LaserGRBL

LaserGRBL

Instructions of LaserGRBL

Download

LaserGRBL is a free and open source software. Download website: http://LaserGRBL.com You can also find LaserGRBL Software installation packages and CH340 driver installation packages in the TF card.

Installation

Double-click the exe format file you downloaded to start the software installation, and keep clicking until the installation is completed. The installed software is shown as the figure 2.

Custom buttons

When some buttons of the software do not appear, such as the zero reset button.You can import buttons manually. Download link: https://lasergrbl.com/usage/custom-buttons/ You can also find custom buttons packages in the TF card.

Next, import the custom buttons into LaserGRBL. Open the LaserGRBL program, right-click inthe blank area next to the button at the bottom (as shown in Figure 4), then choose , and select the custom button zip file downloaded before to import, keep clicking Yes (Y) until there is no popup.

Install the driver

Connect the laser engraver to a computer with USB cable. Plug in the power adapter of the laser engraving machine. Open LaserGRBL. Install CH340 Driver. In LaserGRBL, click to install the driver, and restart the computer after installation.

Select the COM port

Select the correct port number and baud in the software- 115200 (In general, COM ports do not need to be selected manually, but if you have more than one serial device connected to the computer, it needs to do so, you can find the port of the laser engraving machine in the device manager of the Windows system, or you can simply try the port numbers displayed one by one).

Click on the lightning connection button in the software. When the lightning button changes to a red, the connection is successful. On the bottom-right of the LaserGRBL interface you should read "Status: Idle".

Instructions of buttons

Import the file

To achieve a stable engraving effect, please import the default machine configuration file in the TF card into LaserGRBL before engraving. The configuration file corresponding to LaserGRBL is woxcker_L8 MAX_GRBL_Configuration.nc

Selecting the engraving file. Open LaserGRBL,click , then select the images or file. LaserGRBL supports NC, BMP, JPG, PNG, DXF and other formats.

Engraving parameter introduction

a) You can adjust the brightness, contrast, white clip of the image. When adjusting the parameters, the factual effect will be shown in the right preview window.

b) "Line To Line Tracking"and "1bit BW Dithering" as engraving mode; "lbit BW Dithering"is more suitable for engraving grayscale images; "Vectorize" or "Centerline" mode is used to cut the material.

c) "Quality" represents the interval of engraving lines, the larger the value, the narrower the interval.

d) In the preview window, the red lines represent the path of the laser movement.

e) At the bottom of the preview window, the image can be rotated, mirrored, cut, etc.

f) After completing the above settings, click button to the settings of engraving parameters.

Engraving parameter settings

Choose different speeds and engraving power according to the hardness of different materials.

a) Engraving speed: The larger the value, the faster the engraving speed, the shallower the laser traces; The smaller the value, the slower the engraving speed, and the deeper the laser traces.

b)Laser Mode: M3 - Constant power mode. M4 - Dynamic power mode. Note: If your M4 laser mode is not available, please check your GRBL configuration to make $32=1.

c) S-MIN is the minimum power, set it close to S-MAX; S-MAX is the maximum power, the recommended value should not exceed 90%, which prolong the life of the laser.

d) Set a suitable size according to the size of your engraving material.

e) Finally, click on the button to complete the setting of all engraving parameters.

Homing to zero

Home laser. Click the HOME/Zero button, the laser will move forward to the front left. After homing, the default engraving origin is from the front left, and the engraving object needs to be placed along the origin. Note: If the laser is not homed, it may cause the laser to exceed the working area.

Frame

Click the button, the laser will start to scan the outer frame of the image. You can adjust the position of the engraving object according to the scanned frame area.

Start and stop engraving/cutting

Start engraving/cutting

After completing all the above settings, click the green button as shown in the Figure 16 to start engraving/cutting. There is an editable number next to the start button, and this number is the times of engraving /cutting. LaserGRBL allows multiple consecutive operations on the same image. This function is especially useful for cutting.

Stop engraving/cutting

If you want to stop engraving/cutting while the machine is running, you can click the stop button as shown in the Figure 17 to stop engraving/cutting.

Feed hold and resume

If you just want to pause while the laser is running and will resume unfinished work, you can click the feed hold and resume button as shown in Figure 18.