2 laser engraver including some for the Z-axis for automatic height adjustment for engraving or cutting.
I might still need to work on adjusting the settings for optimal results, but at least we can work and improve from there. Two things I did not mention so far. Laser engraving (and cutting) is noisy and generates smoke and smells.
I did try to engrave the TwoTrees logo on the provided acrylic plate using the parameters from the table, but I find the result disappointing. One important with laser engraving is to experiment with settings until you find the right one for your design and material. It can take several tries and materials can run out pretty fast. With the benefit of hindsight, I should have probably tried with smaller image sizes to experiment with various settings.
It worked just fine, although there are some burns on the edge design. Those can be prevented with an air pump. The TwoTrees TS2 laser engraver does support air assist, but a pump was not provided with the kit. The design on the bottom left was done with S-MAX set to 100 (10%) instead of 1,000 (100%).
If we tap on Material, we get a few cliparts including the car above which we can engrave with different styles (Gray, Strong, Sketch, or Dither), and configure the size, speed, and laser power. What is not available are offsets and autofocus. So we have to start at 0,0 and manually adjust the height of the laser so that the probe is 7mm above the material.
The left side looks OK, but the right side is badly burnt. I could not see why at first but then realized I made another rookie mistake. The small ring is actually slightly thicker than the wooden pad, so the right side was around 1mm higher than the left side.
The Creation section allows you to draw shapes and write text, as well as import photos. I went with the latter and selected Sketch. It takes about one minute to transfer the data to the MicroSD card in the TS2 laser engraver and begin the engraving process. I also created a rectangle image to cut out the result.
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