george wrote:Ok i understand that we need to use mach3,
I made several lasermachines which all perform excellent.. using Mach3 is not a very good idea to drive a good performing laser IMHO... it can be possible but there are quite a few drawbacks..
If you don't want to use Mach3 illegal (ie using a pirated copy) you have to pay for it. I thought the price is about the same as you have to pay for a decent lasercontroller like a Trocen AWC708C-lite which sells for around 225$
This controller has plenty of settings to make it a fine machine.. All sensors can be supplied and connected to it, you can communicate using Ethernet etc etc..
What you need is:
Steppermotors or even better closed-loop steppers/servo's for X and Y.. I prefer using the 2Nm hybrid-steppers from Leadshine, like the HB507 with the appropriate motors (2Nm)… these sell for approximate 150$ a set.. Not the cheapest solution but i guarantee that you won't regret that investment..
For the Z (lifting table) i use a normal stepper as loosing steps is not relevant.. it just goes up till the focussensor triggers.. (or down when you push de down-button on the controller)
The steppers drive the belts direct, where the gears have a circumference of 50-100mm. A 40-tooth GT2-10 will drive the laserhead 80mm per rotation which is fine for X-movement
As the Y has to drive the bridge on both sides, a reduction for the Y-motor is fine. Normaly a 1:2 reduction is more than enough.
Make the internal structure rigid. Make it so that you can adjust it to be perpendicular and smooth running.
To give you some inspiration:
Kees