Dongle Disaster; Open Alternative

Electronics related to CNC

Dongle Disaster; Open Alternative

Postby Nickwit » Thu Mar 07, 2013 8:54 am

Well that was a catastrophe.

Bought Chinese laser (little 6040)... turned up in one piece, everything worked... needed to re-build various parts that were badly designed, fix a couple of bits etc... but very soon found self with perfectly working laser cutter...

... running LaserCutter 5.3, which won't run without a dongle.

And the dongle has stopped working... taking the entire machine out of commission until my suppliers get around to replacing this ludicrous bit of DRM cripple-ware, which (tbh) I found pretty offensive in the first place.

So...

1) any easy way of getting a Leetro MPC 6515 controller working without having to use DRMified software? Am willing to resort to crime.

2) can anyone recommend a controller that can be used to replace the one I've got, that uses open-source software?

... and how difficult is that?

(I'm a fairly accomplished programmer, and a fairly unaccomplished electronics tinkerer... can get arduinos to sing and dance, but I've only been doing that for about 4 months or so)



Nick


PS: Hi everyone. Nick from New Zealand etc. 9.45 in the PM, South Park's on TV. Everything appears to be pretty much as it should be.
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Re: Dongle Disaster; Open Alternative

Postby Fred » Thu Mar 07, 2013 11:26 am

I recently replaced the board in my cheap Chinese DC-K40 laser with one from ChrisCircuits.com and very happy with it. I went this route because I'm already using Mach3 for a CNC mill. I think it should work with LinuxCNC too if that's your thing. Mach3 does great vector cutting and engraving - raster stuff is a bit trickier.
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Re: Dongle Disaster; Open Alternative

Postby Nickwit » Sat Mar 09, 2013 12:24 am

I'd noticed the controller that Lasersaur is using as well... can't actually see anything anywhere that mentions it's ability to do rastar engraving... but I really like the way it has a web interface... means I can write my own interface - possibly use PHP to generate patterns (which I'm doing already... but there are a bunch of manual steps)

Rastar engraving is kindof vital though - does anyone know of an open-source offering that can handle both vector and rastar?



NIck
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Re: Dongle Disaster; Open Alternative

Postby greenvandan » Sat Mar 09, 2013 1:15 am

Have you seen Ben Jackson's buildlog on this forum? I believe he was working on some mods to use linuxcnc to control his laser. I think it does raster as well. It's mostly over my head but you should have a look.
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Re: Dongle Disaster; Open Alternative

Postby Nickwit » Mon Oct 20, 2014 7:18 am

A year has gone by, and exactly the same thing has happened again.

The curse that is DRM has left me with a perfectly good laser-cutter, that won't work because the software dongle has broken. This crap should be illegal.

So... a year later... can anyone recommend :

- a board/system
- that (preferably) runs on open-source software
- that can be swapped into a standard 80w chinese 6040 machine
- that can do rastar engraving as well as cut

?

Any advice gratefully received.



Nick
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Re: Dongle Disaster; Open Alternative

Postby TrickyCNC » Mon Oct 20, 2014 9:19 am

Mine has the RD controller and software

http://en.rd-acs.com/pro_view.aspx?TypeId=33&Id=21

it doesn't need a dongle (well mine doesn't ! ) not sure if that is the case all the time, you'd have to ask them.

I've only had the machine 6 months, and don't use the software for design, just to drive the machine, but it seems very capable.
When I upgrade my other machine, I'll probably get another of their controllers.

On that link .. go to support and downloads, and I think you can download the software to try.

hope that helps

Rich
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Re: Dongle Disaster; Open Alternative

Postby Nickwit » Tue Oct 21, 2014 4:47 am

I wound up going for an AWC608 - it seems to do what I need it to do with a learning-curve appropriate to the time I have to get things sorted out (very little) - and I managed to get the software to run on Linux (via wine).

Not sure if it will be able to talk to the hardware via linux, but the software is way better than Lasercut 5.3 - which looks like something from the 1990s. The whole thing - board/control-panel and software costs about the same as a single Lasercut 5.3 dongle. That whole system is a disgrace.


So all I need to do now, is wait for it to turn up, and then see if I can get it to go.

I think longer-term I'm going to try rolling my own though. I quite like the way Laos has a layered approach to software - with human interface layer being HTML/JS. I'm more of a software person than hardware - though the latter is being thrust upon me, as little by little I'm replacing every part on my machine.
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Re: Dongle Disaster; Open Alternative

Postby TrickyCNC » Tue Oct 21, 2014 2:36 pm

I have my software working on the machine in the house, but the same install didn't work in the workshop.. haven't had time to play with it yet, so dual booting at the moment.
The are all the lunux CNC/emc distros..

I did buy a £20 6560 4axis controler with a view to trying it on linuxCNC/EMC2 .. but again.. no time yet .
in fact I have one of those 2030 laser machines sitting here that hasn't been fired up yet.
Arrived with a cracked tube, and haven't had time to see if the replacement tube is ok !

hmm .. time .. there ought to be more of it !
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