Important upgrades for the EleksMaker PCB laser CNC machine

Laser machine: www.banggood.c...
Laser diode: www.banggood.c...
Laser patreon: / marcoreps
L ... Stepper driver: www.watterott.c...
This videos is about modifications that turned the EleksMaker machine into a better performer than the already amazing 3D printer. First I 3D printed belt holders and adjustable roller mounts for the X axis to ease all movements. Then I equipped a small-dotted 405 nm laser diode, to improve on fine details. Finally I replaced the Pololu A4988 stepper drivers with Watterott TMC2130 ones. All the advantages of these Trinamic ICs will not fit in this text field.

[@DevilsHandyman]

Now you can add sounds so it can do a *pew* *pew* *pew* sound when it is active and they won't be drowned out by the stepper motor sounds.

[@darkshadowsx5949]

lightsaber sounds would be more appropriate than "pew pew pew"

[@Spirit532]

An idea for the next use: Strap a tiny camera to it, and extend the lens with an extreme macro ring so you can do huge resolution microscope scans of larger objects. Machine vision cameras with the "100X/200X 2X Barlow" fake C-mount lens(commonly found on eBay, and is not actually a microscope) work extremely well for this purpose. A super-resolution algorithm implementation would also be quite nice, it's done commonly in the thermal imaging industry to quadruple the effective pixel count via small hand movements.

[@reps]

Yeh, beautiful idea! I already have nice "h264 built-in" camera that gets huge resolutions at high frame rates through USB 2.0. Will take a look at that lens.

[@Anvilshock]

And then combine image and original picture for QA purposes. Derive the difference, and instantly spot and identify possible or actual faults! Woohoo!

[@PartySlothy]

That idea really reminded me of Microsculpture petapixel.com/2016/04/25/macro-photos-made-10k-images-captured-microscope-lens/ Thematically a bit off but maybe some of you find it interesting.

[@Motorman2112]

Realworld DRC/ERC :)

[@Spirit532]

AOI :) It's a common step in PCB fab.

[@carldavis8228]

I used your printed upgrades. I had to do a little hand filing, but that was because of the tolerance of the 3D printer I was using. I was not going to reprint it when 5 min of hand filing got the roller to spin free. I now can't wait for my drivers to come in. Keep up the fantastic work.

[@klassichd10]

Wow! Really great Upgrades! Very impressive. Especially the Trinamics Driver.

[@sameerbagwanb8517]

klassich D 4mm Acrylic citing hoga ky

[@frankphorlakis1778]

Hi Marcos, thank you very much for contributing the improvements for the EleksMaker. I hope you see this comment because I see that you have some time that they do not comment or ask anything about these updates. I had acquired this machine about two years ago and had to keep it because it was very busy, but now I decided to finish it so that I could use it on printed circuits. In my case it did not go very well. In the case of the Beld Holder and the adjustment of the X axis it worked perfectly; but I had problems with the operation of the TMC2130. I made all the connections step by step and I have reviewed them very carefully several times, update the GRBL to version 1.1, make the change of the configuration of the parameters that you have provided. When I start to test the machine, and I try to move the X axis, I notice that it works well; however when I try to move the Y axis, I notice that it does not move. Then he proceeded to move the potentiometer to increase the current and setting the potentiometer to maximum power, the Y axis tries to move, but it does not, however, if we help the Y axis move with the hand, it begins to move. I have tried to contact you by mail, but it has been impossible because I have not received an answer, so I am writing here to see if I am lucky that you see my request for help ... I do not know which was the GRBL version about two years ago, maybe the problem is that I have the RGBL 1.1 version installed, and now it is not compatible with the software residing on the Arduino Mini Pro. Please send to me a email to [e-mail]. Thanks very much.

[@Charkel]

I can listen to you talk about anything and it's always as interesting and relaхing.

[@John_Smith__]

LOL! Wow ... a CNC'ed Wood case for the TS100 solder iron .... you Rock !!! :) this is called upping the game!

[@simplyflipflops]

The oscilloscope outputs at 4:43 from your drivers are exactly the same as a "class a" audio amplifier (or likely "class ab" on the left) vs a "class b" audio amplifier (on the right). The cross over distortion (or in the audio world THD) likely influences stepper driver movement in the same way as it does a speaker driver or our ears. Hence being more quiet and having fewer artifacts.

[@reps]

Interesting comparison! I wonder if there are any technologies in the Trinamic driver that could benefit HiFi amplifier ICs

[@simplyflipflops]

Marco Reps More likely it is the other way around. The trinamic chips or stepper motor drivers of the future can benefit from reduced distortion methods of audio ICs or discrete components such as Darlington pairs or negative feedback loops.

[@lucasmonta1]

I saw the same thing and and thought it was odd to see that since it's usually something you want to avoid which talks about the design quality of the cheaper driver, but yet again this was not an audio application so one can kinda understand the desition

[@AndiusPandius]

Well err, not quite a legit comparison. Speakers are essentially (ideally) a resistive load being driven by a voltage source (Class AB or Class D). Steppers have a significantly greater inductive component and are being driven by a current source. The feedback loop in an audio amp is controlling the amps voltage output whereas the stepper driver feedback is controlling the current that the stepper coil is allowed to ramp up to. If the scope is showing only voltage across the stepper coil then that's not the whole story....

[@cinest5170]

Your listening to smoooooth cnc on 95.5 the coyoteeee.

[@Anvilshock]

My listening? What about the other guys' listening? What about your listening?

[@philchadwick9470]

@@Anvilshock infinitely more subtle than I would have been. Brought a smile to my face!

[@MegaBlackJoe]

After playing with Eleks for quite some time I improved quality drastically by placing an adjustable Z axis. I was never been able to adjust focus manually to get good results with that kind of laser untill I installed it.

[@ianmcmill]

Now this is the first video that eradicated all my doubts in purchasing a TMC driver.

[@dalskiBo]

I'd like to purchase them too.

[@gustavferdman214]

You're most likely the best maker-engineer I've seen on KZbin.

[@kineto7]

Very nice and in-depth video! Got to know many small things about which had no clue about. The Trinamics motor driver seems like a huge upgrade / improvement over the stock drivers.

[@EdwinFairchild]

any idea what the kerf on that laser is.. because im wondering whats the smallest smd foot print i cant get away with.. if it could do a 48qfp microcontroller that has 0.21mm space between each pin i would totally go for this machine

[@Stelios.Posantzis]

That is incredible performance - great work! I still believe the silence at 6:34 is a trick though! ; ) With this level of precision, you could probably laser-print your own mechanical stop watch!

[@shadowwalker255]

If you leave the plastic wrap on the acrylic and paint it black, you can cut or engrave it. The black paint absorbs the energy, instead of just going through and bouncing of it.

[@aterack833]

Now you need a 10w laser and a set of lenses that focus like a phone camera stack, then you can adjust power based on need, and adjust the focus to save time, vector drawing is a must for that of course

[@CollinWillson]

This is a fantastic video. I'm looking forward to seeing how all of this is done and how to configure it. I just bought this same machine and am following your upgrade path. Please put a configuration video with information on how to do it!

[@joeytavora1270]

Great pro tip I got from that was using a breadboard for soldering pins to pcbs. The rest of the video was also very informative of course.

[@simonmerrett]

I'm glad you used the voting system on the KZbin community features to help you decide what video to make.

[@piotrk8369]

Hi Marco. Thank's a lot for this movie. I have the same model od Eleks Laser, and I have the same problems as You. All information you present is just a hit. I'll try to rebuild and improve my Eleks Laser too. Thaks!

[@dylanetaft]

I ordered all of the stuff to do this. I've done etch resist and light tanks - it is a giant pain in the butt and doesn't have a perfect success rate, and definitely can't do small traces. Needs a darkroom more or less too. Messing with high pH solutions isn't nice either. I was messing around with flatcam, I think it'll work with this method. Can do isolation routing from a gerber file, and export to SVG, which could be imported into laserweb. Flatcam looks like it can generate gcode too, but it's more oriented towards CNC milling. Would have to edit the gcode to switch the Z layer movements to turning the laser on and off. Thanks for these videos.

[@johnwhitmore2531]

Merry Christmas and thanks for a brilliant video. I have to investigate getting this machine, upgrading and etching PCBs. The time saving alone would make it worthwhile, not waiting for couriers.

[@KeesHessels]

Awesome.... that led in the end did it... magic...

[@rockdog2584]

Now if only EleksMaker would just build these improvements in in the first place. Sure would make for a nicer product for people like me that AREN'T computer geeks.

[@darkshadowsx5949]

it would make a nicer product for everyone including computer savvy people. no one wants to throw 50% of what you buy away and spend more money making it into what it should have been. even if its "fun" its a waste of time and money. drivers that cant compete with TMC should be wiped off the surface of earth permanently.

[@88690]

1. was hast du gelernt? 2. was arbeitest du? Ich wünschte ich hätte Talent in Sachen Strom und co..... aber wir hassen uns 😄 Habe einen 3D Drucker und das piepsen der Motoren treibt mich in den Wahnsinn 😄 Respekt vor deinem Know How! Neid!

[@bjarkegth4098]

Try putting a 0 ohm resistor at R4 on the Pololu board and check if the zero crossings are gone

[@prashkd7684]

I have a cheap Chinese CNC machine and i have been thinking of way to make it accurate enough to mill a SMD PCB. So far i was only focusing on mechanics however after watching this video i think i'am gonna have to have a look at the controller board. microstepping might just be the solution to my problem

[@residuevideos]

I have the same machine but you took it to whole another level. Congratz

[@nrdesign1991]

The Trinamic drivers were probably the best upgrade for my 3D printer - Delta printers are especially noisy with four motors going constantly; now all I hear is the fan noise

[@rahulbindhu]

That trinamic signal was beautiful

[@vafabunyatova2930]

Hi, You did a really good work. Surely this will help to all interested people. Well done mate. The only thing is the link in description for wiring and software upgrades isn't right. Would be possible to share the actual link. Would really appreciate it

[@dws8364]

Great research. Very impressive performance. Thanks for sharing!

[@George-gz5zm]

Great job with the precision and silence. Thanks for sharing your steps. Can you let me know how well a PCB etched using the improvements?

[@dannyturner8648]

Very interesting video. Everything ordered and printed justness to wait for the deliveries now.

[@dannyturner8648]

Do you think that this - www.banggood.com/EleksMaker-EL01-500-405nm-500mW-Blue-Violet-Laser-Module-with-PWM-for-DIY-Laser-Engraving-Machine-p-1179513.html?rmmds=search&cur_warehouse=CN - would be a suitable replacement as it would not require the PWM modifications ?

[@leinadreign3510]

Thank your for the video! I will maybe check the stepper driver out. But since im a total dummy with these things, it will stay with the normal "single mode" and Im not going further ^^

[@remcovanwoerkom2016]

Dude this is awesome, the precision is just beautiful.... And think of what one could do with this type of tech!

[@MrEye4get]

Wow! Super quiet! Very well narrated!

[@aklef]

That was so freaking cool to watch. I love upgrade/tinkering vids like these! Cheers and happy holidays!

[@DrTune]

Wow nice to know before buying, thanks. Those stepper drivers are wonderful

[@prahjister]

Awesome video. Can you do an entire video on those drivers. Very interested in how they work. Would like to see them on 3d printer

[@reps]

thomas sanladerer also made a video about them in 3D printers specifically

[@prahjister]

Marco Reps I really like the fact that you showed the effect visually with the oscilloscope. It's one thing to to say it but seeing it was great. I am not sure if you could show the other features visually

[@sircompo]

Excellent tips; thanks. Did you fix the issue with the laser firing upon controller initialisation? I have the same issue. I originally assumed it was a floating pin that needed a pulldown resistor but haven't found time to investigate yet.

[@ChunkySteveo]

The TMC2130 are amazing little things!

[@NicksStuff]

Have you tried using the current sensing capability on the Z axis of a 3D printer? Sounds like the right way to do bed leveling

[@brawndo8726]

3:42 did you just yank drivers out of a powered board 😱 I'm making a small office plotter and need it to be silent so I picked up some tmc2208. I made sure to get the freewheeling protector boards to try and save them from the ignorance of the suits.

[@devluz]

Do you have a picture of the final results in high res? Wonder if you still see the edges from the steps

[@bbreeuwer4577]

265 steps? I guess you mean 256, lol. I love how silent they are! Is there an higher current version available?

[@reps]

Damn, German influences ... we say zwei-hundert-sechs-und-fünfzig = two-hundred-six-and-fifty. 2^8 should be the international standard :)

[@bbreeuwer4577]

Marco Reps. Haha I know the problem very well (in Dutch). It's even a bigger challenge when you need to go back and forth on a daily basis. Great video as always btw!

[@Anvilshock]

Be happy you aren't Danish ... imgur.com/PhmSI5a

[@ZebraandDonkey]

I have two of the TMC 2130 coming from them myself this week.

[@FLyyyT_]

Yeah those trinamics are a beast of an IC

[@ericon.7015]

Wow!! those modifications worth a lot!! Great details!

[@dawnbreaker84]

Das mit den Silentsteppern. habe ich das richtig verstanden, das man nur die Pinleisten verlöten muss, die 3 überflüssigen Pins kürzen muss und dann die alten durch die neuen ersetzen muss ?

[@stevensheldon9271]

Hi! Could you provide some links to the 3D printed parts? Thanks!

[@rollandjones9556]

Hi Marco, great video, thanks. Now you got me wanting to make one.

[@PDRIFT86]

That's a very nice case for the ts-100!

[@dylanetaft]

Do you plan on doing any more of these? It is really cool, and you seem to be one of the few that have pushed it this far.

[@carlosguimaraes8042]

Hello, Mr. Marco. I have an EleksMaker laser CNC machine and got all the items indicated in your design with TMC 2130. I have a PC with Windows 10 64 bit. When I change the A4988 chip through the TCM2130 the motors do not work. What Strec should I load on EleksMaker Mana SE. I would like you to help me because I know your project is really good and I want to do it.

[@samlane1078]

Pretty late to the party, but you say that you'd have to make a lot of pcb's for this to be worth it - roughly how much did this cost in terms of upgrades to the EleksMaker? Seems like a lot cheaper alternative to most of the hobbyist cnc based pcb routing options out there.

[@lemoinexavier]

I don't understand anything, but liked your video. Almost Discovery Channel. Thx!

[@johnsoprych483]

"SUPER FANTASTIC" Bruno from the movie Basquiat :D

[@MrStemkilla]

i didnt even know the made such drives! they perform amazingly

[@MGMan37]

7:09 A lot of the lines dont seem to connect back to themselves, such as the top left corners of all the rotated SMD spots, isn't that an issue? A lot of the letters look offset too, overlapping with the big number 0. Did the board just get nudged around by accident?

[@WandaII]

Great video! Sure would love to know how much all of this cost in total though.

[@AlexGoris]

Can't believe this hasn't been asked before, what is that gorgeous looking wooden TS100 case that you're showing off @3:02 Thanks for this video, I'm nearly finished rebuilding my Makeblock XY plotter with laser engraver upgrade to be controlled by the PiCNC hat and a raspberry pi so I can control it via laserweb. I think I might upgrade to the trinamic drivers in the future.

[@reps]

The manufacturer sent me this link: www.ebay.com/itm/162776351409

[@brunocabral1578]

Nice video, funny (at 1:09-1:10), direct, voice totally understandable, congratulations! May I ask why you choose not to use the 1W laser diode at 1:55 to do the PCB engraving? I am thinking on mouting one of these beasts using a similar laser like the one at 1:42 but using Acro System Openbuild parts, and arduino uno with cnc shield, as it runs grbl just fine. It would cost, without the laser, about U$100-150!

[@Rick-ck8ei]

If the trinamic chip only requires communication to initialize, how would integrating the spi communication on the grbl controller cause problems during operation? i.e. do interrupts happen spuriously? In SPI the master device controls the clock signal and communication happens in tied-duplex (slave only talks when master is transmitting; which is why stallguard endstop detection requires a separate pin...)

[@funkstrong]

Did I miss the video of you making that wooden soldering case? I need to make one of those!

[@reps]

The manufacturer sent me that a while ago, I don't know when / where / if at all they are selling it

[@patrickweggler]

Marco Reps when seeing that case I fell in love with it - would be great if you could pass a link as soon as it's available! PS Great video

[@Split10uk]

If you google for 'Logend wooden box iron box TS100 smart iron wood box' you will find it. www.englishtaobao.net/product/559739613540/

[@reps]

The manufacturer sent me this link: www.ebay.com/itm/162776351409

[@patrickweggler]

Marco Reps thank you so much!😊

[@MP-mu1kw]

Excellent video! Thanks for sharing. I am still very new when it comes to Lasers and or 3DP. I have just started dabbling with CNC very recently and built myself a 2ft x 2ft mpcnc with Marlin 1.1.9 and learning about fusion and g-code and my next plan is to move to laser. I am curious to find out if this TMC2130 based controller can benefit CNC routing applications for say milling Acrylic??

I was wondering how the stepper driver are providing the better performance. The controller is sending a pules when a step is needed. The only way I can think of is that the stepper driver introduces a delay and therefore smoothing out the timing errors. Futhermore I think you can see it in the results! Because there you see that not all forms are completely closed. This can then be explained because the laser introduces nearly no delay. Any other ideas?

[@frictitiousclimbing4991]

Could you link to that little laser diode you showed near the beginning trying to cut acrylic?

[@flagober]

friend, could you make the project available to me, I loved this CNC and I want to build one because I already have some parts.

[@jstro-hobbytech]

Hey Mr Reps. Sorry to nag again. I've got so many pieces of that presensitized board. Got them for free on an Amazon screw up. The wife wants a laser engraver. So if I just create a circuit board like I normally would in software what do ya do peel off the pieces you want exposed after the laser lays down the lines then just go through the normal steps? I know you said the board houses are cheap and I agree but the shipping prices quickly build up. I live in nova Scotia and pcbway is 50usd just to ship. They've added China mail but I've got massive building on my property that used to be a cabinet makers shop and alot of ferric chloride. I'm not even anywhere nearly as talented as you (for good reason as you are an engineer) and I only pretend to be one. It's expensive make believe so I have to pick my battles cost wise. Do you have a video where you go through the whole process?

[@charinsingh1339]

Hi great video. What is the power of the laser please (if you can point me to a link on Banggood that would be great). I notice that you are running the laser without a fan? The laser that come already with a fan and pcb are they ok to use please?

[@Slartibartfas042]

I saw lots of open areas where the pad polygons seemed not being closed at their start-/ endpoints. Was that intended to be or does it mean the stepper did lose some steps? When using this machine as PCB laser engraver such left over copper traces would mean the difference inbetween "go" and "no-go" ;)

[@reps]

Yes, I've noticed that too. I think it's a result of a relatively new GRBL feature that adjusts laser PWM power based on movement speed. When the axis moves slower, the power is reduced to avoid burning. Since I have adjusted the laser power to a level that just barely exposes Bungard FR4 boards, I could imagine that the GRBL-side adjustment causes insufficient exposure

[@ConnorNess]

Those definitely look like missed steps to me. Notice how some of the boxes are either not closed, or have "legs" where the laser closed the box shorter than where it began engraving. These plagued my A5 Pro. I had to re-square the frame, added some 3D-printed axle spacers (www.thingiverse.com/thing:2501088), the belt tensioners featured in this video, and fiddled with the acceleration to sort it all out.

[@k3ith1]

You can turn that GRBL feature off if you use M3 to enable the laser. Use M4 to enable the dynamic power mode which has its uses but probably not in PCB work.

[@brunocabral1578]

@@reps Can you share the bare minimun laser power you are using?

[@ethanmye-rs]

Is it just rolling in 2020 extrusion? Might be able to get even faster speeds and tighter control with some linear ways.

[@ellisgl]

Could do CoreXY and remove the motors from the moving parts to lighten the load, which then would allow for a speed up and remove "echoing" / "Ringing" from sudden direction changes / stops. Of course speeding up things isn't always the best, since that would probably lower the effectiveness of the laser etching capability and would require retracing.

[@otsisippi1]

i found the basic construction very intriguing for low budget machine and linear rails or rod would improve precision, but for it's application beautiful!

[@t1mmy13]

Basically a 300 euro super silent super precise Cnc base :D pretty sick

[@augustinmeignan]

I'm interrested in the drivers If I don't want to go the hard route with the other arduino, are they just plug and play replacement ? or do you have some configuration to do ?

[@marekburgan5534]

Hello man, please which 3 pins u cut from the small TMC board, and why, whatabout comparing with DRIVER A4988 ? thank u

[@brainfornothing]

Merry Christmas !

[@HelgeKeck]

Awesome job, thank you, having a similar setup now. Did you ever concidered to use something like a DLP Printer for it?

[@miked3044]

I may have missed something, hopefully someone will clarify... You mentioned 2:19 that this i faster than 'the' 3d printer, at 1000mm/min... i'm pretty sure that's around 16mm/s... my diy kit printer actually fails when moving that slow... what did i miss? a misspoke word perhaps? bad conversion?

[@android4cg]

Awesome! Do you recommend replacing the stepper by trinamic for noobs at this point of time (without additional arduino)?

[@reps]

Depends on what you are doing, for larger designs the standard hardware is perfect, but for very small SMD PCB layouts the upgrade is better

[@Shafiq1969]

Need a cheap laser cutter to cut 2mm card for cake toppers. Will this elksmaker a3 machine do the job without leaving black burn marks?

[@DavideMenegalli]

Hi Marco, i have the same laser machine and would make the 3d printed modifications, does you will to share the stl maybe ? Thanks

[@chrisleech1565]

Merry Christmas! ...I heard you say this is capable of 3D printing, then what about a heated bed. Not a big deal I know. They make them all day long over there :-) I am currently producing project boxes (and many tears ) with something called the Ultimate Parametric Box at Thingiverse (really excellent use of OpenSCAD. And out of the last five attempts I got one good piece 130x80x25. representing one half of the finished enclosure. The headache is managing to keep the large flat surface stuck to the heated bed without lifting a corner during the session. I am so happy when the parts remain stuck flat to the bed :P I have much wasted material because of warping and lifting. How would the Eleksmaker manage the heated bed I wonder......did you do another vid on the 3D printing variant?

[@Richard-vj3vs]

Hi, love the video, did you design the adjustable rollers yourself? if so could you share it with us? thank you.

[@ChrisMuncy]

Also, FIlastruder now has these in stock on sale for $12.99 USD

[@dedotatedwandomaccessmemowy]

Which N channel MOSFET would you recommend when creating that little circuit for the 405nm laser diode? Sorry for my ignorance, I'm new to the whole EE scene :)

[@brunocabral1578]

Did you discover the purpose of this circuit?

[@dedotatedwandomaccessmemowy]

@@brunocabral1578 The MOSFET is basically just being used as a solid state relay / switching device in this case. Honestly I remember ditching this project 2 years ago lol. I recently splurged and just bought an AxiDraw a few months ago because it fit my use case better.

[@donovanpl]

What mode is the driver running in @3:45 while the legs have been cut off and the SPI mode disabled? Would the result be the same and feature if the legs were not cut off?

[@Paxmax]

Oooh... Nice re-work!

[@Alexandr22ru]

заказал TMC2130. Очень понравилось как двигается каретка :)

[@RubenKelevra]

Are you sure you got real acrylic glass? When you buy "acrylic glass" in a hardware store you usually get polystyrol glass, which is also way cheaper.

[@PedalSyndicate]

Hi, Danke für deine tollen Videos, das hat mir sehr geholfen und die erste Platine wurde auch "ok" - die "Belt Holders" zu wechseln ist absolut Pflicht - ansonsten wird es ungenau am Ende der Achsen.

[@thecombatengineer7069]

Now I really want one.

[@KarlUKmidlands]

Wonder what power laser is required to etch a standard copper clad board, if they make even a small desktop laser pcb etcher they will sell loads of them to hobbyists and businesses for rapid prototyping

[@circuitsable]

Where did you get that wooden case for your TS100? Looks gorgeous.

[@First2ner]

That is getting insane, that you can do that at home

[@DwightStebner]

can we expect these upgrades to go into production machines?

[@goosenp]

Awesome video as always! The results are just amazing. Concerning the German stepper drivers: - Can we buy them outside Germany? (For example eBay/Aliexpress) - How do they compare to the inexpensive DRV8825 drivers which are also compatible

[@goosenp]

One more thing, could you please share the test file you run on all the CNC machines to check the PCB quality? (I'm referring to that Zebra one)

[@reps]

Will upload along with the config and software stuff

[@warlockd]

Damn I have that exact laser kit. I am so ordering that diode and triodes

[@lOlivetGT]

what is the name of paint are you usin for PCB?. im trying with acrylic black mate, and i have 1W laser blue. but i think is not perfectly burn it. and i dont have that resolutions you gat wow.