New, bigger, laser engravers

[GilDev]

Hello,

This is just for discussion. I ran across this 1 W engraver (there is also a 1.5 W black version) and it seems to be quite good, with a larger engraving area (80x80 mm) than NEJE's and you can put it above the objects you'd like to engrave.

I don't know the brand, nor the protocol and software used for these engravers, but if it is ever supported by EzGraver, that would be awesome!

Of course I know it's not the priority and it may be quite complicated to make EzGraver work with new engravers, but we never know what might happen in the future. If I get one I will seriously try to contribute to EzGraver's source to try to make it work.

[harlleysathler]

Interesting machines. Found them on GearBest, under a Decaker brand name.

I liked the buttons in a place more accessible than NEJE and the green acrylic panel on front. The double work area is a plus, obviously, but the "put it above the objects" thing can be achieved by modifying the NEJE machine.

I saw a video on you tube in witch a french guy transport the X axis assembly to the bottom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbpyWDcFjrs&t=5s

[GilDev]

That's interesting, but of course it's better if it's made that way from the beginning.
And these engravers cost the same amount than my NEJE's at the time I bought it.

[harlleysathler]

Of course! I'm not a big fan of this type of modification. Considering the cost (in fact the 1500mW version costs a bit less than I paid for my NEJE), I ordered one to try!

[GilDev]

Cool! Please post your experiences when you've tried it! =)

[camrein]

Thanks for sharing the new devices. Of course, they look interesting. A friend of mine even applied the mod the french guy after this post. :)
Of course, extending the support for more devices would be great. Primarily, I do not think adding support for additional devices is difficult to accomplish. However, what it makes it difficult for me is "reverse engineering" devices which I do not have direct access to. Nevertheless, I'm absolutely overwhelmed by the support of the people.

I was playing with the idea of stronger separating the protocol implementations to make it easier to add support for new devices (maybe even embed a script langauge or something like that so trial and error for protocol implementations is straightforward). But before I want to finish the support for v3 and the strongly needed code cleanup coming with it.

[GilDev]

All of that seems awesome. =) EzGraver has a great life ahead, I hope I will be able to contribute at some point.

[lonelymyp]

I have such a laser. And the standard software (Scarve) is bad enough.
At first glance the protocol is very similar, I looked with a sniffer.
The difference in the control commands, they are slightly different (for example, the command "left" is not 245, but 134), an example of a command that starts engraving: $30 P485 503 P2
the command to connect to the engraver: $40

and in that the picture is sent in parts (perhaps because the 1050x1050 grayscale is not entirely fit in memory).
There is an additional command here, laser power control, you can set the PWM value for the laser, in practice it is pretty useless.

I would really like to help add support to this laser, just tell me what to help.
The main problem is that the Scarve(standard software) prints grayscale images very poorly. The built-in DiffuseDither or similar algorithm creates many artifacts, large random spots and diagonal lines on a white background.
So that you can print basically only text and simple pictures in stencil style.

[lonelymyp]

Brief description of the control commands.

Write	description	Read	description
$42	Reset
$50	Turn off	B3
$40	Connect	B10
		F8 P1.000000	Current power 1
		F9 P0.203000	Current time 0.203
		connect -----
$30 PX Y P2	Start engraving on XY and P?	F20
$32	Abort engraving	F22
$33	Done	F23 F22
$10 P0	Fan Off
$10 P1000	Fan On
$20 P563 398 51 71	Start preview rectangle X563Y398 X51Y71	F10
$25 P285 285	Stop preview and go X285 Y285	F11	In fact, the laser does not return back, just stops, you can send any coordinates
$25 P0 0	Go to: X00.00 Y00.00	F11
$25 P1600 1600	Go to: X80.00 Y80.00	F11
$9 P0.000	Time 0%
$9 P0.500	Time 50%
$9 P1.000	Time 100%
$8 P0.000	Power 0%
$8 P1.000	Power 100%
$32	Abort engraving	F22
$41	Unknown

[GilDev]

That is great! Thank you for your contribution, I'm sure it will help @camrein a lot!
I think some code rework must be done to allow for new protocols to be easily implemented (maybe a specific structure in JSON for example, linking actions and control commands).
I'm more and more interested in this engraver, I may exchange my NEJE's DK-8-KZ for this one. =)

[lonelymyp]

Here is the process of engraving:
$30 - start command
P780 780 - start point XY
P2 - ???
F20 - start Ok
B1 - data packet request
$33 - stop command

Here is an archive with a test picture and three part data packets:
test.zip

[dk5ras]

Hi!

I just got a KKMoon laser engraver, 3W, with some crappy software, and I wonder if implementing this model is already being worked on. Or can I do something to assist, maybe sniffing commands or so? Or giving on of you the original software to look into it?

Ralph.

[ekaitz-zarraga]

hi,
I'm migrating EzGraver to python and I'd like to add suport for Decaker and some other protocols. @lonelymyp can you give me more information of your findings?

[lonelymyp]

@ekaitz-zarraga Yes, of course, I am ready to help. Ask questions.
The control protocol is quite simple, we only need to figure out how the picture is encrypted for transmission. There are certain patterns in the transmitted string.

[ekaitz-zarraga]

Let's move the discussion to my project. Once it's done I'll probably come back with a patch.