This is the one you want. I bought the older one that takes 2130’s but this one is the improved version with onboard drivers. You will need to get a preloaded esp32 from him as well if you don’t have one laying around.
It’s got a web controller built in that is similar to cnc.is it can act as a hotspot or connect to your wifi out of the box. No pi is needed but you could use a third party sender if you wanted.
You just need to wire it up and upload your machine specific config file. I built a custom sand table not a zen so if I’m not sure if there is a config specifically for the zen but it’s just a yaml file with about 10 fields per axis.
@Ryan I don’t know if there is demand but stocking pre configed esp32s for fluidnc might be a nice addition to the store.
I went to order the one Michael suggested on Bart Drings’ site, but those are sold out now too!
I DO have this one that I ordered from Amazon. Does anyone have experience with making one of these work?
I plan on using a RaspPi with SandyPi with it. (if it’s stable/functional now?)
Hello All,
I hope you are all keeping well. I’m currently using playing around with the pen plotter from Bart Dring and have SandyPi installed in a raspberry Pi 4. I make a quick video of my progress which might help some of you that are trying to do the same thing. https://youtu.be/9zLL2SENPCw
My question is - i have the FluidNC working well on its own and same with the sandypi on the PI4. Does anyone have any idea on how to get the two working together? From the SandyPi - the G-Code communication is via serial /dev/ttyprintk and /dev/ttyAMA0 whatever the hell that means. Both the PI and ESP32 are 3.3V logic to at least that is in our favor.
Thanks for any advice.
Tim
Im planning on putting this sand table back out in the hallway like before. Ive been doing a lot of work on the enclosure to make it easier to access and troubleshoot- Here are the solidworks files if anyone is interested. Ill share all the progress from my work in a month or two when its hopefully all done. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hkJau62FkkBEcNZvXqM29UEoGW-TNFo4/view?usp=sharing
I do have another questions - this machine will be out in the hallway and the front of the system is covered with clear plexiglass so students can see the inner workings. I want to include a small display which demos the G-Code pattern. Im hopefully using SandyPi as the main controller and FluidNC as the CNC controller but is there any easy way to just output the G-code 2D positioning to a display so students could see it.
As always - cheers for all the great advice over the years.
Tim
Im actually having fun trying to program this GRBL sender in Python. Here is a quick video of an update and code if it helps anyone. https://youtu.be/Bs1tPpQs2-0
Open grbl serial port
s = serial.Serial(‘/dev/ttyUSB0’,115200)
Open g-code file
f = open(‘/home/timcallinan/GCODE/New’,‘r’);
Wake up grbl
s.write(“\r\n\r\n”.encode())
time.sleep(2) # Wait for grbl to initialize
s.flushInput() # Flush startup text in serial input
Stream g-code to grbl
for line in f:
l = line.strip() # Strip all EOL characters for streaming
print(‘Sending: ’ + l,)
s.write((l + ‘\n’).encode()) # Send g-code block to grbl
grbl_out = s.readline() # Wait for grbl response with carriage return
grbl_out_str=str(grbl_out)
print(’ : ’ + grbl_out_str)
Wait here until grbl is finished to close serial port and file.
@Mcunn, if you get the chance, can you share your configuration file? Slowly working through making one of my own, just making final tweaks (and troubleshooting the inevitable errors that pop up).
How do you guys actually run the gcode? I pulled some raw gcode off of sandify, but it’s only G01 movements (no feeds, etc.) and FluidNC doesn’t recognize it. Do you use sandify for the movements and just edit in feed commands?
I think this is the latest copy . I’ll be in the office tomorrow where the machine lives at the moment and download a fresh copy. Note that the Steps per/mm are for my polar machine which definately won’t work on a cartesian machine like the xenxy.
@codingishard404 if you get that working, post the config and what board you have in the #software:fluidnc category. I am sure that will be helpful for others. Yours is the first corexy fluidnc config I have seen, I think.
That was the missing piece, thank you Michael. Speaks to my inexperience, but I wasn’t sure if I could get away with a feed at the beginning or if every command needed one.
Yeah luckily on Cartesian you don’t need one on every line. For polar you have to calc the feedrate for every move as it runs faster at the edge than in the center which is pain.