Newb here needs advice

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Newb here needs advice

Postby mondo50m » Sun Nov 27, 2011 11:52 pm

I have just ordered one of the 'cheap' Chinese laser units. I am expecting it to arrive this week. I woud love to build the 2.X, but I feel this unit will give me a starting point, plus I can reuse some of the parts when I upgrade. From what I have seen on this website (and, thank you all very much), I am going to need to do some mods to it. What exactly am I going to have to purchase in order to have it work with Mach 3. I have a homebuilt CNC router that is currently running Mach 3 and CUT2D. What do I need to do to keep this configuration? I am not able to go the DSP route right now as I have just gotten back to work after looking for 2 1/2 years. And I want to keep the CNC unit. I looked on the LO site and have seen some of their stepper controllers. Is this all that I really need? Please help, and try (please) to include details, I am 61 years young and it takes some time to wrap my head around this stuff.

Thank You,
Milt
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Re: Newb here needs advice

Postby mondo50m » Tue Nov 29, 2011 12:11 pm

No takers on this one huh? Thanks anyway guys. I will keep reading the forum entries and see what comes up.

Milt
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Re: Newb here needs advice

Postby timogiles » Tue Nov 29, 2011 12:50 pm

I haven't updated my buildlog in a few days but I'm making some progress with mine that might help you. My goal is to reuse as much of the machine as I can. Right now I'm in the middle of modding the control board that comes with the cheap chinese unit. Last night I fired the laser and moved the motors under my own control. I'm not familiar with Mach3 yet but I think that I could make a plugin module to support Mach3 with the stock electronics. I'll try and update my buildlog tonight to talk about my progress and current challenges.
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Re: Newb here needs advice

Postby mondo50m » Tue Nov 29, 2011 12:56 pm

Thank you very much sir. I see that you are from Rochester. I lived in Utica for 54 years before moving to Florida. I am looking forward to any help that you can avail me.

Milt
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Re: Newb here needs advice

Postby twehr » Tue Nov 29, 2011 3:20 pm

mondo50m wrote:I have just ordered one of the 'cheap' Chinese laser units. I am expecting it to arrive this week. I woud love to build the 2.X, but I feel this unit will give me a starting point, plus I can reuse some of the parts when I upgrade. From what I have seen on this website (and, thank you all very much), I am going to need to do some mods to it. What exactly am I going to have to purchase in order to have it work with Mach 3. I have a homebuilt CNC router that is currently running Mach 3 and CUT2D. What do I need to do to keep this configuration? I am not able to go the DSP route right now as I have just gotten back to work after looking for 2 1/2 years. And I want to keep the CNC unit. I looked on the LO site and have seen some of their stepper controllers. Is this all that I really need? Please help, and try (please) to include details, I am 61 years young and it takes some time to wrap my head around this stuff.

Thank You,
Milt


I originally converted a Chinese 40 watt laser to run under Mach3. Yes, a simple 2 or 3 axis driver board is the minimum you need (electronically) to have Mach3 control the laser. Basically, you are replacing the (probably Moshi) controller, which has both the controller functions and the driver functions built in. Mach3 becomes the controller and the 2 or 3 axis driver board becomes the drives.

You could also just buy a couple of individual drives if that works out to be cheaper.

Within a couple of weeks of converting mine, I went back to the Moshi setup until I could afford the DSP. Mach3 was just too limiting on it raster (engraving) ability. Of course, once I got my hands on a DSP, I knew I would likely never using anything else.
tim
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