Brand new on the forum. I should start by saying that I know nothing about CNC. I bought one of these cheap Chinese laser engravers and found out that the software is Windows only. I have no Windows computers. I have been using Ubuntu for the last several years. I read somewhere that Linuxcnc could be used to operate these engravers. But just now I read that Linuxcnc does not support USB connections. The engraver is a USB Arduino control board. Any suggestions about software if no go on Linuxcnc?
It could possibly be running grbl
github.com/gnea/grbl/wiki/Using-Grbl
, it is worth an experiment trying to control it with one of the gui's written for grbl.
All of the Chinese laser cutters I have seen, and the one I own have had the original electronics + motor drivers junked and been converted to grbl or linuxcnc
it will shure run wit thew K40 board or this very cheep laser nonames
all can be converted to standard parport
but you are looking for a Aduino grbl usb conversion
Thanks for the replies. I see I have stepped into a whole new world. I sure have a lot of studying to do just to figure out what questions to ask. Haha- back to school for this old dog (been retired for 10 years). My nephew is coming to visit tomorrow for a week. He has operated several large CNC milling machines before and is now managing the computer network system for his parent's business. And he thought he was taking a vacation. After his visit, I am sure I will be able to ask some more informed questions. Back to reading about Arduino, grbl and such. I ran across some info about "LaserWeb" that I need to read more about.
OK? Remember, you are talking to someone that doesn't know the difference between Arduino and conventional stepper drives-haha The new laser machine is still on the UPS truck. Could you point me in the direction of some conventional stepper drives? I hate to sound like a CNC Dummy, but I am a CNC Dummy. Please bear with me as I feel that I am in the 1st grade again.
