I have recently built the ‘Makers Mashup’ – How to make a DIY laser engraver. I followed the - LayerFused L301 Bill Of Materials and whilst the majority of the links on amazon were out of stock I was able to purchase equivalent or the same hardware as listed except for the laser which was no longer available. I did get a NEJE e30130 laser which is PWM power modulation.
Firstly I have had little experience with VSCode or modifying a script but did manage to get the hardware working except the laser. I am using the BBT SKR v1.4 turbo and I use Lightburn. I have done a lot of searching for how to program the laser to work and have come across a lot of information. Give me a break, I’m an old dude and am struggling to get my head around the whole thing. So I would love someone’s expertise on how to get this project up and going.
I played around with the laser for another 6 hours yesterday and kind of got it going after adjusting the script in VSCode. I’m pretty sure that the problems I now have are associated with my computer. I have a MS Surface Pro 6. Device manager recognizes the device on USB to COM port as COM7.
I have Lightburn, LaserGRBL as well as Pronterface. Pronterface recognizes the connection the first time I try to connect. LaserGRBL and Lightburn are very hit and miss. If I turn the laser off then back on it is not recognized by any of the programs even though it appears in device manager and I have to reboot the computer to reconnect. I have managed to actually use the laser in Pronterface so the laser doesn’t appear to be the problem now.
Howdy all, I am going to put this project on hold. I was using the laser with Pronterface and the laser head was jerking badly. After a lot of checking of belts mounts etc. I found that the linear rail carrying the laser head was jamming up. Not bad for a brand new linear rail, but it was from China. Anyhow I can’t afford to get replacement rails for several months (I’m a pensioner). I also switched to another computer and had the exact problems with it as far as the communication with the laser goes. Looks like it is a fail for me. Thanks Don for your interest.
