Rebuilt Universal Laser Systems Laser Engraving Machine

Andrew Kilpatrick who is a member of the Toronto Hacklab wrote a good built log of the Resurrection of a Universal Laser Systems Laser Engraving Machine. No it wasn’t simply cleaning out the dust and replacing a few blown components. As it turns out the existing electrical control system was not repairable so a new electrical system had to be built from scratch. Building the control circuits that were needed allowed the $500 dollar purchase to operate once again as the $20,000 machine should be. If making the machine come to life once again wasn’t enough this laser engraver can now also play music!

"Since the original electronics were deemed unrepairable, we figured that we should build something from scratch so that we could have control over all aspects of the system, and the ability to repair anything in case of problems. On the Saturday morning at the start of the project I went over to the local electronics store near the lab to see what they had in the way of power MOSFETs and PIC microcontrollers. I drew up some quick schematics for both a control board and a motor driver board. The goal of this design was to build the entire system from common parts that I could buy locally. This meant I could complete the boards over the weekend, and it would be easy for others to build similar systems easily in the future."