EleksLaser end stops

I've had this laser engraver for quite some time but not used it as much as I originally expected.

Lots of that is because it is quite bulky so I can't leave it taking up a table and it's then a bit of a pain in the neck to set up every time, with lots of dangling cables and connections. So over the last couple of evenings I spent a bit of time screwing it down to a mounting board and making it portable.

Once I'd done this I was reminded that it doesn't have any end stops and is prone to hitting the end of travel if you're not careful. This irritates me more than it should as it doesn't actually do any damage, but it can waste loads of time making you set it up afresh with every run and occasionally ruining a job.

I did a little reading round the topic and decided to add end stops and configure it so it will auto-home. This is supported by GRBL but not the controller board supplied, it omits the connectors as well as the limit switches. It is however straightforward to solder the limit switches direct to the bottom of the board.

It was a real surprise to me there was no complete how-to for this even though the information is pretty freely available. So I wrote one and put it up with the designs for the switch holders on Thingiverse.

I'm still using LaserWeb to drive this but thinking about purchasing a copy of  LightBurn as it's quite affordable.

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