Link: https://www.tomshardware.com/maker-stem/open-source-laser-engraver-sells-for-just-usd64-fully-assembled-it-is-small-and-low-power-but-may-be-enough-for-your-needs

You can also buy it as a DIY kit, or simply reference the components list and instructions, and use the firmware, drivers, and software shared.

To my understanding this needs LaserGRBL as Software. It seems this is Window software only. Kind of a wired choice for an Open Source project.

As a musician this would be cool to engrave my logo or QR code onto stuff, and support an open source project.

Does it run well under WINE?

Since it's open source, you could just port it to other software which runs on an iMac, maybe with some help of AI.

It's a cute project, but hardly seems practical with the availabilty of Chinese laser engravers that have 5-10x the laser power for only $30-60 more.

I’m with you. It is an open source project and the author is under no obligation to develop it for your preferences.

My preference is Haiku OS. No one loves me.

Any particular ones you would recommend? I’m not super familiar with this technology tbh

I dont have a product recommendation but I do have a safety recommendation, and that is research about laser safety before buying anything. There are cheap laser engravers out there without proper safety shielding that can and will blind you. As long as you have good laser safety glasses it's fine but the ones that they ship with the product are often not actually rated for the power levels or wavelengths that the laser has.

port it to other software which runs on an iMac,

Uhh, what?

Are Lazer engravers any different than a CD burner that can move on 2 axis?

Oh no! How foolish of them to only cater to 98% of the population!

:-p I was going to type Amiga, but changed my mind in the last second. I think complaining this is Windows only on a hardware community isn't really necessary. Also, the hardware is open source so you can probably adapt it to work with any system on lots of hardware. That requires some work, but most open source projects do.

You should also consider the fact that Linux users are hugely overrepresented in such communities, because there is a large overlap between people who, as a hobby, want to make stuff in the physical world and people who want to make stuff in the digital world.

You're right, there are more Linux users in such communities. How foolish of them to only cater to 95% of the population!

Based on my experience Linux and Mac OS are more or less on par with Windows in the maker community with Windows' popularity rather decreasing than increasing.

I see some of us don't bother mixing the kool aid and just snort the crystals off the kitchen counter.

most of the population doesn't even own a computer, much less the aptitude or will to build a DIY laser engraver

Yeah! Why design a product that caters to your target demographic instead of designing it for people that won't use it?

Windows has less than 80% market share. Not because of Linux, but because MacOS rapidly gained market share since Apple released the M1

It sounds like you just described all of the people that are not the target market, as opposed to PC users.. that would use pcs, with software to drive a laser.

My first job out of University was for a CNC laser and turret company and you'd better believe 100% of their control systems ran on Windows.

But I suppose I can agree with you that it would be very hard to operate one of these without a computer?

Down voted to all hell downloaded all hell but you're not wrong.

Oh, extremely!

The cad plotting software I've used for laser engravers was Windows-based, but I didn't consider myself any sort of user of any OS to sit in a chair and burn logos into hearing aids.

I wouldn't think any major company would be DIY-ing anything, and be more likely to purchase it readymade. The US taxpayer pays for the writeoff anyway.

IMO, for hobbyists, for tinkerers, for DIYers, make it run on anything. There's no reason not to.

I would certainly expect linux ports to get off the ground, and I don't see any reason it would be confined to Windows land. It just seemed disingenuous for folks to be getting mad at the guy to point out that the software being written for Windows first is targeting the largest possible audience.

Most of them are going to use the laser diode out of a Blu-Ray, set in a heat sink that'll let them at least try to run the thing at about a watt.

This will let them kind of mar the finish on some wood I guess. Compare this to a CO~2~ laser that start at about 30 watts that can punch right through plywood and acrylic and diode lasers are just 1. uselessly pathetic and 2. will blind your ass in the ugliest way possible.

You see, something like a CO2 laser is far-infrared, the tube itself glows a nice purplish pink but the laser light is invisible to the human eye; even if your rods or cones reacted to it, which they don't, your cornea is opaque to it. You get shot in the eye with a CO~2~ laser, you're going to get burned on the cornea. Which, thanks to motorcyclists, might be an injury a surgeon can fix, if your entire eye doesn't just pop like a superheated zit.

Diode engravers use blue light. As in, in the visible spectrum. Pretty close to the wavelength your blue cones respond to, actually. Since your eyes are designed to use that wavelength of light, your corneas are transparent to that wavelength. So if you get hit in the eye with a blue laser, you just get a third degree burn right on your retina. None of the sciences or religions can fix that; there's just going to be a blind streak in your vision from now on.

Wear your goddamn safety glasses while working around class IV laser devices.

Well they probably designed the product for themselves, not anyone else, because that’s usually how open source works. No one goes and writes open source that they aren’t going to be able to use, that would be idiotic.

THEY SAID THEY WANT TO HAVE THE RUNS AT A PORT IN MACEDONIA

There are tutorials for wine and apparently also an AppImage from a different developer, so it should work.

Edit:
Also a long thread on github about compiling it from source.

Catering to 95% of the population is one thing, but a DIY lasrer engraver doesn't cater to a very large market share of Window's users. I'd guess this might cater to maybe 3-5% of windows users and that's being generous as hell. On the Linux side this caters to quite a few users as they tend to want to make and support open source. Just my two cents though, have a wonderful day on purpose!

Linux users when unpaid foss devs dont cater to them specifically: