I'm making a pocket laser engraver by "groover" posted on "instructables.com"

[Chandrabhan]

Hey I am trying to make groover's pocket laser engraver posted on instructables.com. I'm having a bit of a problem understanding the circuit, where to place the power input, to the arduino or to the laser relay. It would be a great help to have a PCB design of the circuit. And to get some help in the various components. Please help !

[ElectroNick]

Groover's design here is based on EasyDriver. I could not quite get from your post whether or not you have these. EasyDriver comes with its own 5V voltage regulator and I would use both EasyDrivers' 5V regulators in parallel to feed the Arduino and the laser diode driver. EasyDriver has a Motor Voltage input  and it has a 5V output which you can then take to the Arduino.

Since the groover's implementation uses four modular blocks (Arduino, 2 x EasyDriver, laser diode driver), each with its own PCB, the project itself does not have a PCB per se, it just uses wires to connect the PCBs of the four modules together. 

[Chandrabhan]

i do have the components. what is confusing me is - do i have to supply power to the laser relay, the easydrivers and the arduino separately or to the whole circuit. and i just need the PCB design of the laser driver circuit and the fan and laser relay with pins to plug in the easydrivers and the arduino. as done by grover


and in the circuit given by groover where to supply power.

sorry if the questions are a little frustrating but i'm new at this.

[ElectroNick]

As far as powering the entire circuit, I think your best bet would be to power this whole circuit through the EasyDriver's built-in +5V voltage regulators. Since you have two, you can actually connect them in parallel to boost the available current, enough for the Arduino, the laser diode driver and the EasyDrivers themselves, obviously. You will need to have a 9V-12V unregulated  DC power supply connected to both of the EasyDriver Motor Voltage inputs and take both of their +5V outputs and connect it to Arduino's +5V pin. And connect the Ground pin of EasyDriver to the Ground of Arduino of course.