PyroGraph

Laser engraving software for Linux, macOS and Windows. Draw a job, place it on the bed, burn it.

Built for the LaserPecker 2 (firmware 3.16). The protocol is the same across LP1–LP5, and other engravers can be added.

Why

The vendor's desktop software is Windows and macOS only. On Linux there is nothing, so all you get is the phone app, and that is a bad way to place a motif to the millimetre.

The second reason is privacy. Engraving happens over a cable, between a PC and a machine on the desk. That does not need an account or an internet connection, and with a closed-source app you cannot check what it does with your files. PyroGraph talks to the engraver and to nothing else — no telemetry, no update check, no account. There is no HTTP library anywhere in the dependencies.

What it does

• Draw lines, rectangles, ellipses, polylines and polygons
• Import SVG
• Place text, QR codes and barcodes
• Move, scale, align, distribute, mirror, rotate, duplicate as a grid
• Layers, each with its own power, depth, speed and resolution
• Trace the outline to line up the workpiece, then engrave

Two packages in one repository:

Package	What it is
laserpecker	The driver: protocol, USB and Bluetooth, dithering. No GUI.
pyrograph	The application: document model, editor, command line.

Use the driver on its own if you only want to push a bitmap at the machine from a script: laserpecker status, laserpecker engrave image.png.

Install

uv sync
uv run pyrograph-gui

Cables, ports and permissions are covered in docs/connection.md.

No engraver? There is a mock device that only exists in memory — --mock on the command line, or "Mock (no hardware)" in the connection box:

uv run pyrograph import drawing.svg drawing.pyg
uv run pyrograph --mock engrave drawing.pyg
uv run pytest

Status

Reading the device and engraving both work on real hardware, over USB and over Bluetooth. SVG to engraved workpiece runs end to end.

Missing: node editing, grouping, rotating from the canvas, a job queue, device settings, and merging an import into an open document. TODO.md has the full list, including the parts of the protocol that are still guesses.

Documentation

docs/ has the protocol, the connection guide, the architecture and the document model. If you are here for the machine rather than the editor, read docs/protocol.md: framing, commands, replies and file upload.

Built with Claude

The code was written with Claude Code. Better to say so here than to let someone work it out from the commit history.

The protocol was reverse engineered from LaserPecker Design Space 2.12.1. The encoder produces the same bytes as the vendor's, and reading the device and engraving are tested on a real LP2 over both USB and Bluetooth. Anything that has not been run against hardware is marked as such, in the docs and in TODO.md. Decompiling for interoperability is allowed in the EU (Art. 6 Software Directive, § 40e öUrhG).

Credits

The layered design — connection, driver, spooler, device profile — comes from MeerK40t (MIT). No code was copied, only the ideas. MeerK40t supports K40, GRBL, Ruida, Moshiboard, NewlyDraw and JCZ galvo lasers, so if your laser is not a LaserPecker, start there.

Licence

GPL-3.0-or-later.