Need to have a quick place to dump some stuff to get organized.
I am planning on turning my davinci into a laser burner/engraver. with the ultimate hope of being able to make resists for etching copper clad. I have most of the parts just need to finish out the hardware modifications and software adjustments required.

Small disclaimer. I'm using a 500mw 808nm laser this is strong enough to instantly melt plastic on wire while giving you a sunburn! Please if your interested in this go read up on laser safety. You only ever get one pair of eyes!
Ok that aside

I have


I need

    √ A 5v line for powering the laser diode
    A way to turn the laser on and off via the due in the davinci
    A way to send DXF/Vectors to the printer
    A way to measure the P-ON time of the laser and P-OFF time for crossing boundaries
    A Air filter setup for ablated particulate. No one likes lung cancer
    To design a mounting platform to get a consistent 0,0 coordinate.
    To design an air blower to keep smoke and other particulates off the area to be etched.


I want, (this is a wish list of overkill features)

    The ability to have the repetier software know that its doing a laser engraving
    A E-Stop for the laser we are working with concentrated energy after all**


The PSU in the davinci is more then capable of the power requirements to run the laser.

Currently I am REing the pin out on a fan connector. The Connector at the minimum has a 5v line broken out for me Very Happy

*There will be an appropriate write up on my mount at a later date.
**This is over kill because I can just turn the whole printer off via the power switch witch is setup for easy access when 3d printing
So I did some digging around I ended up slapping a transistor onto the control board in place of the switch. I ended up slapping an MPF6660 TFET as I needed to ensure that it would be able to pass the current required as it breaks the circuits ground. The circuit draws 600ma MAX. The nominal current draw is closer to 300ma.


Click to enlarge in a new tab.

Next up is to find a way to get the control signals and power to the head unit in a way I can work with. Cursory glance says I can take over the fan control to do so!

After some brief googling someone generated this schematic Very Happy
So I can definitely use the per-ran cable for my 5v power and Ground. I can easily re-purpose one of the old sensor pins that I no longer use on my davinci, These being the jam sensor and the filament presence sensor. In the long run I am planning on making a new daughter board for this etching module. So the old hardware on the old board is a non problem. I may do some shenanigans with the left over pins as a "key" so the davinci wont accidentally turn the other sensors into outputs possible breaking things! But that is v2

The connector that I am looking to attach to is JST PH 2.0 7-Pin.
  
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