Hello, in this article I will show and tell you how to make a laser CNC machine, on which you can do various engravings on wood, plastic and leather.
For this project we will need:
Arduino nano microcontroller
Two CD drives
Two drivers for A4988 stepper motors
Laser (in my model it is at 200nm and 200MW)
mosfet module on IRF520
Connecting wires
Bread board
Terminals
metal corners
Set of nuts and screws
From tools:
soldering iron
screwdriver
For eye protection:
Protective glasses
Let's take a quick look at the accessories. Let's start with the brain - the microcontroller. In addition to the Arduino nano, you can also use other models of this microcontroller.
The A4988 stepper motor driver is also important. With it, we can control the engine, set micro steps and their speed. Also in the A4988 driver, you can adjust the micro step of the motor: 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16.
To set it up, you need to pull the ms1 ms2 ms3 pins to the plus in a special order (shown in the table).
Consider the main characteristics.
Supply voltage: 8-35V
Micro step mode: 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16
Logic Voltage: 3-5.5V
overheat protection
Maximum current per phase: - 1 A without heatsink; - 2 A with heatsink
Size: 20 x 15 mm
Without heatsink: 2g
Now consider the connection diagram.
ENABLE - enable / disable the driver
MS1, MS2, MS3 - pins for setting micro pitch
RESET - chip reset
STEP - generation of pulses for the movement of motors (each pulse is a step), you can adjust the speed of the motor
DIR - setting the direction of rotation
VMOT - power supply for the motor (8 - 35 V)
GND - common
2B, 2A, 1A, 1B - for connecting motor windings
VDD - microcircuit power supply (3.5 -5V)
You also need to discuss the calibration of the drivers. It is controlled by a micro potentiometer on the driver. This potentiometer controls the current supplied to the motor. Different motors have different current consumption, so we need to decide on our motors. There are two ways here: fast and not very correct and long and correct. You can find information about your stepper motor on the Internet based on your CD drive model. There is a high probability that this method will not bring any information. Or you can use an easier way. Turn the potentiometer counterclockwise all the way, connect the motor through a simple Arduino program, and gradually turn the potentiometer clockwise until the motor starts. Our goal is to keep the engine running and not skipping steps. Don't worry about the engine getting too hot. This is normal, because the operating temperature of the stepper motor is 40 - 45 °C.
Code for calibration:
//simple connection A4988 //reset and sleep pins connected together //connect VDD to 3.3V or 5V pin on Arduino //connect GND to Arduino GND (GND next to VDD) //connect 1A and 1B to 1 stepper motor coil //connect 2A and 2B to coil 2 of stepper motor //connect VMOT to power supply (9V power supply + term) //connect GRD to power supply (9V power supply - term) int stp = 13; //connect pin 13 to step int dir = 12; //connect pin 12 to dir int a = 0; void setup() ( pinMode(stp, OUTPUT); pinMode(dir, OUTPUT); ) void loop() ( if (a< 200) // вращение на 200 шагов в направлении 1 { a++; digitalWrite(stp, HIGH); delay(10); digitalWrite(stp, LOW); delay(10); } else { digitalWrite(dir, HIGH); a++; digitalWrite(stp, HIGH); delay(10); digitalWrite(stp, LOW); delay(10); if (a>400) // rotate 200 steps in direction 2 ( a = 0; digitalWrite(dir, LOW); ) ) )
Let's go further. Let's talk laser. Lasers primarily differ in power. It depends on it whether you can burn on light woods or whether the machine can only process dark materials. In my model, I did not use a powerful laser, but higher power lasers are sold in the same package. I would not advise you to take large lasers with heatsinks, because their mass is much larger and stepper motors that are not designed for this load can overheat and fail.
Don't forget to protect your eyes and get safety goggles. Glasses should be chosen based on the wavelength of your laser.
We also need MOSFET IRF520. You can simply purchase a mosfet and the necessary harness for it, or buy a ready-made module.
Well, now, when the main points are discussed and all the components are prepared, you can start assembling.
First of all, consider the device diagram:
These schemes are absolutely identical. Pay attention to the power of the laser. Your laser may be of a different voltage.
I strongly advise you to start assembling on a breadboard. After assembly, install the software. We go to the site http://lasergrbl.com/en/ , go to the download tab and download the laserGRBL program.
Then go to GitHub and download .
From the archive we get the grbl folder and archive it. This will be our Arduino library. Add this library to the Arduino IDE and open the grblUpload example. We connect Arduino to the computer and bays this code.
The laserGRBL program is easy to use and five minutes of Google is enough to figure it out.
If the circuit on the breadboard is assembled, the motors respond to commands and the program works, you can proceed to the final part of the project - assembly into a case and soldering.
Today I finally finished the engraver myself and tested it.
Now about everything in order.
Initially, the idea to assemble a laser engraver was born when I saw a NeJe craft on Ali Express - an engraver from DVD drives.
The price is 4-5 thousand rubles, expensive. But it looks like an interesting toy.
I sat, dug the Internet, watched videos on YouTube. It doesn't seem to be hard to assemble.
I had a couple of stepper motors from an Epson inkjet printer (something like 25 steps per revolution), a little aluminum profile from Leroy.
I decided to try from what is to portray something like . There would only be 2 axles.
I decided to do the drive on belts, it is easier.
Based on the guides that remained from the printers, I estimated the size and assembled the base. I fixed the motor, belt tensioner, guides, installed a movable table and fastened the belt.
There are no photos with the belt installed.
Everything would be fine, but the table ran from edge to edge in just 2.5 turns of a stepper motor. Such a scheme would not give positioning accuracy.
I disassembled the belt drive, began to think about how to remake the circuit for an M5 lead screw and abandoned it.
Work piled up, there was no time.
At this time, a friend gave me several DVD drives for analysis. Writer DVD RW Sony and a pair of CD-RW DVD-ROM LG.
On trial, I decided to assemble the engraver on pieces of a DVD drive. From what he left, to that he came. In order to understand whether I'm interested in it or not is quite enough.
It seemed to me not aesthetically pleasing to assemble an engraver on a casing from a CD drive. I decided to assemble a frame for the engraver from different aluminum profiles. I had a square 20x20x1.5, a corner 20x20x1.5, a shank 60x2 and a U-shaped profile 12x15x2. Another task I set myself to fill my hand in working with the profile. Aluminum is a nasty material, then the drill will lead away when drilling, then the hand will tremble when cutting, then the canvas will bite. In general, as a training and honing skills, it is not superfluous. In the future, I plan to assemble a printer on a profile from Leroy.
The frame was fastened with a riveter. Fast and reliable.
If the goal is to make it cheap and cheerful, you can and should assemble it on the case from the drive.
On the X axis I used a piece from LG, on the Y piece from Sony. I removed everything that was possible from the movable carriages of both drives. We won't need this.
For both axles, I designed and printed different spacers on a printer. On the Y-axis with thread.
X-axis short spacers
For the Y axis, I designed and printed a table stand. Glued it to the carriage with superglue.
I used a piece of 6mm plexiglass as a table. After assembling the engraver, I glued the plexiglass to the printing table in the same way, with superglue.
Instead of any nuts, washers and gaskets, it was convenient for me to print different fasteners on the printer. No glue guns and snot :)
From a square profile 20x20 I cut 4 pieces into a base and racks.
First, I assembled the base for attaching the carriage along the X axis
A piece of a corner 20x20x1.5 was needed to spread the racks, so that a piece with a carriage entered between the racks, a drive along the Y axis.
I assembled the base for the Y axis. Two pieces of a square profile and an aluminum strip. Fastened with a rivet.
In place, I riveted steel corners for attaching the X-axis portal.
As holders of the X-axis racks, I used steel corners from Leroy. Rubles 14 each.
And put it all together.
I riveted 2 corners to the back of the portal X, for attaching electronics.
Almost done mechanically. At the back, through the spacers printed on the printer, I screwed home-made brains.
Mom soldered wires and connectors to stepper motors
Buying a ready-made laser with a controller on Ali is expensive, in the end I bought only a TTL controller for the laser.
Here's one:
For 250 kopecks rubles.
The laser diode was taken from a Sony drive. I took the lens from the LG drive. I inserted a laser diode in a square case into a U-shaped profile, the module with the laser stood up very tightly, and in front of it I placed an assembly lens from LG, with focus coils and other offal. Perfect fit for the width and height. In this embodiment, it becomes possible to adjust the focal length from the laser to the lens.
The photo partially shows the design of the laser module itself.
A laser diode with soldered wires, and a lens in front of it.
I didn’t come up with anything better and easier than pulling the laser module to the X carriage with cable ties. Sufficiently reliable and you can adjust the distance from the laser to the workpiece.
I soldered electronics to the engraver at work. After assembly, he showed his toy to colleagues. And it began: will it cut the paper, and black electrical tape, and blue tape, and if a piece of solder is painted black, will it melt? :)
I tell you, the laser leaves a mark on the cardboard, cuts black electrical tape and black polyethylene. Blue tape on cardboard cuts.
In general, the toy turned out to be funny.
Already home. Sawed along the length of the laser emitter. I hid the TTL scarf inside the profile.
The program for converting pictures into g-code is called CHPU.
Controls the router GRBLController.
Engraves a picture. The first one so to speak. Compare with my avatar :)
Naturally, it is necessary to select the engraving mode. And a small fan for blowing would not hurt to blow off the smoke from cutting. Engraved on a piece of cardboard.
I uploaded the firmware to the board with GRBL 1.1f, it is in the entry about the board.
As for the firmware settings:
A DVD drive's stepper motor most often has 20 steps per revolution.
Screw pitch 3mm.
20/3=6.6666666666667 steps per 1mm
The a4988 drivers have microstepping set to 16.
Accordingly, 6.6666666666667*16=106.67
The voltage on the a4988 drivers (for 100 ohm resistances in the driver) set 0.24 V
To enable the laser engraver mode in the firmware, enter
The laser (via the controller) is connected to the 11th leg of the arduino, with PWM.
Those. laser power can be adjusted, and you can turn the laser on or off programmatically.
To turn on the laser, give the command
The laser will not turn on until the carriage has moved.
To turn off the laser command
If you forgot to tell about something - ask.
I repeat, the toy turned out to be interesting, I am satisfied with the toy.
Someday my hands will reach and finish a big engraver.
TAKE CARE OF YOUR EYES! Avoid direct and reflected laser beam contact with eyes. Do not look at the operating laser without special glasses. Keep pets away from the working engraver!
Like a warning.
Hello everyone.
Concept
It's hard to imagine, but in some universities you still have to draw graphs by hand (the computer is the work of the devil, of course ...). This annoyed me so much that I decided to build a graphing machine, which I will use. My plotter can print any HPGL drawing on paper.
I also needed a special kind of software. It should not only control the device, but also be able to develop and save graphs. That's why I decided to write my own application instead of using existing CNC software.
I used an ATMEG16 microcontroller to control the device. It receives data through a USB-RS232 converter (FT232) connected to the computer's USB port. Data is streamed using my own communication protocol, which will be discussed later. For X and Yoshi, I found two stepper motors from old scanners. They have a built-in mechanism so that the torque is increased without complicating control. The Z axis is a simple electromagnet (from an old printer, I believe). All this stuff is powered by a power supply from an HP printer.
Necessary parts and tools.
I spent about $25 on the project (I bought everything in Poland, prices may differ in other countries).
Here is the list:
You will also need:
Step 1: Design and preparation
The project was modeled in Blender (it's a 3D modeling program).
The green box is food. The yellow box is the controller. Blue “box” - LCD display.
The amber parts were made from laminate. Blue details - plexiglass.
Stepper motors, electromagnet - dark gray parts.
Stepper motors, electromagnet and limit switches in dark grey.
In the PDF file you will find drawings of plexiglass parts. Cutting is very cheap even in Poland. You need to order parts from 3mm plexiglass.
A few words about X and Yoshi sliders are just furniture rails.
Step 2: Soldering
As I said, the device is controlled by ATmega16. It controls the stepper motors and the electromagnet. It also sends data to the LCD.
To communicate with a PC, I used the FT232RL chip (USB-UART converter). I used my own communication protocol. These are two TCMT1109 optocouplers that are used to electrically isolate the PC from the controller. The USB-UART converter must be reprogrammed using FTProg (XML file attached below).
There are also 4 switches on the board. One is needed to reset the processor (it was useful during testing), but the rest were installed for future use. Now the middle switch ("OK") is used to receive the start command (I will write about this later).
Pen and pen plotters were once extremely popular. Over time, their production began to decline. But such systems can be used in various fields, including cutting and sewing, engineering, drawing, etc. You can find a pen plotter on the market, but it's more interesting to make it yourself, right?
And a user named Miguel Sanchez decided to make a plotter on his own. As a control platform, he chose the Arduino Uno. The system also uses NEMA 17 stepper motors and an auxiliary servo to raise and lower the handle.
In addition, metal tubes, belts and several 3D printed parts are used. This whole system is quite simple, and if you have a 3D printer, it is not particularly difficult to make it. Interestingly, initially Miguel decided to use laser cutting to create the necessary parts, but after that he decided to work with a 3D printer.
Sanchez decided to create his own plotter, inspired by the AxiDraw model, which was developed by Evil Mad Scientist.
Here is the first model of the plotter base, created from laser-cut parts:
After the developer decided to finalize the system, as well as use a 3D printer to create parts for his plotter.
All models of the parts needed for printing are posted by the user in the public domain.
In order to send files for "printing", the craftsman used the program
Graph plotters are devices that automatically draw drawings, drawings, diagrams on paper, fabric, leather and other materials with a given accuracy. Models of equipment with a cutting function are common. Making a plotter with your own hands at home is quite possible. This will require parts from an old printer or DVD drive, some software and some other materials.
It is relatively easy to make a small plotter from a DVD drive yourself. Such a device on arduino much cheaper than its branded counterpart.
The working area of the created device will be 4 by 4 cm.
You will need the following to work materials:
To bring the planned project to life, you should collect such tools:
Experienced hobbyists of electronic homemade products can use additional parts to assemble a more functional device.
The assembly of the cnc plotter is carried out according to the following algorithm:
Disassembled DVD drives
X-Y axes in assembly
Paper placement base
Wiring diagram
After that, the homemade mini plotter is ready to go.
The coordinate axes must be located perpendicular to each other. In this case, the pencil (or pen), fixed in the holder, should move up and down with a servo without any problems. If the stepper drives do not work, then you need to check the correctness of their connection with the L293D microcircuits and find a working option.
The code for testing the X-Y axes, the work of the plotter, the Inkscape program with the addition can be downloaded on the Internet.
G-code is a file containing X-Y-Z coordinates. Inkscape acts as an intermediary that allows you to create plotter-compatible files with this code, which is then converted into the movement of electric motors. To print the desired image or text, you will need to first translate them into a G-code using the Inkscape program, which will then be sent to print.
The following video demonstrates the operation of a homemade plotter from a DVD drive:
Plotters are classified according to various criteria. Apparatus in which the carrier is fixed mechanically, electrostatically or in a vacuum, are called tablet. Such devices can either simply create an image or cut it out, with the appropriate function. At the same time horizontal and vertical cutting is available. Media options are only limited by tablet size.
Cutting plotter otherwise called a boat. It has a built-in cutter or knife. Most often, images are cut by the device from such materials:
You can make a flatbed printing or cutting plotter from a printer: in the first case, a pencil (pen) will be installed in the holder, and in the second, a knife or a laser.
Homemade tablet plotter
To assemble the device with your own hands, you will need the following components and materials:
The laser allows you to cut thin films and burn wood.
The simplest version of a tablet plotter is assembled in the following sequence:
Installing guides
Carriage with holes for guides
Marker mount
Locking mechanism
Assembled homemade plotter
If use Arduino, then the programs discussed above will do. The use of different microcontrollers will require the installation of different software.
When a knife is installed to cut a film or paper (cardboard), its penetration depth should be correctly adjusted by experiment.
This design can be improved by adding automation. Details on the parameters will need to be selected empirically, based on those available. Some may need to be purchased.
Both of the considered options for plotters can be done independently, if only there was an old unnecessary technique and desire. Such cheap devices are able to draw drawings, cut out various images and shapes. They are far from industrial analogues, but if it is necessary to create drawings frequently, they will greatly facilitate the work. The software is available online for free.
