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Now it’s time to share my latest project with everyone—a low-cost laser engraver, and through this project, I might have a chance to try a real one. Although the working space is a bit small, it can still work effectively, and the cost is very low, most people can afford to make a replica. I have been thinking about when to start making a laser cutter. The wonderful things that a real laser cutter can do constantly tease my imagination. One thing I have wanted to do for a long time is to build some model houses and other model railway scenery in the backyard, maybe even make my own four-wheeled cart (at least a rough version). There are also some other ideas, such as making attachments, signs, and engraved plates for my works, making paper-cutting and stamps for my wife, and making dollhouses and furniture for my friends’ kids… Oh, the powerful laser cutter!In some places, I cut corners because existing knowledge is not enough to handle all the electronic components, so I chose ready-made components, but to keep costs low, I also tried DIY (however, there were many failures). In any case, the parts I used are still easy to find.I am very satisfied with the final product, even though there is still room for improvement. Its small size and low power limit its functionality, but it has already brought me a lot of fun. It can cut paper, engrave wood signs, and make stamps. The engraver itself is not small, at least bigger than a pocket, but its working space limits the size of the objects you can make to within pocket size.Here are the safety warnings. This project uses a red laser emitter of about 200mW, which is not enough to burn through wood, but it can blind your eyes if you are not careful! So never look directly at the laser beam, even looking at the reflected light is very dangerous. Please pay attention to safety. 1 Tools and Materials Most of the hardware can be made from scrap. Aluminum profiles, medium density fiberboard, and various nuts, bolts, and wires. But some items need to be purchased separately. Most electronic components can be found on Taobao or at flea markets.

● 1. Laser emitter housing (as shown)● 2. Easydrive driver circuit (as shown)● Arduino (this is the core of the control circuit)● Easydrive stepper driver● Two DVD-ROM drives (if you’re unlucky, you may need more), and at least one DVD-R drive to provide the laser emitter● Laser emitter housing ● Laser emitter driver circuit (there are many alternatives; I used a simple circuit based on LM317 ($0.2142))● Various nuts, bolts, and other building materials.2 Disassembling DVD-Rom Drives

Broken DVD-Rom drive

● In the DVD-Rom drive, you only need the stepper motor component and the laser diode. I was unlucky to find that my DVD-Rom had a very difficult plastic component to handle. So I disassembled three DVD-Rom drives but only used parts from two of them. The disassembly process is quite difficult, and most of the DVD-Rom drives I opened are almost like this.

There is a small DC motor right below this, you can take it out for future projects● After removing the screws at the bottom of the drive, you can lift it like a lid. You will likely see two circuit boards under the bottom cover, which are of no use to us. But remember to keep other useful parts for use in other projects. For example, there is a small DC motor worth keeping under the front circuit board.

● Now you should remove the front panel along with the front tray. After you pull out the tray, the front panel will become loose (just use a bobby pin and the small hole on the front panel). ● The next steps require removing screws, and may need some brute force. Remove the two circuit boards. Be careful with the ribbon cable connected to the stepper motor.

Need to remove this motor.● If you place the DVD-Rom drive with the right side up and remove the top cover, you should be able to find what we are looking for—the stepper motor component. Unscrew it and take it out directly.

● Now that we have taken out the stepper motor component, we should do some cleaning. Remove the spindle motor; it might be useful, but I find it too troublesome to drive, so I discarded them. They are usually fixed with three very small screws, but sometimes they can be part of a larger component, so be careful when removing them, and do not damage the two rods that support the lens.● As for the lens, just remove it with the most suitable method; we need to leave a smooth surface to connect some other parts on top. Be careful not to damage the laser diode of the DVD drive. If you don’t want to buy a new powerful laser emitter later, you need to treat this thing well.

This entire component needs to be disassembled and set aside for future projects.3 Assembling the Laser Emitter

Laser diode● It is not difficult to take the laser emitter from the DVDR drive, but the shapes of most lens components vary. Find the laser diodes (there will be two, one infrared and one red) and disassemble them from the components.

These optical components can be saved for future projects

On both sides of the lens, there are two strong magnets, which you deserve

1. Magnets removed from the lens2. Mirrors and lenses3. Laser diodes4. Waste● Among them are some optical components and two magnets; you can keep them for future projects.

You need to remove the laser diode from the bracket. This requires a bit of gentle force. Be careful not to damage the laser diode

One of them is the infrared laser diode, and the other is the red laser diode we need

● After you take out the two diodes, you must be very careful. These two diodes are very small and fragile.● Remove the small piece of the circuit board from the diodes, and then check if the red laser diode is alive with two AA batteries.

● Now that you have the bare diodes, it’s time to install them into the housing.

The small hole at the back of the laser emitter housing is just right for the diode leads to pass through

● Place the diode into the housing and carefully press the diode into the housing with the back of the housing and pliers.

Now the diode is firmly placed in the housing

● Once you finish this step, you are on a smooth road to the finish line. Weld the wires to the positive and negative leads.

● Then screw the lens on, and you are done.

Use some Teflon tape to secure the lens in place

178mW output power is pretty good. However, this will put the diode into an overloaded state

The working current of the diode is 310mA4 Making the Mechanical Parts

I was lucky to find these spacers, but a bolt and some nuts can also achieve good results

Using an acrylic board as a base● To keep it as simple as possible, I found a piece of medium density fiberboard that is slightly larger than the stepper motor component of the DVD-Rom drive. It will serve as the base to fix the X-axis and Y-axis directions.● I found some spacers to fix the Y-axis direction, but a few bolts and several nuts can also work well. The size requirement here is not strict, but it must ensure that each axis is perpendicular to the others. I found it easier to align the parts after installing the first layer of components on the medium density fiberboard.

● The workspace is located on the old laser diode component. Ensure it is flat and level, then apply some glue to secure it, and the workspace is complete. I found that a 1/4 inch acrylic board fits perfectly. It allows the workspace to maintain enough stability, but since the laser can penetrate it, I am not sure if there is a safety hazard. Later, I came up with a solution that I think works best. I cut a piece of the metal shell of the DVDR drive that is the same size as the acrylic board and glued it on. This way, the workspace remains very stable, and the strength is sufficient. It also has a beneficial effect, allowing you to use magnets to secure the items you want to engrave on the workspace.

● I found some aluminum profiles in the scrap box.

● Used it as the X-axis, but you can use any sturdy and long material.

● Measure the appropriate height you think is needed when engraving.

● I chose several 7.5-inch long boards as supports. This leaves me with less than 2 inches of small gaps.

I drilled a few small holes so that I could tie the wires tightly with cable ties

● One important thing is that the mounting holes on the components are not symmetrical. Remember to measure the distance from the bottom of the support to the linear guide. This way, you can ensure that all parts are aligned. The position of the X-axis installation depends on the position of the laser emitter. The laser emitter should be centered in the workspace, while the Y-axis is in the middle. When you install the two axes on the base plate, first ensure that all parts are at right angles to each other, and then drill a few small guide holes for the screws to be screwed into.

● Now you should have completed the mutually perpendicular X and Y axes.

The most important size requirement here is to ensure that everything is square at right angles● The bracket for the laser emitter does not need to be very complicated; I used a small piece of plastic board and a clip, and then glued everything together.● Use a clip to secure the laser emitter, so you can simply slide the laser emitter up and down to change the focus position.● Like other parts, its size is not important, as long as everything is perpendicular to each other. There is only one size you need to consider, which is the position of the laser emitter. When the Y-axis and X-axis are in the central position, it should be in the center of the workspace.

I tested it here with a piece of black plastic that is the same as the bracket for the laser emitter. Finally, I tested it again with a piece of metal removed from the DVDR drive casing |5 Electronic Components

When looking for the required ribbon cables, old computers are your best choice

These ribbon cables are not easy to solder, but they work well. I have performed the same soldering on both stepper motors● I started soldering the stepper motors. Connect the stepper motor with a ribbon cable, and then solder them to the existing interfaces on the DVD circuit board. I soldered a four-pin plug on the other end so that it can be used on the test circuit board.

Easydriver and Arduino’s first test—a huge success● Do the same for Easydriver, solder a pin plug, and then plug it into the test circuit board.● Easydriver has two pins called MS1 and MS2, which are used to set the stepping sequence. Connect both of them to the 5V output of Easydriver. This sets the stepping sequence to micro-stepping control. Connect the four pins extending from the stepper motor to the output of the motor, while the control pins (step, dir, and gnd) connect to the Arduino. Besides these, Easydriver needs to be connected to the motor power supply. I used a 12V power adapter to drive the motor, fan, and Arduino. A potentiometer is used to control the motor power; just set it to the lowest. If the stepper motor is underpowered, adjust it slightly higher. I am not sure about the rated voltage of the stepper motor; if they get hot, it means you are providing too high a voltage.

Extra components not used in this project

● I added a relay to the circuit diagram for the fan. Because the engraving process will produce some smoke, the fan is very useful.● The fan only needs to be connected to the fan output. A small computer fan works well; you just need to connect the positive and negative wires to the correct output.

When soldering all the pins, remember to check if the positions are correct

I installed the Easydrives in the socket so that they can be reused in future versions● The driver circuit for the laser emitter is made based on the LM317 circuit, requiring no special parts. This type of driver circuit can work normally, but the effect is far from ideal. I provided too much driving current to the laser diode, about 300mA; if you do the same, the diode’s lifespan will not be long. The best solution should be to find a more powerful laser emitter and driver, but to stick to the spirit of being cheap and DIY, I still want to use the laser emitter from the DVDR drive itself. The laser emitter switch and the fan use the same relay.● If you want to keep everything simple, you can skip making the entire laser emitter driver circuit and use a ready-made driver instead. In that case, all you need to do is connect the power to the fan relay. Of course, doing so might slightly increase the cost.● The entire circuit constitutes a new type of Arduino circuit—the laser emitter control circuit. I have attached the Eagle format circuit diagram and circuit board layout diagram. If you want to lay out the Easydrivers’ circuit yourself, I also prepared the Eagle library file with the driver program, which you can download here.6 Preparing Arduino

● I wrote the software for Arduino myself. However, while searching for a good way to control movement via serial, I stumbled upon something called “Grbl”. It is a G-code compiler with quite a few excellent features. Since I have already connected everything to the Arduino, I either have to change my wiring or change my program. Fortunately, modifying the control pins in the software is quite convenient. I just had to download Winavr and then download the code. It was easy to do. After downloading and extracting the code, you must modify the port numbers in config.h to ensure they are arranged in the correct order. Then all you need to do is open a command window, enter the correct folder, and type “make”. If everything goes as planned, you should end up with a .hex file for Arduino.● However, I have modified the pins since then, and in this tutorial, I am using the default pins of Grbl. This makes it easier for you to set up while following the tutorial. You just need to download the .hex file from the Grbl download page.● Regardless of which method you choose, you will eventually get a .hex file to input into the Arduino. I have tried many different methods, and my favorite is a software called XLoader. The programming process is very straightforward: select the correct serial port for Arduino; select the hex file and the model of Arduino; then press the upload button. If you are using a new version of Arduino Uno, XLoader does not support it, and you will encounter an upload error. In this case, I recommend using ARP/ArduinoUploader, but even this uploader still has some issues with support for Uno. When programming the Arduino, make sure to select the serial port and microcontroller from the dropdown lists. Then you must modify the text “AVR Dude Params”. Remove the part “-b19200” (without quotes) and click the upload button. In any case, you should be able to finish it in a few seconds and be ready for testing. Exit XLoader and move on to the next part.● You need to set up the Arduino for this project. Open your favorite serial terminal and open the port connected to Arduino. You should receive a welcome message:Grbl 0.6b‘$’ to dump current settings” (input “$” to clear current settings)If you enter a $ and hit enter, you will see a series of options. Something like this:$0 = 400.0 (steps/mm x)$1 = 400.0 (steps/mm y)$2 = 400.0 (steps/mm z)$3 = 30 (microseconds step pulse)$4 = 480.0 (mm/sec default feed rate)$5 = 480.0 (mm/sec default seek rate)$6 = 0.100 (mm/arc segment)$7 = 0 (step port invert mask. binary = 0)$8 = 25 (acceleration in mm/sec^2)$9 = 300 (max instant cornering speed change in delta mm/min)‘$x=value’ to set parameter or just ‘$’ to dump current settingsok● You must modify the steps/mm values of both the X-axis and Y-axis to 53.333. Just enter “$0=53.33” (note: this seems to be a typo, missing a 3) and hit enter, then enter “$1=53.333” and hit enter. Since we are not using the Z-axis, we can ignore it. The acceleration can be increased to about 100 (enter “$8=100” and hit enter). When we operate this machine slowly, the acceleration will also be high. Another downside of having too low an acceleration is that the controller keeps trying to accelerate and decelerate but cannot reach full speed, causing the curve graphics to burn more severely than straight lines. You might find that one axis is reversed like I did. This can be easily corrected. The option $7 allows you to change the direction of the axis. I want to change the direction of the X-axis, so I enter “$7=8”, because I want to modify bit 3 (8 = 00001000 in binary), if you want to change the direction of the Y-axis, then enter 16 (00010000), or if you want to change both axes, enter 24 (00011000). You can view the complete documentation for mask settings here.● Now you have completed the preparation for the computer setup. If you want to try moving a bit, you can enter “G91 G28 X0 Y0【enter】” to zero the position of the axis. Then enter “X10 Y10【enter】”. You should see both axes move up by 10mm.7 Preparing the Software

● In this step, I will explain in detail from the basics. I will talk about the software you need, how to set up the software, and the basic tool combinations. I will only explain based on Windows systems; those of you using Linux can find it yourself (although Inkscape and related extensions should also run well on Linux). First, you must download the following three files:1 Inkscape—this is an open-source vector editing software.2 LaserEengraverExtension (Laser Engraver Extension)—this will generate the g-code needed to control the laser emitter.3 G-codeSender (G code sender)—this is a small program I wrote for Windows to communicate with Grbl.● Install Inkscape according to the installation instructions. This should be a very smooth process. If you need any help in this area, you can find relevant documentation on their website. Next is the laser engraver extension. This is a bit more complicated to install, but not too difficult. Open the .zip file with your usual decompression software and copy all the files to “c:Program FilesInkscapeshareextensions”. You must restart Inkscape for the extension to take effect. This extension is actually a heavily modified version of the “Gcodetools” version. This is where Inkscape is installed. You can place the “G code sender” on the desktop or any other place and find it later. It does not require installation.● Regarding the extension, I must state one thing: I am not a python programmer, so there may be some defects in the code.● I will assume that you have installed all the software and are ready to start using it. Below is a quick overview of the work interface.● I hope this video is not too fast. There are countless Inkscape usage tutorials online. I will not explain any details about how to use it.● The G code sender is another matter. There is no documentation online because this is a program I wrote myself. All the documentation is in this tutorial, but if you have questions, please feel free to ask. When you open the program, it should be very straightforward. The only strange thing is the line-ending selection button “nr” and “rn”. Depending on the version of Grbl you are using, the line endings may differ. If one method does not work, try the other. Select the serial port you are using; if you forget to connect the laser engraver, connect it, and then press the refresh button, your serial port should be displayed. Press the “open” button to open the welcome interface. Once the port is open, you can input commands in the text box above the open button like any command line terminal software. If you want to start opening a file for engraving, you can either enter the file path or click the browse button to select a file. When you click the “print” button, the file transfer starts. The file will continue to transfer until the Arduino’s buffer is full, which is about 20 lines. When the buffer can take in more data, another line will be transferred. When you press the “stop” button, the transfer will stop, but the Arduino will not stop until the buffer is cleared. When you press the “close” button or exit the program, the serial port will be closed, and any transfer will be aborted.● Sometimes there will be G codes that Grbl cannot interpret, and it will return an error. Most of the time, these errors can be ignored, but they will appear in the sender. These may be comments or the “%” symbol at the beginning or end. If there is a comment after a command, it will generate an error, but that command will still be executed. For example, “G21 (All units in mm)”; the G21 command will still be executed, but the comment afterwards will give an error.8 Final Assembly and Additional Accessories

When you put the Easydrivers in a box, you need a fan to cool them down. They can get extremely hot● To perfect this small engraving machine, I made a small box from the fiberboard I took off from a picture frame. Just glue it together.● There is a small fan from an old graphics card in front. When you put the Easydrivers in any enclosure, you need to cool them. They get hot when they are bare, and they get even hotter when placed in an enclosure.

Gluing some spacers in the box can make it easier to fasten with screws on the bottom cover● I glued some threaded spacers in the box so that I can screw the screws in from the bottom.

● Tighten the Arduino to the bottom with screws upside down. This way, this engraving machine becomes a convenient little tool.

Ventilation holes

All the wires entering the box pass through the top

I found this fan guard intact from an old graphics card● This is a 40mm computer fan, connected to the relay of the laser emitter mentioned in the electronic components step. The fan faces outward from the workspace; it will gently suck away the smoke.

Connect the fan to the relay of the laser emitter, facing outward from the workspace. It can remove smoke while not affecting the components in the workspace.

Glue a nut on top of the neodymium magnet. It can hold your workpiece well● Another small and useful additional part is the magnets used to hold paper and other lighter objects. I found these magnets from an old toy. Just glue some nuts on top, and you are done.

When the laser emitter is at its lowest position, the focus should be aimed at the surface of the workspace● To change the focus, you have to adjust the lens by turning the screws. Or you can first set the focus on the workspace, then slide the laser emitter up and down on the bracket.● When the laser emitter is at its lowest position on the bracket, I fixed its focus. Then all I need to do is measure the thickness of the workpiece and raise the laser emitter by the same height. Most of the time, I just need to lean the workpiece against the side of the laser emitter’s bracket and then move the laser emitter to the correct height.

When I move the laser emitter to the same height as the workpiece, the focus is adjusted to the top of the workpiece9 All Done Here are the items I have made with the engraving machine so far; I will try to showcase them with pictures. Imagination is the only limit (besides the low power of the engraving machine and the small size of the workspace).Keychain

Stamp

● 1. Black ink● 2. Thin foam board bought from a craft store● 3. Cut and then glued onto the fiberboard.● 4. Printed finished productCut a small piece of foam board, then glue it onto a piece of fiberboard.Plane

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