Win one out of two E1803DLight laser scanner controller cards!

This competition mainly focuses on SLS/SLM 3D laser printing technology as it is discussed e.g. in http://forums.reprap.org/list.php?153:

HALaser Systems is a leading vendor of low-cost but high quality scanner controller cards which also can be used for laser-based 3D printing (rapid prototyping/selective laser sintering). The laser marking software BeamConstruct which comes with every scanner controller card can handle the full process from importing 3D models in many different formats, slicing them into layers, applying several hatch patterns, controlling not only the laser and scanner but also up to eight freely definable motion axes as well as additional, custom process parameters.

And this is exactly what we want to give away for free:

• an E1803DLight scanner controller card as described at https://halaser.eu/e1803light_manual.pdf
• a BeamConstruct PRO license (provided by this controller via USB connection) as described at https://halaser.eu/feature.php
• free worldwide shipping (for some countries an exports permission may be necessary prior to shipping, this may need some time and in worst case may be rejected by the exports authority, unfortunately that's something we do not have any influence on)

What do you have to do to get one?

• suggest a feature nowadays laser 3D printing software (or even hardware) is missing and send us your idea (either as answer here in forum or via PM or via contact form on our webpage)
• keep fingers crossed your suggestion is chosen as one of the two the most interesting ones and therefore rewarded with an E1803DLight controller and a BeamConstruct PRO license

There are no limitations for the things you can suggest, they only need to be related to 3D laser printing (also named as rapid prototyping/SLS/SLM) and should not yet exist in BeamConstruct or as a common feature in any other 3D printer software. The idea can be focused on home/DIY use of such a 3D printer as well as on professional usage, factory usage and even usage in an automated production environment of a smart factory.




And some disclaimers: This competition will end on 20.12.2017. The hardware given away here for free comes with a warranty of one month (means we ensure you will get a working piece on arrival, but then you are fully responsible of it). The hard- and software is fully described in related manuals. Both the hard- and software can be used for potential dangerous operations, not only caused by the lasers controlled by it but also by the additional machinery which can be accessed. The owner/user of the hard- and software is fully responsible for all security measures that are necessary to avoid any damage or to avoid anybody is hurt. When there are serious doubts anybody is able to handle such dangerous devices, HALaser Systems may deny to provide the hardware. Recourse to legal action is excluded completely. This is a offer of HALaser Systems, for more information, imprint, legal information or to contact us, please visit https://halaser.eu/

Hi Michael,

I'm glad you made it here, too

One of my ideas for a better/easier SLS setup is to use two (or more) lasers parallel to the marking/sintering laser.

The pilot-laser is known, but another option would be a wide beam for (selective) pre-heating to reduce the needed power for sintering in the fine spot ...

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

Hello Viktor, this sounds interesting but is mainly a hardware-thingy. I could imagine a secondary head system where both heads are aligned to the same marking positions via correction file and with split laser beam where one is out of focus in order to cover the material around the spot.

Or even more elegant: a special optic device prior to the scanhead which splits the laser, brings one of both beams out of focus and then concatenates them again - resulting in one single beam with a sharp spot in the middle and a larger, defocused area around it.

... yes, some of the ideas can be made with beam-combiners or addons.

On software side the controlling of this addons could be interesting - not only secondary (or more) scan-heads, but aditional I/O-pins, controlling the drivers, included into the pen settings ...

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

Hello Viktor, something very similar already exists in BeamConstruct with the process control plug-ins. In Hardware-settings you can select such a plug-in which - depending on its own capabilities - is able to watch different process parameters:



Then in pen settings a new tab-pane with a bunch of parameters appears, which are defined by this plug-in:



Now during the full process the plug-in is watching the parameters it is responsible for. And it is also able to react on some parameters, it can halt the marking process (to wait until some values are back in valid range), switch digital inputs (to turn on/off external devices) and other things more. Such a plug-in can be developed easily with the OpenSDK which is available for free.

The plug-in shown in the screenshots above for an example checks if the temperature is within an allowed range.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/2017 02:38AM by HALaser.

... OK, will try by occasison ...

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

Update: several people told us the ending date 20.12.2017 is very close to Christmas / public holidays for most countries - which in fact should have been obvious for us too.

So we prefer to set a new ending date for this competition, you now can take part until end of 31.01.2018!

So finally the contest is over. We did not get huge loads of feedback (which was not to be expected) but several high-quality ideas. They mainly came via mail/direct contact and after some discussions we now can announce the two winners of the E1803DLight controller card:

• Sergey F. from Russia
• Leonardo C. from Italy

We will contact the winners to send them their controllers during next few days.

Nevertheless, thank you to all who took part at this small contest!