Laser engraver from old DVD-Rom. How to assemble a homemade engraver at home DIY laser from a printer

The time has come when the giperboloid of engineer Garin from the novel by Alexei Tolstoy moved to kitchen table an ordinary Moscow apartment.

A couple of years ago, inexpensive sets of laser engravers could be found in Chinese online stores. At first, the laser power was 100 mW, then 500 mW ... Recently a 5 W engraver appeared, this power of a semiconductor laser already allows not only burning pictures on plywood, but also cutting plywood.

Assembly kit laser cutter arrived in high quality packaging. Styrofoam in a cardboard box.
The 5500mw A5 Mini Laser Engraving Machine is supplied as an assembly kit: aluminum rails, stepper motors, control board, laser eye protection goggles, body parts for assembly and control board with fittings. It took one evening to assemble the device.

CNC laser design simpler designs 3D printers, the same guides along which the head is driven by stepper motors. Only a 3D printer has three of them, and they move the head in three dimensions. In our case, it is enough for the head to move simply along a plane in two dimensions. No effort is needed to move it, since there is no mechanical contact with the workpiece material. The laser engraver is connected to a computer via a standard USB port.

The part you want to cut out, or the image you want to burn, must be drawn in a vector program. The program must save the image file in wmf format.

A file in this format can be imported into the program that controls the engraver.

Better to use for this free program SketchUp (enough simple program to create ZO-models). The BenBox control program for the engraver is downloaded free of charge from the seller's website.

Unfortunately, the laser power is not adjustable. The program sets the speed of movement of the head - the faster it moves, the less it burns.

And if you want to cut, set the speed to a lower one. To adjust the power, you need to order an additional fee; having installed it, you will be able to adjust the power manually. For engraving, 100-500 mW is enough and for material cutting - 2000-5000 mW.

The engraver emits a little smoke during operation. With the window open, the smoke did not bother me much. But the smoke delays the laser beam, reducing its power and, consequently, the depth of cut.

Everything would be fine, but experts laser cutting write that the lens can get smoked. Therefore, immediately after purchasing the machine, you need to make a powerful hood or at least install a fan on the engraver's head.

HOW CUTS A CNC LASER MACHINE

As you know, the laser does not cut, it burns. The higher the laser power, the more resistant material they can be processed. The essence of laser cutting is. that the material has time to "evaporate" in the laser beam before the edges of the material adjacent to the cutting point begin to burn.

Deep cuts burn the edges upper layers material, therefore a deep laser cut has a trapezoidal shape with a wide side on top. When cutting a material with a weak laser, the edges of the material are heated and ignited, this can be combated by blowing a thin stream of air around the cutting point and multiple passes along the same trajectory.

Only here is not a linear relationship "laser power-number of passes." That is, if you can cut through a thin sheet of balsa or plywood with a 5W laser. then for a 2 W laser cut, you will have to do not 2-3 passes, but much more. So, it is better to give up hopes of “buying cheaper and just driving several times along the cutting lines”. You need to take more powerful laser, preferably with a power reserve.

FOCUSING THE LASER

Manual focusing of the laser.

Place the object for engraving.

When the laser is turned on at minimum power, in order to focus it on the engraved object, you must manually rotate the focusing lens adjustment until the spot size turns into a dot, becomes minimum. In this case, we get the maximum power.

When cutting plywood, the laser beam, having cut a couple of millimeters, is already defocused, weakens and does not cut the plywood to the end. It turns out that the deeper we cut, the weaker the beam. In this case, it makes sense to focus the laser on the surface on which the plywood blank will lie.

Practical use engraver at home

The engraver is ideal for cutting leather. You can apply any pattern to the skin and immediately cut out patterns with a laser. A big plus of the laser when cutting synthetic fabrics and leather is that the edges are burned and then not shaggy. Plastic is easily engraved. You can make the cover of your favorite stylish engraving on your smartphone.

Engravers are widely used in various industries production not only for engraving various materials, but also for drilling miniature holes, polishing, grinding, milling. The same operations can be performed with their help at home. If this is required only occasionally, or you just need to save money on buying a tool, then a mini-drill can be made independently from unnecessary equipment, which is often unused in garages or storage rooms. With the help of homemade drills, it will be possible to perform the same operations as with a factory tool of similar power, only you will need to use the appropriate nozzles.

By the peculiarities of their functioning, engravers are divided into milling and laser. In the first, the material is processed with various attachments. In laser models, all the work is done by a laser beam - this is contactless engraving method... Moreover, such a device belongs to the category of high-tech equipment. But homemade engraver it is possible to do it at home.

To create a laser engraver with your own hands, you will need the following parts, tools and materials:

stepper motors from dvd drive;
Arduino computing platform;
Proto Board with display;
limit switches for motors;
laser module (for example, with a power of 3 W);
constant voltage value adjusting device;
laser cooling system;
MOSFET (transistor);
boards for assembling electric motor control elements;
frame;
toothed pulleys and belts for them;
bearings of various sizes;
wood boards: 2 pieces measuring 135x10x2 cm and two more - 125x10x2 cm;
4 round metal rods with a cross section of 10 mm;
grease;
clamps, bolts with washers and nuts;
vice;
locksmith tools;
drill;
jigsaw or circular saw;
files or sandpaper;
computer or laptop.

Stepper motors can be taken not only from DVDs, but also from a printer that is practically not used.

The machine is assembled according to the following algorithm:

create a base;
mount guides with movable carriages;
assemble an electrical circuit;
install the necessary programs on the computer;
alignment (tuning) of the laser head;
check the performance of the machine.

Connection diagram stepper motors taken from an inkjet printer or DVD are shown in the photo below.

The entire sequence of actions that allows you to assemble a laser engraver on an arduino is shown in detail in the video below.

The created CNC engraver will cost much cheaper than any factory-made laser models. It can be used for making seals, for photoresist, for working with wood, plywood, plastic, cardboard, expanded polystyrene and cork sheets. It is also possible to carry out engraving on metal.

Assembling an Electric Engraver with Tripod and Flexible Shaft

An electric engraver is the most common variety of this kind of tools at home. To make a functionally complete device on your own, capable of competing with analogues industrial production, you will need an electric motor that runs from alternating current 220 V. Such electric motors can be taken from the following equipment:

Soviet-style reel-to-reel tape recorders;
DVD-players;
washing machines;
angle grinders;
electric sewing machines.

The latter option is optimal, because it is possible to adjust the speed in a fairly wide range using the built-in rheostat.

For household use a drill with an engine speed of Idling up to 6 thousand revolutions per minute.

It is inconvenient to hold an electric motor from any of the listed types of equipment in one hand, and in most cases it is simply impossible. Therefore, you will need flexible shaft for engraver... In this case, the general view of the future device will turn out approximately, as in the photo below.

The functionality of the created device for engraving will depend on the materials and mechanisms used in the assembly. The motor can be placed on the table, but it is more convenient to make tripod for engraver, or rather its likeness.

Making a flexible shaft

With a flexible shaft, everything is relatively simple. It can be done in several ways:

from an old drive shaft, for example from a dental drill;
using the cable of the motorcycle or car speedometer.

The working attachment on the shaft can also be used from the drill or make it yourself from different materials, for example, made of wood, PCB, plastic pipes. From PCB the device (handle) for holding the rig is done as follows:

cut off 2 textolite platinum (sheet thickness should be about 1 cm) about 2 by 10 cm in size;
connect them together and grind them with a file or emery from the outside to make a cylinder;
grooves are machined from the inside;
metal rings fix the parts to each other;
a tube is inserted into the front of the handle, under a cartridge, consisting of two separate halves, connected with a bolt.

As a result, you get a handle, as in the photo below.

The made internal hole between the textolite plates should be of such a cross-section so as not to impede the free rotation of the cable. It will be possible to insert nozzles with shank diameters from 2 to 5 mm into the chuck.

Assembling the engraving machine

It is very easy to make a tripod (base for mounting an electric motor) from plywood or the same PCB. To do this, proceed as follows:

cut from a sheet of material several pieces (4 is enough) of the size corresponding to the electric motor;
a motor is attached to one of the fragments using clamps;
collect the box;
a hole is drilled in the front for the flexible shaft.

The created structure is suspended from the wall.

Convenient to use factory holder with clamps for the engraver, if the dimensions of the electric motor allow. The mount connects to any table. But such a device will need to be purchased additionally.

Further assembly of the engraving device is performed in the following sequence:

using a clutch created from a drilled bolt, connect the cable to the motor shaft;

put on a cable rubber hose of the corresponding diameter and attach the made handle to it;

install the start button;
connect equipment to the network;

check the performance of the device made.

A homemade drill will allow you to process wood, bone, metal, glass, plastic, ceramic blanks, as well as different metals, natural and artificial stone.

You can also use electric motors to create homemade straight grinders, designed for 380 V, but if they can be adjusted to 220. In such cases, you will need to tinker additionally. Information on this issue a lot both on the Internet and in books on electrical engineering.

Making a mini drill from a motor

It happens that at home you need to make small holes in wood or plastic, while drills from a drill are not suitable. In such cases, a homemade mini-drill from a motor will help. It can also be used to perform wood engraving... And if there is an interest in radio amateurism, then using the created tool, you can drill and cut boards.

To create homemade device, you will need to take a miniature electric motor from an old tape recorder. Even fit different models motors from children's toys. If you use a mini-motor from a 12 V tape recorder as a drive, then you will also need the following materials and parts:

power supply unit or several batteries (accumulator) with 12 V output;
a piece of plastic pipe (about 10 cm long) with such a cross section that a miniature electric motor can be inserted inside;
heat-resistant glue;
power button;
wiring for electrical connections.

Do-it-yourself mini-drill is assembled, acting according to the following algorithm:

using an electric drill or a knife, a hole is made in the tube for the switch;
lubricate the motor with glue to fix it inside the future housing;

insert the electric motor into the tube;
any of the wires through which the motor is powered is pushed into the hole drilled in the case earlier, and the other end is left on the back of the case;

insert one wire from the power supply into the hole under the button;
solder the switch with a soldering iron to the protruding ends, carefully isolating the contacts;

the two wires remaining from the end of the tube (from the button and the motor) are connected to the connector for connecting the power supply;

cut off the neck of any plastic bottle;
make a hole in the center of the cover for the connector and glue these parts;
glue the neck to the tube;

connect the assembled mini drill to the power supply;

by pressing a button, they check the performance of the homemade product.

Supply unit voltage must be selected to match the operating voltage of the motor being used.

To make a mini drill standalone, you just need to adapt the batteries to it.

Homemade dremel from a drill and blender

If you have an old or unnecessary blender, then it is also easy to make a mini drill out of it. This one household appliance there is already a comfortable grip. In addition to the blender itself, you will also need such devices and additional parts:

tools to disassemble the device (screwdrivers with different tips, pliers);
vernier caliper or ruler;
collet;
soldering iron with soldering kit;
file for finishing, sandpaper;
switch.

You can do without the last detail, but then you will need to constantly press the power button with your hand while working with a straight grinder.

A blender engraver is created like this:

carefully disassemble household appliances;
take out the internal parts: the electric motor and printed circuit board that controls the operation of the device;
using a vernier caliper, measure the diameter of the spindle in order to purchase a collet chuck suitable for it;
if the electric motor is contaminated with something, for example, rust, then it is carefully, with care, so as not to damage the windings, clean;
fix the purchased collet chuck (or made independently) on the spindle;
the power button already on the blender is replaced with a switch: solder the wire contacts;
fit a hole in the housing of a household appliance for a new switch;
install the electric motor with the board in place inside the case;
collect the tool.

Depending on the model of the blender being converted, you may need to make additional holes in its body, or expand existing ones with a file. This will not be a problem.

The entire described process of assembling a dremel from a blender is demonstrated in detail in the video below.

You do not have to remodel the blender, but simply connect a flexible shaft to it for a factory-made engraver. The docking method is shown in the video below.

You can also make an engraver using a drill. The assembly of variants with and without flexible shaft is shown in the following videos.

Making an engraver from a 3D printer

An ordinary 3D printer is a good basis for creating an engraver with which you can cut various materials, do crafts and other operations. To upgrade an existing device, you will need an additional install the board, which will power the operational circuits of the equipment and the laser module.

An engraving machine created from a 3D printer is demonstrated in the following video.

In addition to the considered simplest ways to create a homemade engraving machine from a 3D printer, a small electric motor, a small electric motor, a blender and a drill, there are also other options. In this case, both this technique and other power tools are used as a basis. Craftsmen constantly come up with new modifications, showing design imagination. Implementing in practice any of the above options or independent development, you should provide security created homemade products. To do this, it is necessary to insulate the electrical contacts well and assemble the equipment securely.

Good time everyone!

In this post I want to share with you the creation process laser engraver based on a diode laser from China.

Several years ago, there was a desire to acquire ready-made version engraver from Aliexpress with a budget of 15 thousand, but after a long search, I came to the conclusion that all the options presented are too simple and, in fact, are toys. And I wanted something desktop and at the same time quite serious. After a month of research, it was decided to make this device with our own hands, and rushed ...

At that moment, I still did not have a 3D printer and experience in 3D modeling, but everything was in order with drawing)

Here's actually one of those ready-made engravers from China.

After looking at the options for possible designs of mechanics, the first sketches of the future machine were made on a piece of paper ..))

It was decided that the engraving area should be at least A3 sheet.

The laser module itself was one of the first to buy. 2W power, since it was the most the best option for a reasonable price.

Here is the actual laser module itself.

And so, it was decided that the X-axis would go along the Y-axis and its design began. It all started with a carriage ...
The whole frame of the machine was made of aluminum profiles different shapes bought in Leroy.

At this stage, the sketches on the notebook leaves no longer appeared, everything was drawn and invented in the Compass.

Having bought 2 meters of a square profile 40x40 mm to build the frame of the machine, in the end only the carriage itself was made from it ..))

Motors, linear bearings, belts, shafts and all electronics were ordered from Aliexpress during development and plans for how the motors would be mounted and what kind of control board would be changed on the fly.

After a few days of drawing in the Compass, a more or less clear version of the design of the machine was determined.

And now the X-axis was born ..))

Y-axis sides (sorry for the quality of the photo).

Fitting.

And finally the first launch!

A simple 3D model was built general view machine, in order to already accurately determine its appearance and size.

And away we go ... Plexiglas ... Painting, wiring and other little things.

And finally, when everything was adjusted and the last part was painted black, the finish line came!

Now some beautiful photos))

In the previous article, I described the experience of assembling and setting up an engraver from a Chinese set. Having worked with the apparatus, I realized that it would not be superfluous in my laboratory. The task is set, I will solve it.

There are two solutions on the horizon - ordering a kit in China and developing our own design.

CONSTRUCTION DISADVANTAGES WITH ALIEXPRESS

As I wrote in the previous article, the set turned out to be quite workable. The practice of working with the machine revealed the following design flaws:

The design of the carriage is poorly worked out. In the video in the previous article, this is clearly visible.
The rollers of the movable units are fixed on the panels with M5 screws and are connected to the panel on one side only. In this case, no matter how you tighten the screws, there remains a backlash.

PLASTIC PARTS

Since the frame made of the machine profile is quite worthy, it was possible to eliminate the identified shortcomings by recycling the plastic parts.

I described the laser holder well enough in. I also added to the construction additional detail linking all four clips on the right and left panels. The detail made it possible to eliminate backlash when moving the panels.

All parts have enough simple forms and does not require support and other difficulties when printing.

To order a set plastic parts you need to go to the online store:

Models of plastic parts for printing are available:

DEMONSTRATION OF WORK

The work of the engraver and his appearance can be appreciated in the following video.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE ENGRAVER

The frame of the engraver is built on a machine aluminum profile 20x40. The parts carrying the moving parts of the engraver are made on a 3D printer. Moving parts move on standard rollers. The carriage carrying the laser module allows you to adjust the height of the laser above the working table, which allows you to focus the power of the laser beam in a sufficiently wide range.

The assembly of the structure is shown in 3D PDF format.

ASSEMBLY

The design is very simple. For this reason, a lot of time and pain will not be spent on assembly if you follow the recommended assembly sequence.

STEP 1. FRAME

As described above, the framework is built from structural profile 20x40. Internal corners are used to twist the profile together.

On the longer parts, a thread is cut in the central holes of the ends for mounting the legs and side panels (on the middle length).

The frame is twisted at the corners, with short parts inward. At this stage, do not fully tighten the screws - it is better to do this after installing the legs.

The legs are screwed at four points. This is done so that the frame is assembled without possible distortions.

First you need to secure all four legs, again not fully tightening the fasteners.

Now you need to find the maximum flat surface! Place all the details in such a way that the frame "stands" tightly, without playing on the surface.

We stretch all the fasteners, starting from the inner corners and controlling possible distortions with a square.

STEP 2. RIGHT PANEL

Before assembling the right panel, a flexible coupling must be installed on the motor shaft.

Then you need to screw the stepper motor through the plastic spacer.

The position of the cable outlet and the spacer are clearly visible in the figure below.

STEP 3. LEFT PANEL

To assemble the left panel, you only need to press the bearing into the hole.

I tried to exclude the gluing operation. To do this, "let a wave" over the surface of the hole to install the bearing. For this reason, it is necessary to press the bearing down with force.

STEP 4. MOUNTING THE LEFT PANEL

Then install the assembly to the profile.

And fasten the lower rollers. The figure clearly shows that the fastening holes of the screws for fastening the rollers have a stroke of several millimeters. This is done so that the upper and lower rollers can be well tightened on the profile, eliminating backlash. The only thing is that you need to act carefully and not overtighten. In this case, the stepper motor will need excessive force to move the panels.

STEP 5. MOUNTING THE RIGHT PANEL

The following parts are required for installation.

You will need to install the top rollers first.

Then install the assembly on the profile and install the lower rollers. Further installation is identical to that of the left panel.

After tightening the screws, you will need to check the movement of the panel. It should move easily enough and there should be no backlash.

STEP 6. MOUNTING THE GUIDE CARRIER

Both panels are used to transmit movement along the Y-axis in this design. In order not to use 2 stepper motors, the torque is transmitted to the left panel through a shaft with a diameter of 5mm. After preparing the details, we proceed.

First, the connecting shaft is installed and clamped with the flexible coupling set screws.

During installation, it is necessary to check that the pulleys are not forgotten. Fasten them firmly into this moment not necessary. Adjustment is required when tightening the belts.

STEP 7. CARRIAGE

The assembly of the carriage is discussed in detail in the previous article ...

The assembly is not difficult.

STEP 8. MOUNTING THE CARRIER ON THE RAIL

First you need to collect all the necessary parts.

All mounting operations are identical to those of panel mounting.

STEP 9. MOUNTING THE BELTS

The belts are tightened with screws for the profile nuts. You will need to cut 3 belts in place and prepare the fasteners.

To begin with, the edge of the belt is located in the niche of the profile with the tooth down. After that, the nut is installed. It will take some effort to install the nut.

When tensioning the belt, you will need to set the position of the pulley. The pulley is set in such a way that during the entire travel the belt is rubbed against the side edges of the pulley as little as possible.

To install the belt of the guide carriage, it is better to raise it as shown in the figure below, since it is still better to install the nuts in the niche from the end.

After that, the guide is lowered to its original place.

Before tightening the second "tail" of the belt, make sure the belt is tight enough.

This completes the assembly of the mechanics.

CONTROLLER

I plan to prepare a description of the controllers for controlling the engraver in a separate article. Follow the publications!

ASSEMBLY KIT AND TURNKEY LASER ENGRAVER

Since December 2017, I have been taking orders for a complete set for the assembly and assembled, customized and completely ready-to-use laser engraver described in the article. Information is available in the online store.

If the article helped you and there is a desire to support new projects, the link for support:

To make a laser engraver or CNC (numerical control) machine tool, we need:

DVD-ROM or CD-ROM
- Plywood with a thickness of 10 mm (you can use 6 mm)
- Self-tapping screws for wood 2.5 x 25 mm, 2.5 x 10 mm
- Arduino Uno(compatible boards can be used)
- Motor driver L9110S 2 pcs.
- Laser 1000mW 405nm Blueviolet
- Analog joystick
- Button
- 5V power supply (I will use an old but working computer power supply)
- Transistor TIP120 or TIP122
- Resistor 2.2 kOhm, 0.25 W
- Connecting wires
- Electric jigsaw
- Drill
- Drills for wood 2mm, 3mm, 4mm
- Screw 4 mm x20 mm
- Nuts and washers 4 mm
- Soldering iron
- Solder, rosin

Step 1 We disassemble the drives.
Any CD or DVD drive is suitable for the engraver. It is necessary to disassemble it and take out the internal mechanism, they come in different sizes:

It is necessary to remove all optics and the board located on the mechanism:

You need to glue a table to one of the mechanisms. You can make a table from the same plywood by cutting a square with a side of 80 mm. Or cut the same square out of the CD / DVD-ROM case. Then the part that you plan to engrave can be pressed with a magnet. Cutting out the square, glue it:

To the second mechanism, you need to glue a plate to which the laser will be attached in the future. There are a lot of manufacturing options and depends on what you have at hand. I used a plastic model plate. In my opinion, this is the most convenient option... I got the following:

Step 2 Manufacturing the case.
To make the body of our engraver, we will use 10 mm plywood. If it is not there, you can take plywood with a smaller thickness, for example 6 mm, or replace the plywood with plastic. You need to print following photos and according to these templates, cut out one bottom part, one top and two side ones. In the places marked with a circle, make holes for self-tapping screws with a diameter of 3 mm.

After cutting, you should get the following:

At the top and lower parts you need to make 4 mm holes for the fastening of your drive parts. I cannot immediately mark these holes, because they are different:

When assembling, it is necessary to use wood screws 2.5 x 25 mm. In places where self-tapping screws are screwed in, holes must be pre-drilled with a 2 mm drill. Otherwise, the plywood may crack. If you intend to assemble the body from plastic, it is necessary to provide for the connection of parts metal corners and use screws with a diameter of 3 mm. To give an aesthetic look to our engraver, it is worth sanding all the details with fine emery, if desired, you can paint. I like black, I painted all the parts black with spray paint.

Step 3 Prepare the power supply.
To power the engraver, you need a 5 volt power supply with a current strength of at least 1.5 amperes. I will be using an old computer power supply. We cut off all the pads. To start the power supply, you must short-circuit the green (PC_ON) and black (GND) wires. You can put a switch between these wires for convenience, or you can simply twist them together and use the power supply switch, if there is one.

To connect the load, we output the red (+5), yellow (+12) and black (GND) wires. Purple (attendants +5) can give a maximum of 2 amps or less, depending on the power supply. There is voltage on it even with open green and black wires.

For convenience, we glue the engraver onto the double-sided tape to the power supply.

Step 4 Joystick for manual control.
To set the initial engraving position, we will use an analog joystick and a button. We place everything on circuit board and bring out the wires for connecting to the Arduino. We fasten to the body:

We connect according to the following scheme:

Out X - pin A4 Arduino Out Y - pin A5 Arduino Out Sw - pin 3 Arduino Vcc - +5 Power supply Gnd - Gnd Arduino

Step 5 Place the electrician.
We will place all the electrics behind our engraver. We fasten the Arduino Uno and the motor driver with 2.5 x 10 mm self-tapping screws. We connect as follows:

Wires from stepper motor along the X-axis (table) we connect to the outputs of the L9110S motor driver. Further like this:
B-IA - pin 7 B-IB - pin 6 A-IA - pin 5 A-IB - pin 4 Vcc - +5 from power supply GND - GND

The wires from the stepper motor along the Y axis (laser) are connected to the outputs of the L9110S motor driver. Further like this:
B-IA - pin 12 B-IB - pin 11 A-IA - pin 10 A-IB - pin 9 Vcc - +5 from power supply GND - GND

If at the first start the motors will hum but not move, it is worth interchanging the screwed wires from the motors.

Don't forget to connect:
+5 from Arduino - +5 power supply GND Arduino - GND Power supply

Step 6 Laser installation.
The internet is full of diagrams and instructions for making a laser diode laser from a DVD-Rom writer. This process is long and complex. So I bought a ready-made laser with a driver and a heatsink. This greatly simplifies the manufacturing process of a laser engraver. The laser consumes up to 500 mA, so it cannot be connected directly to the Arduino. We will connect the laser through a TIP120 or TIP122 transistor.

The 2.2 kOm resistor must be plugged into the gap between the Base of the transistor and pin 2 of the Arduino.

Base - R 2.2 kOm - pin 2 Arduino Collector - GND Laser (black wire) Emitter - GND (Power supply common) +5 laser (red wire) - +5 power supply

There are not many connections here, so we solder everything by weight, isolate and screw the transistor from the back to the case:

To firmly fix the laser, you need to cut another plate out of the same plastic as the plate glued to the Y-axis. We fasten the laser cooling radiator to it with the screws supplied with the laser:

Insert the laser inside the radiator and fix it with screws, also included in the kit for the laser:

And we screw this whole structure onto our engraver:

Step 7 Arduino IDE.
You should download and install the Arduino IDE. The best way to do this is from an official project.

The latest version at the time of writing ARDUINO is 1.8.5. No additional libraries are required. You should connect the Arduino Uno to your computer and upload the following sketch into it:

After filling in the sketch, you should check that the engraver is working as it should.

Attention! The laser is not a toy! A laser beam, even not focused, even reflected, damages the retina when it hits the eyes. I highly recommend purchasing safety goggles! And all work on checking and setting is carried out only in protective glasses. Also, you should not look without glasses at the work of the laser during the engraving process.

We turn on the power. When changing the position of the joystick forward - backward, the table should move, left to right - move the Y axis, that is, the laser. When the button is pressed, the laser should turn on.

Next, you need to adjust the focus of the laser. We put on safety glasses! We put a small sheet of paper on the table and press the button. By changing the position of the lens (turn the lens), we find the position at which the laser point on the sheet is minimal.

Step 8 Prepare Processing.
To transfer the image to the engraver, we will use the Processing programming environment. Must be downloaded from the official