Laser cutter, part III

[madbodger]

The controller board that the laser cutter came with is designed to connect to a PC with a parallel port. I planned from the outset to replace this. The board I chose to use instead is the EiBot Board, a derivative of the UBW (USB Bit Whacker) board. This board was designed by Brian Schmalz for the Egg-Bot, a little robot for plotting on eggs,

Comments

[deguspice]

Nifty!

[orkney]

I'm guessing that you plan to be able to cut intricate designs on wood or whatever--rather like the little boxes for "stuff" that have tiny forests carved on top. I was amazed that you were able to put a couple of little videos in the explanation; actually I shouldn't have been amazed. I remember when you were able to have all eight oscilloscopes working at the same time at the lab and a certain person who is now a college president was very impressed.

[maugorn]

Wow. But where's the maniacal laughter during the successful test?
Mine would have been deafening.

But seriously, this is major league impressive.

[theletterelle]

You are so completely awesome. Literally. I am in awe of the things you can do.

(Oh, and I suck for taking so long, but THANK YOU for the gifts! They are wonderful! I didn't have that book, and I do want to work on natural dyeing, so that was perfect. :D )

[randomdreams]

That's very cool: congratulations on the transplant.
Out of curiosity, why did you choose USB? One nice thing about the parallel port is fantastic timing with very low overhead. I ask because I'm working on a CNC milling machine controller right now.

[madbodger]

I don't have any machines with parallel ports. The timing is done on the EiBot board, so I don't have to worry about it. I just tell it what to do.