Laser engraver option

[Bruno Vunderl]

In laser engraver setup, laser exposes photo sensitive layer on top of the copper. After that. board is placed in developer and then etched in corrosive of your choice. Most of laser engravers use grbl (version 0.8c) and laser diode is turned one by M03 and turned off by M05 commands (cw/ccw spindle).

To enable laser engraver setup, program should have "Laser engraver" checkbox that substitutes Z axis movement with M03 and M05 commands.

[Juan Pablo Caram]

Please see #100.

Maybe the way to approach this is to add some search/replace feature in the CNCJob objects.

[Bruno Vunderl]

I would like to add that option under "Options menu" as a checkbox. This would be logical place for to look for laser engraver feature.

[Juan Pablo Caram]

I was referring to how to implement it.

I believe the option belongs the the CNCJob object and should be an option when you export your G-Code. Otherwise, it should be part of the Geometry object under the section "Create CNC Job:"

The implementation of both would be quite different. One replaces the up/down movements with M03/05 and the other creates the G-code initially the way you want it.

A problem I see is that the G-Code viewer displays according to the Z position. Yellow if >0, blue if <0. There would have to be a way of transferring the "laser" info to the G-Code viewer so it plots according to M03/M05 status.

You said you had implemented it already. How do you do it?

[Bruno Vunderl]

I have manually replaced Z translation with M commands. If "laser engraver" option is enabled M command can be appended after Z axis translation. This way we preserve the coloring and it actually works.

[Juan Pablo Caram]

So, your machine does not really have a Z axis, therefore the Z motions are ignored?

[Bruno Vunderl]

Exactly, Z axis movement is ignored but adds delay to actions.