LaserGRBL Quick-Start Guide

LaserGRBL Quick-Start Guide

Safety Guideline

Always exercise safety and caution when working with laser marking systems. Consider the listed recommendations to minimize risk:

• You must be at least 13 years old to operate the laser engraver.
• Direct exposure to the laser beam can cause severe burns and eye damage. Ensure that you are wearing proper laser safety goggles when working in the vicinity of the laser equipment.
• When you focus the laser do so only on the lowest power setting.
• Keep a fire extinguisher nearby since use of the laser may lead to an unexpected fire.
• Never leave an operating laser unattended.
• Fumes and smoke generated during the engraving/cutting process must be extracted from the room as some can be poisonous; make sure there is a ventilated system to the outdoors.
• Make sure the cutting area under the laser is metal or non-flammable.
• Ensure that the room or area you are operating the laser in is sufficiently labeled to prevent someone from unknowingly walking into an active work area.
• Be sure to disconnect the power when cleaning, maintaining or servicing the laser equipment.
• DO NOT stare at the bright and intense light appearing during the engraving process. Doing so can cause serious eye damage.
• Never use the laser except for the purpose intended.

SainSmart does not accept any responsibility or liability for any use or misuse of the Laser.

Startup Warning!

Powering on the router and connecting the USB Cable can cause the laser to fire for a short while, so ensure you are wearing the safety goggles. This can also burn the stock depending on what you are using so it makes sense to put something non burnable under the laser beam before turning the router on and connecting to any software.

Installing LaserGRBL

LaserGRBL is a free program which works with Grbl based routers fitted with a Laser and Laser Engravers. It will be used here to assist with setting the Laser Focus though is capable of both sending GCode and converting images to GCode for Laser Engraving It can be downloaded from https://lasergrbl.com/download/

After installation and connecting to the router the screen should look like this:

Enable Z Axis Jog

This feature is disabled by default, but it is useful for Genmitsu CNC's because it already has a Z axis. To do so, select ‘Grbl' > ‘Settings” and click on the ‘Jog Control' Tab. Make sure the ‘Show Z up/down control” box is ticked and save.

Adding Custom Buttons

Download the file CustomButtons.gz from this page.

Right click on the text ‘Right click here to add custom buttons’ in the Buttons pane and select ‘Import Custom buttons’. In the Open Window select the downloaded file and click Open. The dialog box of Import custom button will appear.

In the ‘Open’ window, select the downloaded file and click the ‘Open’ button. Now a short dialog is displayed for each of the three additional buttons. You can now select for each individual button contained in the archive file whether it should be imported or not. Select ‘Yes’ for each button.

The LaserGRBL window should now look like this:

Focusing The Laser

To cut or engrave efficiently we want the laser beam to be tightly focused into the smallest possible point at the top of the stock. Make sure the On/Off button on the laser module is set to ‘ON/PWM” (depressed). Do not forget to wear the Safety Googles.

Place something of known thickness above the stock which will not burn and jog the Z axis so the bottom of the Laser Head Heat sink is 60mm from the top. This measurement will make it easier to repeat the focusing on different stock heights or after remounting the Laser of the stock. Or allow the positioning of the laser on the Z axis to avoid having to refocus every time. Focus is adjusted by turning the focusing knob to move the lenses in the shaft in and out of the Laser Head.

Next use this button to turn on the laser at low power:

With the laser on at low power, you can turn the focusing knob on the laser head as shown below to decrease or increase the focal length:

Adjust the focusing knob to create the smallest possible dot at the center of the laser beam's contact point. The right image is not focused, the left one is focused:

With your laser focused, pressed the Laser Fire button again to turn it off.

Enabling Laser Mode

When using a laser in conjunction with a GRBL based CNC router such as the 3018 Pro, there is an important setting in GRBL which lets the CNC know what mode you want to be in. This setting is $32 and it can be edited in your command console by typing $32=1 to turn on Laser Mode, and can be turned off by typing $32=0.

Clicking the middle custom button ‘Laser Mode On’ will also toggle Laser Mode between being on and off. This is permanently stored on the 3018-PRO motherboard until it is specifically changed, so make sure to turn it off when you are done.

The major effect of setting Laser mode on is that the router will turn off the laser when it is making positional moves. If not set this can result in unwanted lines on your engraving as the Laser is positioned to the next cutting point.