This is the Banggood 2.5W controller unit that I am hoping to upgrade the driver board on. Eleks Maker. 2nd photo showing what is under the fan that sits on top.
Yes I think I posted it to Peters page at some length. Basically that round PCB is just connections no components on it so you can break that out after desoldering the wires. Then you have to dig out the controller PCB from some very hard to extract potting compund being careful to not damage the wires coming from the laser LD. Once you dig out the PCB you can pull it out and desolder the LASER LD wires from it, and just hook them up to the external driver board. The problem is determining the polarity of the wires. If you get that far let me know and I’l help you figure that out.
Mines yet to arrive - but I think I’ll be going down the same route so keep posting guys - much appreciated.
@Wolfmanjm @Paul_Hedderly yer thought this might help. Wolf - just read your breakdown and seems a handful of work but would likw to know if the actual arduino borad is fine and can be left alone? Just plug the laser output from there into the TTL of a new driver board and then into the LD wires (after getting the polarity right)??
Link to Wolfmanjm’s breakdown post - https://plus.google.com/+PetervanderWalt/posts/jp5o71vzDZi
https://plus.google.com/+PetervanderWalt/posts/jp5o71vzDZi
There is a forum that was started specifically for these machines with a lot of good information.
Here is a link to a thread where a guy did the same thing you are trying to do and he posted some pictures of the parts dissembled.
http://benboxlaser.us/index.php/topic,782.msg8877.html#msg8877
I believe he purchased the J-TECH driver for his but another someone else on there purchased the SDX from DTR Laser and has reported success wit it.
A couple of us over there are also in the process of testing a driver design that I put together which the files are freely available if you like building PCBs 
So, you have a few options
If you go with the super x driver from DTR Laser, you have a couple options.
Option 1. Don’t do the TTL mod on the SDX and connect it to the Eleks L7 just like the stock module. This is not the ideal method but it is an improvement over the stock driver.
Option2. Do the TTL mod on the SDX and connect to the FAN JST socket instead of the laser JST socket. Connect your TTL/PWM wire to the P pin next to the capacitor on the right side of the board. Or you can connect it to the jumper under the Arduino Nano.
I would recommend running a firmware with a PWM frequency of around 1Khz with this setup. GRBL 0.9i and 0.9j run at 7.8Khz. GRBL 1.1 and the J-Tech firmware are around 1Khz.
Hope that helps.
http://benboxlaser.us/index.php/topic,782.msg8877.html#msg8877
@John_Seaton thx but that thread did absolutely nothing to help me understand diddly about an upgrade.
I am going a different route to upgrade the driver and refit the LD to achieve a decent “grayscale” engraving.
I’m sorry it was of no help. That was meant more for the disassembly of the unit and to give you an idea of what is inside the heatsink.
If you don’t mind me asking, what approach did you settle on? I’d love to see what you come up with.
If you need any help along the way just let me know, I’d be glad to help any way I can.
What is inside is a ton of very solid potting compound and a very small driver PCB. Nothing else.
Yeah, and it can be a bit of a challenge to get it dissembled lol
thx