General Category > 3D Printers

New to lasers and SLA and need some info

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Jasonpgr:
Sorry, I totally forgot to include the datasheet/manual they sent me with the stats on it. It seems like if it can interpret the digital signals, that it would already have a similar board type thing in the head, but I could be wrong. If not, I think going to the lasershark route is definitely the best and simplest way to go. I'm probably going to be purchasing the CW software license since that looks like the smoothest way to itegrate everything since I'm already way out of my knowledge base on this one.

I was able to build some really great and intricate FDM printers using marlin firmware and Cura for slicing, so I assumed it would be just as easy to use open source software for a laser SLA set up, I was way wrong. I have little to no software/coding experience at all beyond very very basic arduino stuff, and mostly that is modifying existing codes like I have done when setting up Marlin for my printers specs.

It was so user friendly and simple to figure out, I'm really wishing there was a marlin firmware designed for SLA that would take the gcode that is sent out by the slicing software and convert it to galvo angles, rather than steps for a stepper driver. In conjunction with options for controlling the Z axis the in different ways we would need for wiping resin and all that. But alas, we haven't reached that point yet.

All that aside, I'm still determined to sort this out and get it up and running. So here's the data sheet, let me know if you think this would work and if you have anything else for me to look at to get the CW software talking to the lasershark and an arduino to move all z axis bits around at the right time, I'd really appreciate it.

Macpod:

--- Quote from: Jasonpgr on March 28, 2018, 05:48:04 PM ---Sorry, I totally forgot to include the datasheet/manual they sent me with the stats on it. It seems like if it can interpret the digital signals, that it would already have a similar board type thing in the head, but I could be wrong. If not, I think going to the lasershark route is definitely the best and simplest way to go. I'm probably going to be purchasing the CW software license since that looks like the smoothest way to itegrate everything since I'm already way out of my knowledge base on this one.

--- End quote ---
It should for a digital head. The logic board I am referring to that would attach to an Arduino/etc would be for the purpose of level shifting (think 3.3v to 5v TTL Level conversion or TTL to RS232.. very simple/common) vs a processing or analog to digital module.

Before purchasing a copy of CW make I would encourage you to reach out to the developer to verify it still supports the LaserShark. CW used to be freely downloadable and supported the LaserShark but this support was removed and the product went to a license-based model. According to another post on this forum the LaserShark is not supported by the latest CW.

Jasonpgr:
That's really unfortunate. I sent them an email a couple days ago and I'm still waiting for a response.

It kinda seems like there's no good way go about making a laser driven SLA printer. At least from a software/firmware perspective. I see a bunch of companies are doing it, because you can buy one. And most of them are driven by a small board that doesn't seem much different than a raspberry pi or arduino type board. A lot will print from an SD card much like a typical FDM style printer, which leads me to believe they are just streaming gcode from a slicer software.

Maybe I should phrase this differently. Since you have a much stronger knowledge of galvos, and coding and all the areas where I'm lacking, if someone came to you and said "I have this galvo head (the one I included the manual for in the last post) can you turn it into a laser sla 3d printer?" How would you go about it? Would you prefer a digital or analogue head since it can come as either one? What are the missing components and where would I source them in order to pull it all together.

With my limited knowledge and experience it seems like the best way would be to find some way to reconfigure a basic marlin/repetier firmware to drive a galvo instead of steppers on the XY axis, and swap the extruder bits for laser ttl on/off commands, and just use a ramps board to do it all. But I have no idea how to go about doing that, and I don't want to have to manually modify massive amounts of Gcode manually before doing a print. The solutions are definitely out there because people are doing it fairly inexpensively. I just keep running into brick walls, so maybe I need to take a whole new approach all together.

Macpod:

--- Quote from: Jasonpgr on March 30, 2018, 03:12:46 PM ---
Maybe I should phrase this differently. Since you have a much stronger knowledge of galvos, and coding and all the areas where I'm lacking, if someone came to you and said "I have this galvo head (the one I included the manual for in the last post) can you turn it into a laser sla 3d printer?" How would you go about it? Would you prefer a digital or analogue head since it can come as either one? What are the missing components and where would I source them in order to pull it all together.

With my limited knowledge and experience it seems like the best way would be to find some way to reconfigure a basic marlin/repetier firmware to drive a galvo instead of steppers on the XY axis, and swap the extruder bits for laser ttl on/off commands, and just use a ramps board to do it all. But I have no idea how to go about doing that, and I don't want to have to manually modify massive amounts of Gcode manually before doing a print. The solutions are definitely out there because people are doing it fairly inexpensively. I just keep running into brick walls, so maybe I need to take a whole new approach all together.

--- End quote ---
I would probably go with a digital head if it wasn't significantly more money and after I determined the speed would be sufficient (vs an analog head). Before I purchased anything I would make sure software existed and if not write the software.

There are two software approaches, one is to modify a slicer to export images, then draw pixel by pixel. The other means is to make a g-code to x-y point converter and use that in conjunction with either an xy2-100 head (easier and already integrated in) or lasershark board attached to an analog head (maybe faster).

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