Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff
DPS 5020 as Fiber laser diode power supply
<< < (3/4) > >>
LaserSteve:
One, this unit has a smaller exit fiber core then most LDs on the market.  So your energy density on target will be high with the right optics, which in this case will be the right short focal length lens.

LD will need a driver, either surplus on Ebay for 100-200$ when the right one pops up, or 8 TO-220 size Fets in parallel on a decent heat sink.

You'll want a spare diode...

LD will need a suitable power supply...  25o watt Lambda or Meanwell... , something of a better PSU with low spiking at turn-on...
Some of them can be modified as a decent current source, for forming your upper current limiting...

1 Pair of Safety Glasses..

A GRBL and LaserGrbl setup to make it useful  35-50$ for the Arduino Uno and some ULN2004 Buffers..

A good start is here:  http://www.diymachining.com/grbl/   and here:  http://lasergrbl.com/en/

40-60$ worth of Chinese Stepper Motor Drivers...

Some sort of XY and hopefully Z  motion stage with motion steps about a spotsize apart.  Freehand surgical type lasing probes to do hand carving are very useless, you really need motion control.

Power supplies, cabling, enclosure, Estop, possible aiming laser, aiming laser combiner, lots of 40-60$ a piece mirror mounts of the MM1 or MM2 or KMS type...  IR Viewing camera.. 

Did I mention cooling?

The good news is the Eye Safety glasses have good resale value,,,, :-)

This is an expensive hobby, and it would help if you had access to a lathe, and even better yet, a friend with a milling machine.

Otherwise you have to do the old trick of buying a pin vise, and have a hole drilled in it to clamp the fiber...



Steve
MDM3D:
I plan on using linuxcnc, my background is in mechanical engineering, the mechanics and the motion control are a cake walk this would be my smallest and fastest machine. The main idea would be able to throw a sheet of painted pcb blank drill out the vias and spots for through hole components and the laser off the paint in the areas that need etching. One to two setups depending on single or double sided boards and much less time messing around with perfboard with the added bonus of "free" silkscreen". My electronics background has been self taught but I have no experience with lasers/laser control but a fair amount of  electric motor power control ie servos for cnc machines. Lasers seem to need much faster response controls than electric motors. I have a full machine shop and measuring lab that I can use. The LD will be water cooled.
LaserSteve:
CW Laser diodes are not spectacular at drilling copper..  Via drilling and copper milling lasers are almost always very short pulse, ie Q-Switched..
Probably not a rewarding use of this particular LD, unless you like very, very thin copper... You'd have to put a laser sensitizing layer on the copper, something that starts the combustion and oxidation of the copper...  That is not easy... To do what you want, you probably need a Q-Switched Green laser... While those are my cup of tea, and I have done cutting of thin copper sheet for battery making, you'd need at least 10 watts average power  of 7 to 35 nanosecond  Q-Switched Green  pulses to make you happy. In other words, really high peak powers.

See:

https://www.spectra-physics.com/applications/pcb-manufacturing

Steve  :phew:
MDM3D:
Ah I apologize for the confusion The drill/endmill would have it's own spindle, the laser would just be used to remove paint and engrave. Currently swapping from v bits to route traces to drills/burrs/endmills makes the process tedious and I still do not have silkscreen yet. This setup would be a 60K rpm spindle for the drill/endmill and a laser mounted on the carriage to remove the paint to greatly reduce tool changes.
LaserSteve:
That kind of paint burning it will possibly do... Might have to watch you don't cook your substrate. So you defocus..

Steve
Navigation
Message Index
Next page
Previous page
There was an error while thanking
Thanking...

Go to full version
Powered by SMFPacks Advanced Attachments Uploader Mod