Is it possible to have my Duex to deal with a laser engraver?

[brunofporto]

I have a Duet 2 Ethernet happily working on my 3D printer for years now. And I have a Duex expansion board that I bought back in the day to be able to make a multi tool printer.

Is it possible to use the Duex to control the laser engraver steppers and laser module in such way that when I enter laser mode then The duet only controls the laser engraver.

So, using the same Duet board to controll both the 3d printer and the laser engraver, not at the same time, but without the need to dedicate my controller board to a single device?

Thanks!

[dc42]

@brunofporto yes you can do that. You will need to use two separate config.g files, once for laser mode and one for FDM mode. The M505 command allows you to switch between config.g files and associated files for homing etc. quite easily.

[droftarts]

@brunofporto Yes, I think you could do that. The Duex needs to be mounted close to the Duet, to keep the ribbon cable between them short, so locating the electronics between the two machines in a box might be sensible.

For controlling the laser, see https://docs.duet3d.com/en/User_manual/Machine_configuration/Configuration_laser

You could run it as 'one machine', and switch between FDM and laser with M451/M452, and set up one FDM and one laser tool. You would need to create additional axes for the laser, ie U, V and W for the laser X, Y and Z axes, then in the laser 'tool' defined by M563, map these axes to X, Y and Z. (Z mapping on RRF 3.5 and later)

@dc42's suggestion of separate config files is probably safer, though!

Ian

[brunofporto]

@droftarts and @dc42 thank you very much!