Got a little further with my BTT tft. It can control the Nano over the Tx/Rx pins but I cant get it to acknowledge it can communicate, so the “printer not connected” message doesn’t go away - however it does respond to move commands, laser on/off commands and $ commands…I just cant get it to respond to a .gco print file…yet. The firmware is so bloated with 3d printer stuff that it is going to take some time to try and reverse engineer the ‘Marlin’ out of it! These things are fun!..actually …upon even the tiniest amount of reflection…I think this is way beyond my capabilities!..unless anyone might be able to suggest where I look for the ‘handshake’ that makes it all work perhaps I’ll just wait for the MKS one to arrive…
Is that the one that says “V2.0”? That’s the one I have. Are you just tweaking settings or compiling code?
Jeff -
BigTreeTech_TFT35_V2.0…
A bit of both…the icons are just .bmps so can be easily edited or replaced. Some additional titles had to be entered and some of the menu changes required tweaking the code to achieve. If you are interested I can upload my current firmware and icons optimised as far as I can for routing/lasering.
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David -
Not sure if it is a different firmware and/or icons but there is also a TFT github page
I think it has a later version for the TFT24_CNC as well as a laser version
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Thanks, Mike. I’ll take a look… 
I have uploaded my current firmware for the BTT TFT35 for use with a router/laser on the other display thread for those interested.
OK…well the Makerbase TFT24 arrived…and it does work with a vanilla Nano controller and GRBL on my laser machine BUT the firmware is truly awful. No console facility, no positional data, incorrect homing and at least one dodgy icon position that changes to whatever you pressed just before it?? As the firmware is supplied pre-compiled it is not possible to edit it, MakerBase have turned the project over to open-source and published the source files here but it requires someone with a better skill set to me to sort it into something Virtual Studio will decypher!
The icons can fairly easily be edited but there is a lot missing as it stands
How are you getting on with it Dave?
Mike, I’ve done nothing with it since receiving it and then flashing the Grbl and TFT24/CNC firmware. I just made sure it lit up and kinda responded to the touchscreen… but I didn’t study it or dig any deeper into how useful the CNC firmware actually was. But at least I’m ready when some of you guinea p… brighter folks massage it a bit and come up with something fantastic. 
– David
I bought a MKS TFT32 with the purpose of using it with grbl, but couldn’t get grbl running satisfactorily on my MKS Gen L and went back to Marlin. I find the TFT is a nice supplement to the LCD screen, particularly for jogging which is tedious and takes far too many menu clicks in Marlin. But, it’s not a complete replacement. One big problem I’ve found is no way to resume from a gcode pause (M0) from touch screen. And, as you mention, it’s missing important feedback information such as current coordinate positions.
I fear the existing firmware would need a complete re-design to be GRBL useable. While GRBL requires less fancy commands being basically console driven it is way outside my expertise. All GRBL really needs is a simple console and a few configurable macros, a tf card reader for file storage, throw in some editable icons and a info feedback screen and it would be good to go…easy-peasy! I guess using a pendant gets the same functionality instead of a display. When you think about it it is a severe case of overkill using a 32 processor to issue serial commands to an 8 bit controller 
This whole thread is so awesome. Now I need a laser!
I know… I put an OXLaser in my Amazon wish list, just waiting for the moment to be right…
What problems did you encounter with GRBL on your board?.. AFAIK the board shouldn’t care if it is running Marlin or GRBL and GRBL is less bloated with unwanted functions for laser work. Most GRBL Gcode sender software have keyboard jogging which makes it quite easy.
So I was having a play with the configurable icons in the MKS_TFT24_CNC_V1.0.2 release firmware to see if I could obtain enough functionality to get by without trying to use the built-in functions that don’t appear to work (for me anyway). I got $H onto a ‘more’ icon and the machine successfully homes, I can control the laser with M05, M03 S10 and M03 S255, on 3 separate icons and would like to get the ‘framing’ macro on another icon somewhere and that would probably do…however all these icons use the same thumbnail and if I attempt to change it by following the manual the display reboots if I select any of the newly created functions…more playing required!!
edit…framing icon not needed as it is part of the printing function when you have a file to print!!..one icon less!
Grbl doesn’t support many boards. So if you are using one of the many Marlin boards, they can have corner case bugs. I think that’s what Heath was running into. grbl works great on boards with good support (arduino uno/ grbl_esp32), but we’ve seen some problems on the 5x branches, and there is no 32bit support (for archims or skr boards).
Marlin works great if you just ignore the 3D printer functions.
OK…I defer to your greater experience, I have only ever used vanilla Uno’s and Nano’s in homebrew laser controllers. 32bit boards are a bit OTT for a laser controller:-)
They are OTT for cnc too, and 3D printing. But the people want what they want :). They are also getting a lot cheaper, being competitive with the avr 8bit boards now. They are even putting them in tft screens now 
you mean OTT for diode laser controllers. They’re far from adequate/standard for co2/fiber lasers, 
holy belt-less motion system batman!? i am currently awaiting the shipment of this same laser (bought per your recommendation in another post). i will be happy if my results are even 1/2 as good as what i’m seeing here.
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David, I’m hoping you might be able to help me out based on your response from May 22nd where you mention that you use Chromebooks and Linux enable laptops to control your machines. I have been trying to do the same with my Chromebook and my new laser, and I am new to this whole thing. I have Lightburn downloaded, installed, and working on my chromebook, but my Ortur laser is not connecting to the laptop or software. Did you have to get an external Grbl controller in order to connect the laser to your laptop? I’m unsure if I need software or something external, since the only software I have found available is Windows-based. I have read all of the forums that I can find, but am still unsure what I should be looking for or what I need to make this work. Thanks in advance.
Allie
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