EleksMaker EleksLaser Pimoroni Pibow mount

thingiverse

EleksMaker EleksLaser Pimoroni Pibow mount =================================== Like a lot of people with these machines I use LaserWeb running on a Raspberry Pi to control it. In order to tidily mount the Raspberry Pi, I slid a couple of spare t-slot nuts into the rear rail and designed this simple flat plate to hold my Pimoroni Pibow case to them. The Pibow fixes to the plate using the existing nylon bolts/nuts, it's purposefully thin enough. It doesn't need to be very strong. This is for a Raspberry Pi 2B, it may not work for later Pibow cases. **You can also power the Pi directly off the controller, but be aware this has safety concerns, from here on in it's at your own risk.** **Powering the Pi from the controller means everything turns on/off with one switch but with the Pi shut down the laser will fire. The fire risk can be reduced, but it means modifying the controller. The lack of 'failing safe' with no USB connection on the EleksMana controller is a major safety worry** I wired the Raspberry Pi so it is powered by the 'Bluetooth' port on the EleksMana controller. The controller has a 5V regulator for running servos and so on which provides enough current to run a Raspberry Pi 2B. It may not be enough for a later model. Wire a connection from the top two 'Bluetooth' pins on the EleksMana SE controller to a 5V and Gnd connection on the Raspberry Pi GPIO header. If you want more protection for the Pi, cut down a micro-USB cable and wire it to the controller instead. **You still need to do another modification to make this less unsafe. If you do not, be aware that when you shut down the Raspberry Pi (for example so you can power everything off without risking trashing the Pi SD card), the GRBL controller powers off and the laser will fire. If you do this modification it reduces risk but be aware doing this is at your own risk** In order to reduce this risky behaviour, solder a 1K resistor between D11 on the Arduino Nano clone and ground. See the photo for guidance but make sure you check your modification with a multimeter. This provides enough of a pull down that without the controller booted, the laser only partially fires, similar to a test fire.