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MillMage is in active development and in a prerelease state. Many operations and functions are not feature complete. Please report any unexpected behavior by searching for and reporting the issue or question in the MillMage Beta User Forum. Please include screenshots and as much detail as possible.

Beta Users: Finding Help

Find help and download the latest release candidate of MillMage in the MillMage Beta User Forum.

Users new to MillMage should follow the Getting Started guide.

Warning

This documentation is in active development and in a prerelease state. These documents are not complete and may include missing pages, broken links, and placeholders. Content is being updated as feedback is reviewed. Your patience is appreciated.

CNC Types

There is a diverse array of laser cutting and engraving machines, defined by various characteristics. These characteristics — and how they interact with each other — dictate the qualities of results, safety, speed, and ease-of-use for that machine.

How a CNC Project is Made¶

To understand the parts each of the characteristics play, let's briefly touch on how a project goes from idea to physical product.

A design is created by a user in design software, and turned into machine instructions (code) through a control software.

MillMage operates as both a design and control software.

The instructions are delivered to a computer within the laser machine called a controller. The controller translates the instructions into electrical signals that control the machine's motion system. The movement of the motion system delivers the laser beam from the laser source (where the beam is generated) to the directed locations on the material.

Each part of this process is explored in more detail throughout the rest of this article.

Controllers and Firmware¶

The controller — and the firmware it runs — determines if a machine is compatible with MillMage.

A controller is essentially a computer within your CNC machine, and the firmware it runs determines the type of instructions it can translate into signals it delivers to the motion system.

MillMage needs to know what type of firmware your device's controller is running to know what language to speak to the machine. In most cases, MillMage can automatically identify the firmware if you set up your machine using Find My CNC Machine, but you'll need to be able to identify the controller yourself in order to complete a manual setup.

MillMage is currently compatible with and supports any CNC controller that uses standard RS-274 GCode, such as:

GRBL
GRBL M3
GRBL-STM
Smoothie
Marlin
LinuxCNC

To connect to a GCode-based CNC machine, you'll need a standard MillMage License. If you're not sure what controller or firmware your CNC machine uses, consult your machine's manufacturer, or contact us at [email protected].

Motion System¶

Laser¶

The laser beam is generated by a source that dictates its power and wavelength.

These properties determine which materials the beam will be able to mark, engrave, or cut through.

Source¶

Diode: similar to an LED light, a semiconductor is pumped with electrical current to produce light. These are generally lower power, with a very fine focal dot which forms a rectangular shape. These generally make nice engraves, but poor cuts.
Diode stack/array: combines the power of many diodes into one beam, to overcome some of the downsides of single-diode beams.
Glass tube: contains a gas that is excited by a DC current to produce a beam. Is cheaper than a Metal RF tube, but needs water-cooling, wears out quicker, and produces a (comparitively) slow "pulsating" beam which has a wider focal dot, and thus is less suited to engraving. The focal dot is round.
Metal RF tube: contains a gas that is excited by a radio frequency to produce a beam. Is more expensive than a Glass tube, but can be air-cooled, lasts much longer, and produces a more rapid beam-pulse, with a finer focal dot, and is more suited to engraving than Glass tubes. The focal dot is round.
Fiber: combines several beams into one using fiber optics to generate more power output.

Wavelength¶

The wavelength of the light generated by the source dictates what materials the beam can interact with, or will pass through.

Blue (Diode) — 400-500 nm: interacts with dark-colored materials such as wood, veg-tan leather, and black acrylic, but struggles with light-colored or transparent materials. Can't interact with metals or glass. Produces dark engravings that are great for photos and images.
IR (Diode) — 1064 nm: mostly used for engraving some metals.
CO₂ — 10600 nm: great for cutting most laserable materials, including wood, leather, fabric, plastics, transparent and light-colored materials, as well as engraving glass and some metals.
IR (Fiber) — 1030-2100 nm: great for engraving most metals, removing rust and oxides from metals, and even cutting some.
UV — 150-400 nm — used for cutting and engraving most materials, including glass.

Power¶

The power dictates the strength of the beam. Lower powered beams may not be able to cut a material that a higher powered version of the same wavelength can, or may require more passes to achieve the same result (increasing job time).

Generally it's best to purchase the highest-powered laser possible, as you can lower power in your settings, to produce "softer" results, where required.

Connection¶

The connection is the method by which MillMage transfers the instructions to the machine. The current methods supported are as follows:

USB cable: limited to short distances, USB cables and prone to errors, but are common in many machines. They don't work well when connected via hubs, splitters, or extension cables.
Network/Data Cable: assentially an internet cable, these can be used over long distances and retain great signal strength.
Wifi: available on some GRBL controllers, this communication method is wireless.

Accesories¶

There are various accesories and non-critical or optional features available from manufacturers for machines. Some are explored below.

Homing/limit switches: critical for acurate job-placement and replicability, these small buttons are triggered when the axis of a gantry machine reached its "home" position, and allow the machine to position the laser according to a known physical location.
Cameras: allow the user to visually place their design onto locations on their physical material. There are two main kinds:
- Stationary cameras: by far the more popular, these cameras are mounted in a position over the laser's work area that remains the same between jobs and enables a full picture of a machine's bed.
- Head-mounted cameras: these cameras are attached to the head of a laser, near to the beam. These allow close and safe vicsibility of the laser as it works, along with greater accuracy of design placement, at the cost of having to move the head into a location in order to see it.
Rotaries: allow cylindrical objects to be engraved. There are two main types, chucks and rollers.
- Roller-based rotaries: carry an object by rotating wheels beneath it. This style of rotary is not suited to objects that aren't perfectly cylindrical or are prone to slipping, and are tricky to dial in for full-wrap engraves.
- Chuck-based rotaries: physically hold the workpiece in jaws, and rotate around a known axis by a known number of steps (pulses of the motor).
Pass-through gates: these are doors that allow material larger than the laser's bed to be placed in the machine, so that a job can be completed in sections.
Exhaust: a critical safety feature of all laser-machines, these systems ferry the smoke and fumes produced by a job away from the user.
Enclosures: another critical safety feature, appropriate enclosures protect a user's eyes (by shielding the user's eyes from the beam), and lungs (by containing the fumes so the exhaust can work effectively).

For more help using MillMage, please visit our forum to talk with MillMage staff and users, or email support.