Hi all,
I have started building two lasers, one based on the 2.x design and a smaller one for exposing photosenstive PCBs by utilizing a 405nm laser diode.
The 2.x frame is nearly complete, waiting for bits & pieces from China so I can proceed with construction.
So, for now I am working on the PCB exposer, this is based on a TI MSP430 controller, FTDI USB -> UART communication and Polulu drivers.
Toolchain is Visual Studio 2010 and C# for converting a 1200 dpi BMP file to a datastream for the controller which code is implemented
by using CCS and C as the programming language. So far so good, axes are now moving and a more or less harmless red laser diode is happily blinking.
I have got the 405nm diode already but I am not ready to fire that up yet - I guess it is best to wait until the safety goggles arrives.
The plan for this is to implement a printer driver that can drive the exposer directly, maybe a bit ambitious - we'll see what I am able to put together.
The fun thing about the exposer controller is that it may be used for the 2.x as well, my initial plan was to control it from Mach3 but a combo might be a better idea?
I want PPI control and I am thinking of implementing the counters for this, and selection logic for swiching controllers, in a TTL-tolerant CPLD, again hopefylly within my abilities.
Prototyping for the PCB exposer:
Terje