K40 Whisperer– K40 (Cheap Chinese Laser) Control Software

After months of reverse engineering I am happy to announce that the initial version of K40 Whisperer is available for download under the GPL License.  K40 Whisperer is software written to interpret SVG and DXF data and in turn communicate the design information to the K40 Laser Cutter (using the stock M2 Nano Controller board).  This software is essentially a replacement for the Laser Draw (LaserDRW) software that comes with the stock K40 laser.  When using K40 Whisperer the USB key that is required for Laser Draw is not required.  The initial release only supports the M2 version of the K40 controller board.  If I can get other K40 owners to test with other versions of the controller board future versions will support more board versions.

K40 Whisperer has been tested with Windows (XP, Vista and 10) and Linux.  It should also work on a modern MAC computer, although this has not been tested.  Full instructions for setting up K40 Whisperer are available on the K40 Whisperer web page.  Linux instructions have not yet been written.

K40 Whisperer attempts to solve some of the basic problems with Laser Draw such as the difficulty with properly scaling designs and combining engraving and cutting on one work piece.  A previous attempt at solving these problems was the Laser Draw Inkscape Extension which allows users to send data from Inkscape to Laser Draw.  This Inkscape extension is also available on the Scorch Works web page.

Below is a screen video providing an overview of the operation of K40 Whisperer.