Hey man, Great video! I was going to build a grbl based Cnc Engraver/cutter to make PCBs, everything was going great but your video made me realize that I need a really precise laser. my machine has 2000 steps per mm which is plenty, but the laser dot should be small to get good results, any Idea how I can solve this problem?
Well, I don't remember where I heard this, but I heard that Chinese laser producers use two modules instead of one to make more powerful laser modules, which results in a bigger dot. Maybe something less powerful but of better quality can achieve better results. I asked ChatGPT about this, and it agrees they do this and suggested this brand: neje.shop/collections/neje-laser-engraver-laser-cutter-laser-module-kits-cnc-wood-router/products/10w-laser-module-kit-for-3d-printer-cnc-laser-machine-arduino-project-wood-routter-machine
@@bitofelectronics Thank you so much man! The feedback was 100% helpful, I'll make sure to get a high quality 5.5 watt laser to get better results, budget is a little bit low at the moment but when I set everything up I'll make sure to share my results.
Well I didn't try cutting any vinyl with my laser, but I did some research for you. Maybe getting a more powerful laser is a better idea. I also found that cutting vinyl with a laser creates harmful gases, so be careful.
@@bitofelectronicsThanx for the reply! To tackle the harmful gas thing, I am thinking of attaching a vaccum cleaner port near the laser module. I believe it will take care of that situation, isn't it? Secondly, my budget is not great so I am concerned about the dot resolution of that cheap $40 laser. Can you tell me the dot diameter you have? Because if I look at your 1206 pad, the isolation looks quite thick.
@@ribvicky Well, when I was engraving wood, I tried sucking the fumes into my vacuum cleaner. It filtered about 50% of it, and it's been like 6 months now. Whenever I power up my vacuum cleaner, it still fills the room with a burned wood smell lol. If you plan to put the vacuum cleaner outside and don't plan to use it for cleaning your house in the future, I think it's a good idea :D As for the laser dot size, as you can see at 7:05, the thinnest PCB trace is around 0.3 mm (12 mils), and it's about to disappear. So, I assume the dot size is something around 0.14 mm.
@@bitofelectronics Yes offcourse I will not use that VC for home 😁 Don't want to get kicked out 😀😀 and regarding dot size, I don't think it's 0.14mm. just look at the isolation track around your traces (this is where your laser is actually cutting the paint) that looks quite thick to me. If it was 0.14mm then the isolation would have been very very thin making the pads look bigger.
@@ribvicky ibb.co/F83XrnH take a look at this photo, the thickness is about 0.3 mm horizontally and 0.25 mm vertically. However, I think the circuit in the video looks better than the circuit in the photo.
Yeah it will work, but paint is more durable to heat. So when I'm engraving a small point the surrounding paint won't be affected by the heat as much as the paper tape would be.
