That is awesome!
Let me know when ya need a tester
See how it performs with Laser V

Ty
Happy it got you up and running
I have bin looking for the same thing, sure hope the above program will come to reality.
Man I wish I could program!

Yes it can be moded, the LM317t is rated for 1.5 amps so a lower value resistor, cooling fan and a relay rated @ 2 amps is all that is needed

My laser is operated with Mach3 software so the situation is slightly different.

It is usual practice, with lasers, to reduce the image depth to 1 bit then dither the image (various algorithms available) and then raster engrave the dot pattern. In recent years it has been demonstrated that an 8 bit image can be read and each of the 256 pixel values allocated a different laser power level. This will allow actual ‘shades of grey’ (as opposed to the illusion of shades) to be engraved.

With diode lasers it is the actual diode current which is varied according to the image pixel value. With my C02 laser I am varying the PRF (Pulse Repetition Frequency) in accordance with pixel value to obtain the same result.


Tweakie.

Yes I would need it a little smaller as laser V has a work area of 360x380mm

There is a photo in my build log of the stepstick

I am taking it you want to print templates in order to cut out your own plates?
In this case I'm not sure as I have always just generated g-code and cut on my mill.
I will see if I can figure it out when I get home from work.
Ps the motors I used are not standard type steppers so the motor mounting holes would need to be modified to fit your motors

Well I ran the scaled g-code on laser v and for some reason I have no control over the mm a sec so I had to find something the laser would affect at the speeds it was lasering
Here are the results

I see
I tryed adjusting $4 but had no luck, then adjusted $5 and it worked

I have not had the chance to figure that out or test print them.
Really it should be just a matter of deleting the cam instruction and you will be left with the outline of said part.
Then export it and print, I have never printed anything from sketchup before just always have used the cam features

What hardware do you plan on using?
Motors?s
If you are looking to make my build I will gladly help you along the way

That should work fine, I will del all the cam in the files for you and try to line up some nema17 holes then post the for you. May take a bit as I'm super busy
I added info on the laser housing in the build log

@Woodie49 please see here http://www.openbuilds.com/threads/lack-of-inventory-of-vslot-extrusion.363/

I used 8mm on all plates and connection points also the bolts that came with the mini v wheel kits are what was used on the carriages

Ty for the kind words
I would say your best bet would to be go full power and then test the depth of your cuts playing with feed rates eg... 200mm for cut and then 1000 for score.
The diodes focus to a point rather then a micron type beam like tubes so the thicker the mediam that is being cut the more of a slanted edge is noticed.
This can be fixed by using fiber optics to focus the diode but will cost more.
If you build it the way I did your going to find its best for say 5mm foam before you notice a slant, etching as you see in my build log and vinyl cutting