My 445nm M140 CNC

A while back i posted about the CNC mill i had, and was going to adapt to a laser, so here's where i'm at so far.

the CNC

cutting/burning area 30cm X 19cm. adapted from a kit from here, modified to increase the work area.

control box.

built this to include a mini ITX psu powering the stepper motor drivers, also gives pc controlled 12v or 5v (depending on toggle switch) and constant 12v to the milling head, so i can swap out the laser for a dremel tool.

the head (and laser goggles)


m140 and driver from o-like. drilled through an old heatsink and fan to keep it cool.
the driver didn't come with any details, it's putting out 4.79V, 1A, but the potentiometer has no impact on the output, all i can think is it might be for the triggering threshold for the TTL.

so far i've only run some basic checks to focus the beam and see how it goes, burned some squiggles in black plastic and some balsa wood. didn't do much to the glossy navy blue cardstock i put under there.
i've ordered a G2 lens from DTR's shop, will see if that amps it up any. otherwise might look at a 405nm laser, which i read has better ability to cut light coloured material

I'll build one of this someday. Heheh.
You can go for 9mm 445nm diodes. They give more power. You will just need a good, ttl controlled driver. I have a flexmod p3 and its great.

Pics of results pls? :beer:

pow3r said:

m140 and driver from o-like. drilled through an old heatsink and fan to keep it cool.
the driver didn't come with any details, it's putting out 4.79V, 1A, but the potentiometer has no impact on the output, all i can think is it might be for the triggering threshold for the TTL.

so far i've only run some basic checks to focus the beam and see how it goes, burned some squiggles in black plastic and some balsa wood. didn't do much to the glossy navy blue cardstock i put under there.
i've ordered a G2 lens from DTR's shop, will see if that amps it up any. otherwise might look at a 405nm laser, which i read has better ability to cut light coloured material

Click to expand...

That M140 is a little under powered if the driver is only putting out 1A. If you can find another driver that's 1.5A to 1.8A it will be more powerful although the G2 will also make a difference. In that heat sink with a fan it should be safe to drive that thing at 1.8A.

Leodahsan said:

I'll build one of this someday. Heheh.
You can go for 9mm 445nm diodes. They give more power. You will just need a good, ttl controlled driver. I have a flexmod p3 and its great.

Pics of results pls? :beer:

Click to expand...

yep, will definitely post pics of any output i get out of it

Pi R Squared said:

That M140 is a little under powered if the driver is only putting out 1A. If you can find another driver that's 1.5A to 1.8A it will be more powerful although the G2 will also make a difference. In that heat sink with a fan it should be safe to drive that thing at 1.8A.

Click to expand...

cool, i'll see if i can hunt out any drivers that fit the bill, other than o-like and the
dtr shop are there any reputable sources to check out? most of what i'm finding seems to be geared towards battery power

Wow, nice and clean!

I've been contemplating doing the opposite and mounting a dremel or something on my laser cutter, though I'd need to figure out another control solution, as it uses a DSP controller. Some sort of 25 way switch to allow me to control it via parallel port maybe

i'm using one of these to control the spindle/laser. a db25 serial connector turns the spindle (or laser ttl) on and off.

MyDIYCNC Spindle Control Module | MyDIYCNC - Home of the DIY Desktop CNC Machine
people on that forum are using them for (US?) mains current, which iirc dremel uses (my poxy home brand dremel uses 12v) and the relay is rated to 250v 5A.
seeing as you're in straya, i've actually got a spare of those spare i can mail you. i scratched one of the tracks when i was taking it out of a case it was in, but i just checked and there's still continuity so it should be good.

so i might have been a bit quick on the draw to say the driver is only putting out 1A, i was just a n00b using the multimeter wrong.
the potentimeter on the o-like driver can push the current as high as 4.7A, which is odd, because olike rate it at 1.2A constant max.
running the laser at 1.2A is woeful, but may be better with the g2 lens. even at 4.7 (only momentarily) the laser did nothing to white paper.

am i barking up the wrong tree looking at using this for a cutting laser, without the funds to go for a full CO2 tube, is there a better option as far a diode selection goes, i was considering dropping in a 405 \, maybe with the same driver, but don't want to throw good money after bad.

If you did actually power the diode up at 4.7A, you can consider it toast, that's far too high. It only takes nanoseconds to kill them. You need to adjust the driver before connecting it to the diode.

A 405nm laser will work too, like a 12X diode.

Let me know what you'd want for that little control module - I've been looking for something similar, but if you've got spares

I'm fairly certain it was at that, but that said I might have misread the multimeter. the diode ran fine thereafter (at a safer current). I've ordered a 405 12x in casing and will use the g2 that's on order, and this driver with it.
you can have the control module since i've got no need for it, once I figure out shipping I'll let you know and you could just fix that up. can you PM me postcode?

Maybe 4.7A if you measured without a testload?

yeah it's weird, i'm a bit of a noob at measuring current with the multimeter, but i'm pulling values like this at the upper end of the potentimeter, with the laser still going.

thats not 4.3A, if it was on the next click round on the ammeter it would be... its probably reading 430mA.

edit your also in the wrong plug for mA measurement!

if i switch plugs i get drastically reduced brightness out of the diode, and the values max out at 157.



but yeah, if i put the dial to 10A, i get .43, which is 430mA.
not sure what gives. i just looked at the current coming out of the computer PSU and it's about the same, 400Ma, this driver is rated at 2A input current
do i need to look at a booster driver?

Maybe you damaged your multimeter?
You should measure your driver using a testload - that does not involve using the multimeter mAmmeter or Ammeter at all. Get yourself 5 in540x diodes and 1 ohm, >2W resistor and assembly a test load for measuring your driver.

I looked on the page you linked in the first post, they have their 445nm diode in an aixis module mounted in wood! Wtf is that all about. No heatsink.