Easiest way to turn on/off my laser for G0 moves then turn it back on for G1 draws using Cura???

[MrMaint 1]

I am using code to turn my laser on and off but need a way to get Cura to insert the code at the appropriate times.

I have been hand editing the g-code and inserting the code by hand which is getting tedious!

Each time I want the laser to turn off I put this code in:

G4 P0050 ; Pauses for 50 ms. This makes sure that the last move command executes before the laser turns off.

M104 S0 T2 ; Sets the #3 extruder heater output to off.

G0 Xnnn Ynnn ; General command for a non-printing move.

Each time I want the laser back on:

G4 P0050 ; pause

M104 S50 T2 ; Sets temp above threashold so it activates Laser to turn on.

G4 P0500 ; pauses a short 50ms so Laser can get fully turned on

Thanks!

Alex

.

[rooiejoris 5]

Hi,

You could use a plugin in Cura, don't know if this worked, but an intern tried this a year ago:

other option is to use regular expressions in a better text editor:

find:

G0 (.*)

replace:

yourcode

G0 /1

[btw, i am not a programmer, but i really like google and copy/paste...]

cheers \ joris

#Name: Powder Printing

#Info: Switch off fan power during travel moves

#Help: PowderPrinting

#Depend: GCode

#Type: postprocess

#Param: fanpowermin(int:) Fan Power Min(0-255)

#Param: fanpowermax(int:) Fan Power Max(0-255)

## Written by Tom Kerckhaert, based on TweakAtZ by Steven Morlock

## Special Thanks to Joris van Tubergen

## This script is licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution - Share Alike (CC BY-SA) terms

# Uses - Switch off fan power during travel moves

# TODO:

# Get rid of the unnecessary fan on / off between two G moves

# Fan power variables do not work yet

import re

def getValue(line, key, default = None):

if not key in line or (';' in line and line.find(key) > line.find(';')):

return default

subPart = line[line.find(key) + 1:]

m = re.search('^[0-9]+\.?[0-9]*', subPart)

if m == None:

return default

try:

return float(m.group(0))

except:

return default

with open(filename, "r") as f:

lines = f.readlines()

with open(filename, "w") as f:

for line in lines:

if getValue(line, 'G', None) == 0:

f.write("; Powder Plugin\n")

f.write("M106 S0\n")

f.write(line)

f.write("M106 S255\n")

f.write("; Plugin: End\n")

f.write(line)

if getValue(line, 'G', None) == 1:

x = getValue(line, 'X', dx)

y = getValue(line, 'Y', dy)

z = getValue(line, 'Z', dz)

e = getValue(line, 'E', e)

f = getValue(line, 'F', f)

line = 'G1 '

if dx != x:

line += 'X%f ' % x

if dy != y:

line += 'Y%f ' % y

if dz != z:

line += 'Z%f ' % z

if df != f:

line += 'F%f ' % f

line += '\n'

 

# if comment is the extruder movements before and after the print, remove that line

g.write(line)

[gr5 2,266]

Yes, what Joris said. Write a plugin. It will be awesome. And please share it! Note also that the newest versions of Cura (15.06.* and newer) have a totally different way of doing plugins and I don't know if anyone knows how to do that yet so I would go for the older version e.g. 15.04 and I'm sure all the work you did for the plugin will still be useful - I suspect converting plugins from 15.04 to 15.06 will be pretty simple once someone documents the process.

[MrMaint 1]

Regular edits with search and replace has sped up the process considerably. Thank you for taking the time to send me your suggestion. I am considering writing a plug in to eliminate the editing for all future projects, but I don't have the time to go down that road right now.

[thebelin 0]

I wrote a post process plugin to solve this problem
 

# Copyright (c) 2020 Belin Fieldson
# LaserCode is released under the terms of the AGPLv3 or higher.

from ..Script import Script

class LaserCode(Script):
    version = "1.01"
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()

    def getSettingDataString(self):
        return """{
            "name":"Laser Code v.(""" + self.version + """)",
            "key":"LaserCode",
            "metadata": {},
            "version": 2,
            "settings":
            {
                "_activation":
                {
                    "label": "Laser Activate",
                    "description": "The code to use to activate the laser",
                    "type": "str",
                    "default_value": "M3"
                },
                "_deactivation":
                {
                    "label": "Laser Deactivate",
                    "description": "The code to use to deactivate the laser",
                    "type": "str",
                    "default_value": "M5"
                },
                "_prefixActivation":
                {
                    "label": "Active GCODE",
                    "description": "The gcode that the activate code should be prefixed to",
                    "type": "str",
                    "default_value": "G1"
                },
                "_prefixDeactivation":
                {
                    "label": "Inactive GCODE",
                    "description": "The gcode that the deactivate code should be prefixed to",
                    "type": "str",
                    "default_value": "G0"
                }
            }
        }"""

    def execute(self, data):
        activation = self.getSettingValueByKey("_activation");
        deactivation = self.getSettingValueByKey("_deactivation");
        searchActivation = self.getSettingValueByKey("_prefixActivation");
        searchDeactivation = self.getSettingValueByKey("_prefixDeactivation");
        activated = False;
        # Declare output gcode
        for layer in data:
            index = data.index(layer)
            lines = layer.split("\n")
            newLayer = ""
            for line in lines:
                if (searchActivation in line and not activated):
                    newLayer += activation + "\n"
                    activated = True
                if (searchDeactivation in line and activated):
                    newLayer += deactivation + "\n"
                    activated = False
                newLayer += line + "\n"
            data[index] = newLayer

        return data