Did you know that March 14th is unofficial Pi Day? 3.14 get it? :)
To honor this geometric holiday we are offering a ONE DAY 10% OFF discount on our PiBurn Rotary Attachment, that's available for pre-order!
Use coupon code "PIDAY19" at checkout!
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Use coupon code "PIDAY19" at checkout!
Been working on this little tool for several weeks and finally it's ready for the world!
What is Ramp Focal Gauge? It's a simple tool for finding out optimal focal distance from tip of your laser engraver to the material. It takes "ramp test" method to a new level. After you place it correct under your laser nozzle, and load template into machine's memory, it will burn a clear markings on the replaceable temple that will show where your best focal distance is from the tip of the nozzle. No calipers, rulers or anything else required, just your eyes! Takes minutes to use so you can quickly identify best settings, especially when you change lenses.
Gauge works best with Boss lasers because of the "knife blade" table, to which it fits securely. But it will work on any other service as well, just make sure you align it well. Works with auto and manual focusing lasers!
I spent a lot of time on writing detailed manual and filming video instructions guide!
You can find this product in our store.
brick
verb
cause (a smartphone or other electronic device) to become completely unable to function, typically on a permanent basis.
"installing an unofficial OS voids the warranty and may brick the phone"
Lately I've been working on a custom "arduino clone" board that uses SMD version of ATMega328p microprocessor. This is what it looks like, magnified.
It really is a tiny IC, size of small fingernail, yet it's same (internally) as processor used in Arduino UNO and many of it's clones.
However I've managed to "brick" quite a few of these in the process of developing board. Chips appeared to be completely dead, not accepting ISP programming or showing any signs of life. It is not physically damaged, no. Something caused it's internal settings to lock.
Fortunately there's a way to bring these chips back to life with high voltage parallel programming.
Easiest way to do this is with Arduino add-on HV Rescue shield sold on mightyohm.com.
Unfortunately it is meant for standard thru the hole DIP (dual in-row pins) packaged chips. I spent few days trying to find a solution for SMD package (TQFP type) and din't find one. Only solution seems to be is to desolder chip from the board using hot air, put it in junk pile and after cleaning pads solder new one in it's place.
These chips are not expensive so it's not a huge deal, but still it's a waste. So eventually a solution was found.
There's a Zero Insertion Force sockets (ZIF) made for TQFP microchips!
These go for under $25 on eBay (just search for TQFP to DIP ZIF adapter).
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Just put your microprocessor on the special pad and close lid to engage contacts. On the bottom there are 28 standard 0.1" headers that can be plugged into breadboard OR into HV Rescue shield!
There's only two modifications you'll need to do.
When assembling HV Rescue shield instead of 28 IC socket, solder two 14 pin female headers.
Keep in mind that you will not be able to insert regular DIP chip there anymore, but it's easy to make an adapter for it with piece of perf board, male headers and some solder.
If you get same socket as I did, it will have it's bottom row of pins wider than standard ATMega328p chip. Not a problem, just solder male header rows in between.
Another thing to consider is that for some strange reason MightyOhm's sketch for the shield did not work for me, however alternative one did! In some cases I had to run program several times, but I resurrected every single bricked ATmega chip I had!
Also I realized that I can pre-program microprocessors with Bootloader and set fuses without soldering! That greatly sped up assembly process.
Of course you will still need to desolder bricked SMD chips with hot air, and then solder them back, and yes I do realize that I spent about $50 to rescue few $3 microprocessors, but added bonus of being able to pre-program bootloader is worth it for me.
Final warning, chip might get stuck in the adapter's cover. I only realized I had extra one there after I looked at this picture :) Woops!
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I got my laser machine primary for cutting, but lately I've been getting hooked on engraving as well. Mostly I'm fascinated by engraving on stone, such as slate. I see a lot of people making fun things like drink coasters and cheese cutting boards.
It wasn't easy obtaining slate stone here in US. Online it's very expensive, and I wasn't able to find it regular stores, although I'm yet to go to dedicated tile shops. Fortunately someone gave me few large pieces of old roof slate, and I was able to practice some engraving.
This turned out to be much harder than I expected. There are so many variables one have to take into account making engraving challenging. Slate stone has variations in color, and it seems that the darker stone, the better it is for engraving. Where laser marks stone material, it becomes lighter. So image becomes inverted. In order to engrave on dark stone, you first have to invert image in photo editing program.
But before you even touch laser, you must edit it and drastically reduce details. There are better guides than this on how to prepare image for engraving, but I'll mention few points.
Quick guide to preparing photos for engraving:
Remove background if possible. This works best for photos where main subject is against solid background, such as blue sky or single color wall.
Convert image to Greyscale or B&W.
Increase contrast and brightness and adjust levels
Finally change image mode to Bitmap and invert colors.
Save as BMP
Here's an example image of Zebra, that when thru this process.
Please note that I also added outline to it. This way it will look better when engraved.
One more thing that a lot of guides mention is to keep image at pretty high DPI (200 or more). This is probably a good idea for larger image, but I just wanted to create something small, so mine is only 72dpi.
I imported image into RDWorks software, loaded slate into the laser cutter, adjusted height to a correct distance (for my 2" lens) and started to play with settings.
I decided to keep speed at constant 200 mm/s and adjusted laser power and scan gap.
Scan gap controls how far your each line that laser etches from previous one. In theory it allows greater resolution, but as I discovered it in my case default gap of 0.1mm worked the best. With smaller gap you also doubling time it takes to engrave so win-win! :)
Laser power setting controls how strong laser beam is hitting the stone. Initially I thought that higher power would yield better results, but it was just the opposite. Lower power in fact made brighter etching, and I found that it was best between 15-20%. But again even slight variation in color will affect the outcome so it's a lot of trial and error.
Next I tried a solid illustration (non-photographic) of alien petroglyphs. Results were very different from engraving photo of zebra this time. It actually looked the best at lowest possible setting of 10% power, but not all details got etched. I realized that I need to play with the speed, so I've tried upping speed but kept power at 20%. Finally at 400 mm/s I got what I think is perfect result!
I'm still far from expert on engraving, but I'm hoping that someone will find this post useful as good starting point.
Recently I created a 3D printed "target" holder to help with 2nd laser mirror alignment. This is a much improved "jig", that now allows to align both mirrors.
So what's new?
First of all, I made modifications to 2nd mirror alignment jig. It was constantly falling off, so I added handles on the sides, so now you can use simple rubber band to hold it in place. I also added small eyelet on top for easier storage when not in use.
Biggest change was addition of 1st mirror calibration jig.
Please note that I placed it on the wrong end of the mount, only to take picture. It normally will go on the other end.
And finally, I created simple "cross-hair" templates to be used with these 2 jigs. You can print them out and cut out with scissors or use your laser cutter, to etch image and cut out shapes. You'll need to use at lest some heavy card-stock or mat board.
File designs and templates are available at Thingiverse.
As always keep in mind these will only fit Shenhui Laser SH-G350, and that I cannot be sure of, as they might include different mounts.
Update: If you don't have a 3D printer, I can print these for you! Check it out in my online store! :)
Some time ago I wrote about Pin table (a.k.a. vector table) I made for my laser cutter. It kind of worked, but I had issue with rivets moving slightly. This caused some issues when cutting/engraving at high speed, as whole work-piece shook. I also wanted to have more pins to hold smaller parts form falling down constantly. Thus I revisited my pin table and made some improvements.
First thing I did was to remove all rivets and mark grid at 1" increments, basically doubling number of pins (before grid was 2"). Then I drilled at those places lots of extra holes. This took a tall on my 1/8" drill bit, which got dull from the first time I made this pin table. Fortunately I had more, but by the end of this project I dulled a total of 3 bits :)
One row in the middle I was not able to reach with my drill press, so I decided to just leave it as is.
Main improvement was securing rivets in the holes. I heard some people using epoxy, but I wanted a less permanent solution. I used acrylic caulk instead.
It holds rivets in place nicely, but they can still be removed if needed. And I'm hoping it's not toxic when hit by laser, however I cannot guarantee that. Use it at your own risk.
Easy way to apply caulk is to squeeze a dub on piece of paper, dip each rivet into it and then insert into aluminum sheet.
I also had to buy another box of 100 rivets.
This setup works really well for me now. I'm now thinking of a way to secure pin table and add some kind of rulers on the sides for placing work piece correctly.
I'm so excited to have my product on Kickstarter! Finally after almost a year in making and testing I decided to share it with the world.
https://youtu.be/BwlDKpVpV_I
What's PiBurn you might ask? Well it's add-on device for Laser Engraver machines that allows to engrave various cylindrical objects. It's powered by a motor and connected to laser machine's controller. Controller tells it rotate slightly as laser beam passes over it burning image one line at a time.
I really need your support to fulfill my funding goal and start making these devices!
Please consider supporting me on Kickstarter and please do share it with your friends on Social Media! I'd really appreciate any help! :)
Here's direct link to Kickstarter Project
Site redesign has been long overdue, so please pardon our dust!
Some features will not work in the next few days. We are updating our look, and also portfolio... Please stay tuned!
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