With a birthday around the corner I've got an excuse to buy a laser

Lasers
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With a birthday around the corner I’ve got an excuse to buy a laser cutter but I’ve just finished getting a kit built CNC dialed in so I’m not totally sure I feel like jumping in to a new tool rework/setup project right away. I’m comfortable following directions and soldering.

So while I understand that all my hobby projects tend to involve a lot of frustration and challenge, I’d like to see if adding a K40 can be done with relatively little fuss, aggravation, and risk. I live in Northeast USA - is there a vendor that I should buy the K40 which offers advantages over a random vendor on eBay? This is not a request for random ads for everyone selling it.

Is there any consensus on a set of recommended upgrades which should be done right away and includes a fairly well defined parts list and instructions? I’ve already got an unused Arduino Mega and a bunch of Unos which could be used if helpful and recommended. I’d be driving the K40 from either a Windows 10 laptop or something like a Raspberry Pi with server software if that’s a decent option.

2

I purchased my K40 from Globalfreeshipping on bay. Myself and others who purchased from them have received excellent customer service.

3

Best upgrade is to replace the stock controller with a smoothieboard.

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Since my Win10 machines have already upgraded to the latest version I hear there is an issue with Win10 not recognizing unsigned drivers. Does that mean I’m pretty much not going to be able to use the machine at all (not even to verify operation) until I swap out the controller?

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Interesting results here about upgrade and setup
https://plus.google.com/collection/U3XKXB

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@Steve_Prior ​ I did run win 10 with the stock controller without issues

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Did you do it before you got the Anniversary update? I’ve seen that if you had the driver installed before you got that update the driver is “grandfathered in”, but if you try to install it for the first time after that update (as I would be) you’ll have problems.

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I don’t run windows anymore since I run macs, but for sure it was before anniversary as it was 2 month or so ago

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So then you bypassed the potential issue.

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@funinthefalls . I second the smoothieboard. Yes a bit more money that a mks, but faster too.

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I tested a M2 nano board on Win10 maybe 4 days ago with no issues, and that same laptop has run a moshi machine also. Now that i tested the bulb though its going into my Smoothie-based machine so an upgrade is best in the end.