Convert Laser

The purpose of this page is to document the conversion of our Chinese laser to use our preferred firmware, LinuxCNC.

Importing

See our page on importing the laser.

Why

Changing the firmware gives us a few advantages.

• As an organization, we strongly value open source and this gives us the option of using a full open source stack to go from design to cut.
• We have years of experience, training, and development on the current stack and have had a really positive experience with it.

Plan

The plan is to remove the controller and display panel that came with the laser and replace them with a computer running LinuxCNC, a I/O card, and a panel of our own design and needs. Our goal is to fit this all into in the new laser using the existing structure in a neat and beautiful way.

Software

Inkscape	Design Optionally, our KM-Laser Bundle
cncfm	Web File Manager and Vector+Raster CAM
LinuxCNC	Firmware to run laser

Hardware

Computer	Gigabyte-J1900N-D3V 4GB SODIMM Parallel Port Card
Break Out Board	C10 Parallel Port Breakout Board

Implementation

The wiring diagram, design files for the panels, and LinuxCNC config can be found on our github in the Moonraker Repository

.. in progress ..