3D printer to laser engraver for under $60
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- čas přidán 26. 07. 2024
- Want to etch images with your 3D printer? This inexpensive laser add on module will do the job. This video will take you step by step through wiring, calibration and gcode creation. This will leave you will a 3D printer that you can convert to a laser engraver in seconds.
This method of buck converter PWM control is suitable for fans as well.
Please heed my safety warnings by using the safety glasses at all times, having the laser unplugged when powering on the printer, and using a well ventilated room to dissipate any smoke. Watch out for kids and pets walking in too.
This is a low power laser which is why it is so cheap. If you want to spend more for a more powerful unit, engraving time will be reduced and with enough power you could cut more materials.
This unit was tested on the Creality Ender 5, but the plug should work for any Creality printer like the Ender 3 and CR-10, and most other printers as well.
Shopping:
Laser add on module: www.banggood.com/custlink/3GD...
Buck converter: www.banggood.com/custlink/GmD...
Img2gco Thingiverse page: www.thingiverse.com/thing:770081
Img2gco Github: github.com/nebarnix/img2gco/
Img2gco Wiki: wiki.nebarnix.com/wiki/Img2gco
Img2gco actual software: nebarnix.com/img2gco/
Images I engraved from the internet:
3Dbenchy: www.3dbenchy.com/
Chuck Norris:uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Ch...
Takumi’s Hachiroku: www.amazon.com/Aoshima-Bunka-...
Buy quality and affordable filament from X3D. Buy 3, get 1 free and a free sample pack with every order: www.x3d.com.au
Take a look around and if you like what you see, please subscribe.
Support me on Patreon: / teachingtech
#3dprinting #laserengraver #upgrade
Excellent detail, thx! Have been thinking about doing this with my Artillery printer, and even though I'll probably end up buying a 'dedicated' laser engraver, this was still informative if for no other reason than it gives me an idea of how much is actually involved beyond simply 'swapping out the heads'.
Thanks a lot for this helpful video! I successfully used your tips and converted a CubeX Duo 3D printer into a laser printer, by using a 1000mW laser from a NEJE printer and a main board from Ender 3. My laser needs 5V to operate so I used a car USB charger (works with 12V or 24V input) instead of the 12V step down converter. Thanks again!
This is awesome! Very tempted to try this. Thanks for posting it.
I seriously don't know why I keep searching youtube for various 3d printing tips and mods when all I ever need to do is come right here to your channel! Not only do you show how to do something, you also show the how and why and aren't afraid to point out all your small mistakes and defeats along the way! This saves me precious hours on research, which allows me to quickly get back to making my products and films. Thank you for the dedication you put into your amazing channel! 😎👍👍
Thanks for doing this video. I've been wanting to do this on my Ender 3 for awhile and bought a 5W laser from BG when they had it on sale for US$119.
Back around Christmas I ordered a 2D Pen printer and ordered the option Laser (Same as what is used here) The Laser came, but twice the 2D Pen printer never arrived. So, I printed a mount to place the laser on my D-Bot (Custom built from Thingiverse) Thank Bob for this video to help me utilize it. WORKS GREAT! Pretty much same settings as was used in the video. Except my D-Bot is a 12V system, so I didn't need the buck converter.
THANKS!
Another excellent tutorial Michael.
Not a conventional electrical drive solution but innovative.
Not using a TTL or analogue control and modulating the 12V supply is actually much safer.
The LASER I've got is LASER ON when control is open circuit which is not a safe situation at all.
I'd also recommend mounting on the left side of the hot end shroud rather than in front. That goes hand-in-hand with some 3D printed X and Y Stop extension prods and reducing the bed size.
The idea is to ensure that the LASER remains over the print bed as that's a safer place for it.
I'll give the software you've identified a go.
Pretty much all the software I've found either doesn't manage X/Y position on the bed very well, is not intuitive or just goes crazy at times.
I've also found that a lot of LASER software doesn't work well with marlin (or ender 3) and it can hang, and hang in the on state. Not knowing where the LASER is going to be and the potential of it hanging is not good obviously.
Lightburn was closest to bug free software I've found but even that had comms issues and X/Y placement issues.
I'm using 2.5W and have found vapour and fumes in a well ventilated room was not as big an issue as I expected.
Light wise, getting technical info on cheap safety glasses I found difficult and where you can get the info or Australian Standards the prices are silly. I found making an effort to match wavelength of interest, do a pass through test on the LASER you're using and never look directly at the reflects light was the best way to go. As you've already suggested, excluding others from the area is wise.
Safety wise, positioning has been a much bigger concern that vapour or light.
ABL is very useful as it avoids having to focus on the work piece.
One good feature of Lightburn is it can step down the Z axis on vector burns which means it could possibly allow 0.5W LASER to do multi-pass cuts as well.
Not seen any adverse effect but the hot end shroud doesn't appear to be a great magnetic shield/keeper so the LASER mounting magnets are probably effecting the hot end fans to some extent.
I had the kit for a year now ... just used your video as a tutorial and it worked on first try. Now to figure out how to do vector graphics...
Great video and the use of the Toyota AE86 was fantastic !
This is an awesome video! Really like checking out your videos for mods I'm looking at doing on my Cr-10s :)
You are the best teacher ever!
Thank you, very helpful tutorial!
Nice! Cheap and easy trick! 👍👍👍
I'll try it for myself, maybe i'll make a video on it too.
Thank you very much for sharing! Keep it up!
Your channel is a poison to my brain. I love it
Thanks Mike! Good stuff... as usual. 🤙
Pretty cool mate, nice videos and very good content.
Of all you videos, I think this is one I’ll watch only once. It’s seems to be just a pretty expensive and troublesome wood burning kit.
Love your vids though. Taught me a lot. Thank you.
I would say it's the Tesla of wood burning kits - a smart, self-driving wood burning set that allows a creator to concentrate on the design and leaves the mechanical details to a machine.
3:24 The reason that doesn't work is because the buck converter is designed to produce a DC output. There are feedback circuits inside the converter that try to stabilise the output at the set voltage regardless of changes to the input voltage. It's not just due to the capacitors.
Love the AE86 one!
Well, you talked me out of that idea.
If you have an ender 3/ 3 pro, it is as simple as unplugging the 2 wires mentioned, plugging in the laser, and then it works perfectly.
@@shawnh3411 Wouldn't you still have to use the buck converters? I thought e3 was 24V?
For anyone with requisite coding and electronic skills, the solution to the 24v/12v PWM dilemma would be to find all the fan speed commands in the G-code, halve all the values and re-compile the g-code. An RC network of suitable time period, paralleled with a 12v zener diode would provide the correct drive and stop anything bad happening to the laser.
Excellent video
G'day Michael. another excellent video.
Great topic. Thank you for explanation.
thanks for posting! the website is so useful!
Very helpful video! Thanks a mint!
Nice walk thou
Thanks for sharing :-)
I’m gonna try this on my old monoprice maker select v2 which thankfully is 12v. I’ve since moved on to some newer printers so it will be nice to get some utility out of a machine. Thanks:)
great job!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just watched this and having just backed the exchange project on kickstarter I would be keen to see or talk about how to install a laser using that mod for my printer when it arrives.
Thank You for this video
I went to engineering school with Nebarnix.
Brilliant person, now a rocket scientist.
Look up their photography, you won't be disappointed.
Check this out as well, easier this way.
czcams.com/video/Ophb0wTpppw/video.html
Nice video, was wondering what performance to expect when I set up my laser head, got a 500mW 405nm one too (mainly for PCB photoresist exposure), seems like a good choice since I don't really need a laser cutter, an engraver would be more useful for me.
well now i wonder about setting this up. Someone gifted me the Creality laser and i was coming back to watch this again and seen the buck converter being used which is fine since i have extras from the Noctura fan mod but my laser says 12/24v so i figured it had internal components to adjust voltage down if needed and would work on either just by pluggin into the fan header but now i got more questions. too anxious and wanna try it lol. great video btw
This must be the 1000th video where someone explained PWM to me
This would be perfect for Prusa Mini owners!
Nobody should laser Chuck Norris until they have their settings perfect!
Chuck Norris can't be lasered. His skin is unable to absorb light and energy. He is thought to be the sun's power source and scientists are still baffled as to why the sun shines when Chuck is awake and it's dark when he sleeps. This phenomena is known only as the day night cycle.
The laser got Chuck Norris'd
🤣🤣🤣
Ok.
Lol miss the ifunny app and all the chuck Norris memes
Thanks for the great content! Save me the trouble of even bother trying...
Useless at best...
Appreciate the help. I have an old 3d printer that the heating element is broken and I thought it'd be cool to convert it. Thanks
Great, great, great!
That 500mW laser is very under-powerd and quite expensive. There are more powerful and cheaper modules out there.
Great video. Keep up the good work.
Exactly my thoughts. Wanted to write the same. A 500mW diode laser just doesn't cut it, and this is just an expensive gimmick. Way better diode lasers are available for the same price
@@bakaXY Then why don't you assholes come down off your pedestals, yank the sticks out of your asses, and link some of them for the rest of us peons.
Any recommendations?
That’s a nice looking benchy.
Thanks to this video I get my fan pwm back. Before that I powered fan from Out+ and In- which was incorrect.
Fantastic.
I have that very laser sitting on my desk and a bunch of buck converters.
I guess it's time to figure out how to mount it, as I'm running a Bullseye part cooler on my Ender 3.
I was looking at my Ender 3 thinking the same. Maybe cable tie a metal plate to it or design and print a perfectly fitting adaptor.
Hi bud, look I'm gonna be honest. I'm not 100% sure on your pwm control circuit. These things are typically 5V TTL input for power control. I see you've used the negative on your fan (presumably because it's switched low side by a FET). But due to the switching nature of a buck regulator, it uses ground reference for the output voltage regulation with a resistor divider connected to a comparator from that out voltage pot. By removing the ground reference (with the low side switch for the fan) you basically allow the buck converter to free float and effectively run 24V straight through. You'll have 24V transients going into the fan header until the regulation catches up through the feedback circuit.... This is why you have a delay when the laser power is set to 0.
Better ways for this circuit is a resistor divider set to 5V with a 5V zener to protect the input to the TTL rising above the set value.
Alternatively, use the 24V fan circuit with a 1K resistor into an opto isolator and use the output to toggle the buck converter to a TTL own signal into the control unit for the laser.
Either way... I don't feel confident in the pwm control wiring you have. It might work. But I'm not confident it won't have long term problems or wierd issues like your having for power control.
Buck converters are literally intended for supply line conversion. Not as a signal level converter.
After wiring the buck converter in this way, I've had zero issues. The issues shown at the end were from before setting it up this way. I appreciate you taking the time to post such detailed feedback. The laser according to the tiny info on the product page is meant to be powered from 12v. It has some on board components above the diode that may be handling the ttl. The way I see it the buck converter should be supplying a steady 12.5 volts at the output terminal, the pwm is switched on the ground pin and independent to this. I don't have a scope to verify but with a multimeter it never exceeds 12.5v.
@@TeachingTech You're pwm'ing the supply volts to the laser? Doesn't that laser have a TTL pwm input like most others do?
Edit.. nope it does not.
In this scenario, pwming the supply is all you could do. That said, the buck regulator will still be throwing in 24V transients into the laser on loss of ground reference. It's pretty risky to the health of the laser driver module. If you have an oscilloscope, you'd be able to see the buck converter lose regulation and produce these spikes.
Using an external supply rail and a typical heated bed external FET is a more reliable and preferred design for this application.
Come to think of it (whilst I'm having Macca's late lunch), caution should also be taken with the low side switch for the fan also. It's expecting a low power rating. Larger laser probably shouldn't use this circuit directly as you've wired also. That current is being handled by the transistor on your mainboard 3d printer PCB. If that pops. You have no fan either.
Not taking a dig at you, love your content and big fan of your work.
All good, I appreciate the feedback and discussion. You no doubt have more knowledge than me on this so I'm happy to learn and update the description with any way to make it better.
@@TeachingTech all good, I'm not asking for any amendments. Happy to share design concepts mate. Ideally for pwm control, Banggood should send you a laser with true pwm ttl input. Much easier to implement.
Great video,. Thanks.
I have been looking for a solution like this for a while, and I want to do this with a 17 Watt 450nm laser.
I don't want to use the printer as a printer once I convert it so it can replace the nozzle completely.
Going to use one of the homemade CoreXY printers for this so it can have an enclosure that I can ventilate.
Funny thing in your selected laser is that nowhere they mention the power of the laser. It's only stated to consume max. 2100mA of power for the whole circuit.
17 watts is getting a lot more serious. I assume you would need a lot more beef in your electronics to handle the current. Plus a bed that it couldn't cut through. Sounds like fun though!
Obrigado por colocar as traduções em português 👏
Hi. Great Video. Any recommendation regarding the wires minimal diameter? how many amps are flowing ?
Great project inspiration! I went ahead, crossed my fingers, and purchased the cheaper, higher-powered laser with the TTL-level input. As suggested in some of the electronics channels on CZcams, I used a resistor network across the 24V fan, thinking it would drop voltage safely and instantly down to TTL levels. And it did. What's more, there is no delay turning on the laser, because there is no buck converter. And I did not have to unplug the fan.
In fact, the fan speeds up cutting of cardboard. I have to use many passes at high speed to avoid flame out. Please never leave unattended.
didn't you face any PWM low frequency issue ?, my laser module has a dedicated PWM driver but the parts fan low PWM freq. from ender's board (~7 Hz) just toggles the laser between off and full power.... no intensity control. If anyone here knows any solution to this please help me out.
@@abhinavjhajsr No issues. Geeetech A10T.
Does your laser have separate power for the cooling fan mounted on the actual laser module? If so, what did you connect this to?
could you do guide to cutting paper with this lase and inkscape ? please....
Great video! I would like to do the same thing but my laser is 15w , and my printer a little da Vinci printer, do you think that I need an external power supply for the laser ? Please advise
Can confirm. Wear your glasses, I was messing around with a 1.5 watt laser. Laser reflected off a cd, it didn't take long, but I now have a little blind spot in my vision.
Check this out as well, easier this way.
czcams.com/video/Ophb0wTpppw/video.html
Michael, as cool as this is, I think there are many serious safety things that you have not mentioned. Certain materials will produce not just smoke, but TOXIC gases if they are etched or cut with a laser. PVC is one of those.... and you're engraving right above a PVC 3D printer bed!! The $2 safety goggles that come with these cheap kits are also often NOT sufficient, and sometimes they don't even match the wavelength of the diode... encouraging the attitude of "how cheap can we do it" really is inappropriate for something with as many safety hazards as this.
If I have the glass bed do I need to worry about the PVC burning? What goggles should I buy for this laser?
i guess if filter in these glasses match laser wavelenght then you are scrwed. These are bandpass not bandstop.
Nice mod! Does that mean you can do those cool 3D aser engraving images in acrylic?
It won't cut acrylic but sometimes you can mark the surface by putting masking tape down and burning that. It leaves a scar after the tape is removed. Yet to try it on this.
@Teaching Tech, I own a ender 3 stock, can I use with the buck or without the buck converter?
Hi this is a great video thank you. I’ve been trying to get this working on my ender 3 pro for around a week now and I just can’t seem to get any good results at all any other advice or tips ?
Super helpful video, only difference I noticed, was my voxelab aquila actually does turn off the laser when moving, instead of just speeding up like yours. Super weird, not sure why that is
I have a a CR-10 with the SKR 3 motherboard do you have a tutorial on connection a laser to it? thank you your videos are some of the best on CZcams.
hi tech, how do you change the engraving size of objects?
Do you adopt external software to change the size of the images?
Can try cheap zonestar mini z6fb 3d printer build for laser engraver upgrade also
Thanks for this great video again. The Creality works cause the pwm from the board is on the down side. Bit what about a Chinese 30w laser with a ttl wire, which need a pwm on the up side? I don't know how to wire it. Any help would be absolutely appreciated. 😅
esa protección con el convertidor dc es la mejor solución par proteger los mosfet de la tarjeta madre
First off very good and informative video for an upgrade I can see myself trying in the future, big thumbs up, but can the same wiring technique be used to power a pwm fan? the reason i ask is because i have an ender 3 v2 and want to use noctua a4x20 5v pwm fans for the hot end and part cooling and your is the only video that seems to show a way round this, sorry if this is going off topic but any help would be appreciated
Thank you for this! What software did you use to control the fan for the initial calibration?
You can use pronterface for that
Hi, would this work on my Geeetech E18? I am BRAND NEW to 3D Printing, and i'm just unsure about a lot of things, however I do understand the GCode.
Have you ever attempted to run a rotary axis on ender 3? I have an ender 3 that I converted to a full time laser cutter/etcher and want to convert the E axis to a rotary axis. I use Lightburn software and it has an option to use A axis, is this something I can change in the firmware? If so would love to know how, I have done some googling but having found anything yet. You seemed like the best person to ask (I love your videos) .
I know your comment is a year old, but did you ever find a solution? I'm using the exact same setup, ender 3 conversion and lightburn. Wanted to used a rotary axis as well.
Wondering if you'd get better results with a lower max setting and higher low setting, but slowing down the laser a bit. This seems like it would have the effect of "Turning down the contrast".
Would this converter work that is on Amazon? I don't do Banggood if I can avoid.
WHDTS DC-DC Boost Power Module Adjustable 100W 3.0~35V to 3.5~35V Also can you do halftone with these systems?
Can you use a 15w laser module with kossel delta?
any tips & tricks for setting up the anchor Point & focal length without damaging my workpiece ?
And also positioning :/
I'm asking for a Cp-01 but I guess it pretty similar
If the ttl input on the laser is 5v would the voltage need to be stepped down from 24v to 5v ?
Hi, In this video you covered the 2 pin laser and mine is 3 pin 2.5 W laser and I am not sure about the wires, there is ground, pwm and 12v, I have a Cr10s so 12v I'll plug into hot end fan positive, then should I solder ground to the part cooling fan buck converter out negative or should I take it from the hot end fan too ? and pwm pin should propably be the lovered voltage from the converter right ?
Have you tried any higher powered lasers, as to being able to cut through items like thick cardboard, or mat board?
Cool :D Trying to get the laser working now on my Ender 5 Plus but having trouble. And when I save the g-code from the website, I can not open it in any slicer... Also when the engraving starts the laser works all the time, no pulses to leave out what should be white... Also I can not figure out how to make it start printing in the corner...
it takes a lot of experimentation for each kind of material and even thickness variants of the same material; speed, power and image conversion settings can be a nightmare to tweak
Your video regards stock board usage. If I am not mistaking the skr mini 1.2 have pwm built-in. What is your recommendation for working with this board and laser engraving?
3 Kilowatt IPG Fiber Laser mod please. When I tested mine I cut through the cardboard, base, table, tile, foundation, and water line. I think it might be too much.
I don't know, I think you might need a little more power
Let's hope you not cut anybody in half prev floor....
How is it using the PC through blind accessibility software nowadays?
it is okay, it is just a dream. c’mon, change your wet pants now.
LOL!
Where do you get the extra wires to connect it
very useful information, but i'm having a problem. my board has a PWM frequency of 7.8Hz, the laser was tested on 1Khz and worked fine, but on the much slower 7.8Hz of the mainboard, the laser is unusable. do you have any suggestions? (using the silent board, ender3 V2). Thanks in advance.
Could you make a video on how to update stock marlin with octoprint? :)
You can only upload a hex file from octoprint, which means you still have to use the Arduino ide to configure the firmware and compile. It's harder to switch to octoprint from this point. If you already have the hex file it may be worth it and I may cover that as part of another video.
What program did you use to control the parts fan
hi , your tutorial encouraged me to add a laser to my 3d printer , in fact i am new to 3d printing too. laser module i bought from the same site (5500 mv) but it has board mounted on laser itself. has two input sockets, one has three pins and the other has two pins. 3 pin says - 12v + and TTL/A- and 2 pin says TTL/A+. now i am confused how to wire and connect it to my fan port which is 12 v system. this laser has a separate 12v power supply . kindly guide me with diagrame for wiring. many thanks
I would use the DC-DC converter to get 12V from 24V, then a resistor voltage divider from the fan PWM to control a MOSFET that is powered from the output of the DC-DC converter (12V). The output of the MOSFET circuit will feed the laser PWM. The goal is to preserve the sharp rising and falling edges of the PWM square wave that directly impacts the sharpness and accuracy of the laser power and the engraved image.
Can you add the home command in the gcode after it's generated by the software?
Hi, could you plase show how to mount the laser kit to ender 3 v2., and which laser used, plase
Hola, puedes mostrar como montar el lase en una ender 3 v2 y que tipo de laser, por favor
Hello and thank you for your video which helped me a lot. I transformed my alfawise U30 into a laser engraver. Everything is fine except for one thing: when I want to burn letters in vector mode, some text pieces of these letters are missing. I have tried everything and I don't understand what is going on. I checked the GCODE, there is no command code in the G to turn off the corresponding fan when part of the letter is missing. Could you help me I thank you in advance cordially Franck. A small clarification: all the other engravings in vector mode work very well, it just bugs for the letters ... Thank you, Franck.
Do you know if there is a 24v laser that we could use? So we don't have to do all of this.
Oh man, you should use a relay after the buck converter with the fan connected to normally on and the laser connected to normally off, then add a button in octoprint to turn on the laser for when you want it used.
Can u change the laser for a bigger one like 10 or 15w? do i need something else¡?
Is this also working with the CR-10 V2?
What about a wood carving head?
Great video. I've just moved over from the standard 1.1.3 board on a ender 3, to the 4.2.7 board and now i'm getting completely different results. All of my previous GCODEs either from nebamix or creality workshop which worked with the old board, no longer give great results (either too dark, or completely burnt even on the "white" sections). please can you make an updated video with the new mainboards?
Is this board running Marlin firmware?
The laser only works for outlines on the 4.2.2 and 4.2.7 boards. The fans PWM signal is too slow to modulate power to the laser and control intensity of the beam
This safety glasses please upgrade kapton tape.
Hy! great video, i have a question ; is it the same parametre for ender 3 with 5mW laser ? tanks
A 5mW laser is basically a laser pointer - You'll be waiting a LOOOOONG time for that to mark anything. ;)
will this set up work with an anet a8?
Very helpful video thank you! But when I go on the website, enter the settings and try to download the Gcode it just doesn't work with either inkscape or creality workshop, what slicer is it you used in the video?
Simplify3D I believe
In some videos they connect directly to the 24V supply, Can we do it with this laser? or we must use regulator? Also Can we seperate the fan cable to 2 pieces?
You can get laser modules in 12V and 24V versions. You only need the buck converter if you're using a 24V printer (like the Ender 3) with a 12V laser module.
This channel is awesome, making 3D prinitng less of a headache.
3D printing is just a fun hobby. If it's a headache for you, you could just stop..
Does this also work with CR-10s PRO