After climbing the steep part of the learning curve on 3D printing. Marlin configuration, and LR3 assembly, I find myself once again on the steep part of learning EstlCAM. I have managed to figure out a few items, but this one has me stumped, and I haven’t found the answer in any threads or online tutorials (yet).
When I open the Test Crown gcode file (linked on the EstlCAM Basics page in V1 Eng documentation), EstlCAM shows a message that says "Controller not configured… (main program menu “Setup” → “CNC controller”)
When I click on the message, the drop down menu for controller type lists several versions of EsltCAM Hardware, Arduino, GRBL, Ramps and other selections, but nothing that looks like what I am using (SKR Pro 1.2).
Most of the time we don’t use the EstlCAM to directly send to the controller, but rather us it to create gcode and then use an SD card or Reptier Host (Not server) to send the code to the machine. The SD works better in most cases due to the situation that the computer may lose connection and then the milling stops.
Thanks. So if I understand correctly, I should just ignore the flashing warning message and leave it un-configured.
I was planning to use the SD card method, but it seemed like EstlCAM wanted me to specify a hardware type for pre-made g-code files. STL and DWX files didn’t seem to have the same problem, or maybe I just haven’t gotten that far yet.
Everything is documented well above, please follow through it. It has setup and use. The warning message is because you are trying to use the controller built into estlcam. You will not get the errors if you are not in that part of the program.
Don’t use Estlcam to open the Gcode files. While it will obviously try to do it, it will assume that you wanted to open that file in order to use the Estlcam firmware to directly control your CNC machine, which you don’t want to do (Unless you really do want to do it in which case, you need to set up a compatible controller board, which is NOT the SKR Pro 1.2.)
Instead, open DXF or .SVG files with estlcam in order to create gcode files which you will then use something else to send it to your CNC machine.
Popular options there are:
SD card. You can use an SD card with the TFT. You can also use a USB thumb drive with the TFT in touchsceen mode. Make sure that you are creating files with .gcode as the extension, or else the firmware won’t let you open them. (Part of the Estlcam setup, I think it will try to create .nc files by default, which the firmware won’t recognize.)
Repetier Host. This runs on your computer and requires that you connect to the SKR Pro with a USB cable.
Wifi. With the additional hardware of an ESP01S module, you can add wifi to the list of ways to transfer a Gcode file to your CNC. You can also start the cuts from this interface, which can be nice. Personally, I like not having to sneakernet files to the CNC
That’s pretty much what the Preview tool does. You can even click on and preview specific paths from the list. The only difference that I’ve noticed is that it doesn’t appear to include any Texts customization, e.g. my to and from tool change moves. V12 makes changing the Preview (and controller interface) perspective - top, front, or isometric - easy with double-click switching.
Yep, but previeuw is only once possible as far as know. It is very handy to run “preview” lots of times to remember what the gcode do even when the code is manual changed a bit.
