turn laser off

[mike_biddell]

How are we turning the laser OFF ? Is it zero X and Zero Y? Or maximum X and maximum Y? With the former into a NAND gate, that should work .....but I suppose with a design that comes to a point, you might need zero x and zero y? It's at times like this, a bit of local intelligence in the Peachy box would be useful.

How are we turning the laser OFF ? Is it zero X and Zero Y? Or maximum X and maximum Y? With the former into a NAND gate, that should work .....but I suppose with a design that comes to a point, you might need zero x and zero y? It's at times like this, a bit of local intelligence in the Peachy box would be useful.

I think local intelligence is the answer. Include a picaxe chip on the peachy pcb. This could then recognise a bit bang code from the audio port to switch the laser on and off. The picaxe could also have a push button input, which when pressed, generates a square wave for creating Y displacement for scanner mode. The incremental cost would be about $4, but well worth it.

Excuse my ramblings.... the same picaxe could drive the stepper motor in the scanning turntable. I'd say a picaxe on the PCB is almost essential for very small incremental cost.