THE TOOCAA NOVA: Unboxing and first look at the offline mode

The TOOCAA NOVA is an impressively clever and highly adaptable laser engraver. The design team at TOOCAA has clearly been listening to the needs of makers and designers.

It’s a powerful, compact desktop machine that offers the versatility and features to genuinely compete with the larger, well-established machines currently on the market.

What’s in the box?

Unboxing the NOVA was a genuinely pleasant experience. Inside the professional, consumer-grade packaging, we found everything needed to get started immediately:

• A welcome pamphlet detailing the rise of the NOVA.
• A starter material pack.
• The powerful 20W diode laser module.
• The innovative automatic air assist kit.
• A rotary chuck kit for engraving cylindrical objects.
• The brand-new TOOCAA NOVA machine itself.

This machine has truly been engineered to adapt to fit your personal creative workflow.

Simple Setup and Smart Design

Setup was exceptionally simple, requiring only the most basic assembly.

The first key feature you’ll notice is the NOVA’s sturdy metal slat bed for engraving. While we prefer this to traditional honeycomb beds for stability and less warping, it’s designed to be flexible—you can easily remove the slats and the baseplate to use your own honeycomb bed if preferred.

The most complex step was simply locating the two screws to attach the laser module. In a brilliant touch of design, they were neatly hidden inside a dedicated ‘tool compartment’ on the machine, along with an Allen key, a spare lens, and a lens cloth.

The rear I/O is cleanly laid out, featuring: an input for the air tube, the power supply, a USB-C port for computer connection, and three expansion power inputs for accessories like the Air Assist pump.

Upon powering up, we were greeted with the iconic TOOCAA melody and the flashing LED lighting—a familiar welcome for any previous TOOCAA owner. The smart software takes only a brief moment to load before presenting you with three main operational modes: Offline mode, USB Mode, and WIFI mode.

Testing the ‘straight out of the box’ experience

For this initial review, we concentrated on the setup and a test of the Offline mode to determine if the machine is truly ready to work straight out of the box.

Using the intuitive touchscreen display, we entered offline mode and selected one of the pre-loaded designs – a detailed koi carp – from the sample material menu. We loaded a sheet of sample wood and moved to the next step: Frame and Auto Focus.

The NOVA’s automation here is fantastic. The machine automatically frames the design area and instantly sets the perfect laser height. After hitting “next,” the engraving began immediately, resulting in a great quality finish and a clean, single-pass cut with minimal burn residue. It truly was that simple. We had our first quality product completed within an hour of unboxing the unit.

Top features we love so far

Size and Style: The design is highly appealing, reminiscent of premium branded machines, but in a compact, desktop format. It’s perfect for scenarios where space is a premium, such as trade shows, markets, or small studios.

Intelligent Auto Air Assist: This is a much-needed upgrade. Unlike older models where you manually controlled the air flow, the NOVA automatically detects if you are performing a cut or an engrave and adjusts the air pressure for the optimal result, saving time and improving quality.

20W Auto-Focus Laser: The quality of the included 20W diode laser is excellent. The Auto Focus feature completely eliminates the hassle of material calibration and manual height adjustments. The visible LED crosshair ensures precise focus and positioning with absolutely no user input required.

Expandability: The option to add a 10W laser head or a specialised IR laser for finer metal/plastic engraving makes the NOVA highly versatile for future needs.

The TOOCAA NOVA has certainly impressed with its plug-and-play capability and smart features.

Remember to follow us on Facebook for Part 2, where we’ll dive deeper into the machine’s capabilities using the USB connection and TOOCAA Studio