Description

FluidNC laser controller board

I have an old laser engraver. It was built in 1998 and worked quite well until this summer 2023. So I would say that it was a very reliable machine but it now suffers from its old age:

laser tube is dead
software is very very old fashioned and runs (tries to run) under windows 95 operating system

So it was time to trash this machine... But it looked so professionnal that decided to refurbish it with more modern electronics.

As I am an hobbyist I couldn't afford to buy a new RF laser tube, so I decided to change it to a cheap 40W CO2 tube
As I love ESP32 and micro controllers I decided as well to design my own controller boards based on GRBL FluidNC software.

This board is mainly an IO board allowing:

to control 3 stepper motors
to detect 3 independant home switches
to apply PWM to the laser controller
to detect interlock door switches
to drive 4 220V relays for air assist, vacuum pump, water cooling and light

Project is fully described on hackaday : https://hackaday.io/project/193893-retrofitting-an-old-laser-engraver

And the very first test of this board controlling my laser engraver (poor pen plotter mount !)

And finally the laser performing its first cut !

Download BOM(Bill of materials)

Dec 01,2023

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FluidNC laser controller board

2 Layers PCB 50 x 50 mm FR-4, 1.6 mm, 1, HASL with lead, Black Solder Mask, White silkscreen

An IO board allowing to control a CO2 laser engraver with FluidNC

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Published: Dec 01,2023

BOM(Bill of materials)

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File Last Updated: 2024/12/04 (GMT+8)

File update record

2024-12-0417:09:15

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Topic

CNC

laser engraver FluidNC ESP32 CNC CO2 laser

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Uber Blake
Wait what the #curseword?!? CO2 tubes can be had for under $200?!? Then why the hell are they so ridiculously expensive? Do you see any issues that I can't see with using an existing 40w diode laser motion system, using your control board and the same CO2 tube you did, and converting it? I'm sure there's something, or everyone would do this.

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Oct 14,20242 Comments
Jean-Pierre freedom2000 2024-10-25 23:57:26Reply
CO2 tubes are powered by High voltage PSU and require water cooling. laser diodes are much simpler to implement much will deliver far less power. My FluidNC board can accomodate both setups
Uber Blake 2024-11-04 14:15:48Reply
Reply@ Jean-Pierre freedom2000：
I know, I have a diode laser and that's why I was asking. There's got to be some nut out there who's figured out how to retrofit a C02 laser into a diode motion system.
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