Mittwoch, 25. April 2012

laser cutting prusa

Dear reprap community,

it has been a while since our last post. We have been quite busy with handling all order in time. We are happy to share that within the last 6 month we managed to have an average time of 0.8 days from placed to dispatched orders. But we are still trying to get even faster. :)

The last days have been quite relaxed so I like to share some recent development progress. Besides that we did a new extruder, where only the hot end is swappable for easy changes between different filament colors/diameters we also made our own 1W laser head for this extruder. The reprapped part should be customized the the specific laser and electronic, so will not upload it to thingiverse.


The goal was to share the same electronics and use the original hotend mosfet to control the laser. Only some minor firmware adjustments needed to be done to use the mosfet as a digital output without PID. The driver for the laser has a PWM input channel, but the power control has not been implemented yet. So the firmware modification are pretty straight forward by deactivated temperature control and introducing two new MXXX commands. If you are interested, just drop us an email.

Here you can find a video of changing the toolhead and cutting some parts with the laser module:


For gcode generation we used the freeware tool dxf2gcode with some rework in the editor to auto replace Z-movements with the new laser on and off commands. Also wintopo showed good performance in generating useable gcode.

If you plan to build this toolhead on your own please be aware of the power of these laser and always wear laser protection googles suited for the wavelength you are dealing with. We do not want to see these kinds of lasers in anyone's hands, therefore we are not going to sell these kits. Even if 998 out of 1000 know what they are doing and are aware of the danger, for sure there will be one who burns out his eyes and another one that will attach it to a shark's head.

3 Kommentare:

  1. Hey, nice Idea, well done!
    I bought a Spyder from wickedlasers.com (1W blue) a while ago, but it's too heavy and too big to use on the tool head. What laser are you using? How is it to focus?
    regards from Switzerland,
    Michael

    AntwortenLöschen
  2. Hello,

    I am working on the RepRap Prusa Mendel at Dim Sum Labs, the Hong Kong HackerSpace. Once I get it working (again), I'd like to implement a laser cutter on the same platform. Would you be kind enough to contact me please? I cannot find your email anywhere on this page, apologies. I can be reached via www.graham-leach.com or at www.dimsumlabs.com/user/348/contact

    AntwortenLöschen
  3. hello, I'm interested in changing the firmware for marlin "laser cutting Prusa"

    AntwortenLöschen