What is needed to control Spindle (on/off, rpm, etc) using Rambo 1.3 board on GRBL dual endstop firmware?
Right now we are manually controlling the spindle with a potentiometer.
Also which LCD would be compatible with this board and firmware? We are controlling the machine via laptop and that works well but it would be nice to have an LCD to watch the machine boot process and other features I see people using.
Thank you.
The rambo uses the lcd screen in the shop (reprap full discount display).
Spindle control depends on the spindle. You can attach a relay to turn the whole thing on and off (iot relay on amazon is a solid choice). Or some spindles can be managed by the 12V fan output and M106/M107. There isn’t a definitive guide though.
There is also this thread: PID -Hardware needed for a software fix that is an option for spindle control but it is still in development and requires some diy expierence.
I think I read somewhere that grbl doesn’t support displays. I also think I read somewhere that people were working on a fork that did. I don’t believe the fork included dual endstop functionality, but these days I’m not sure that everything I DO remember is true, much less things I think I remember.
lol fair enough. Thanks for your help.
I just finished setting up spindle control on my dual endstop grbl mpcnc primo. As mentioned above, exactly how you go about it will depend on the spindle used. In my case, the laser diode I setup takes 5V pwm for RPM. In GRBLmega5x by default, 5V spindle PWM is output on d44 (in the aux2 cluster of ramps), and is also output on the D8 fet driven 12V output (n-fet so switched on the ground side). No changes to your config are needed for those pins to work. Note that spindles that use a “Mach3 compatible 10V rpm signal” require a 0-10VDC analog signal, which is different than the PWM signal that comes out of the D8 output on ramps. To use these types of spindles, you have to add circuitry to basically convert the PWM signal to a steady analog output (usually an rc filter is enough… guessing there are commercially available PWM to Mach3 converters available?).
Also a 5V spindle enable/disable signal is output on D4 (ramps servo4). This will allow you to use the spindle enable pin on some spindles, or you can connect it to a relay to turn on/off a standard router. In my case when I operate a router, spindle enable toggles a 120VAC relay to power the router on and off. When I use the laser, the same 120VAC relay turns on/off the small airbrush compressor I use for laser airblast.
[edit: NM… found a PWM-M3 converter on amazon here:
https://www.amazon.com/Voltage-Conversion-Control-CM-112-Cnc4youstore/dp/B00IZFOI5K
]
The Makerbase MKS-TFT24, TFT32, and TFT35 all have CNC firmware available from their github that talks GRBL over the serial line.
Interesting Strider_Matic, I’ll have to read up on that. I have been spending most of my time down in 8bit land I don’t see much of what’s on edge for 32bit. Nice to see folks are taking grbl along for the 32bit ride.
Well, now that said, I’ve only used them on 8-bit boards, but commands over serial should be commands over serial as far as I know.
Hehe, well I need to do some catching up don’t I? 
Dang, $70 for a 7" touchscreen from ali, $170 from amazon. For roughly $100 I was able to get a pi3b+ with 7" IPS touchscreen, which is running bcnc etc. It probably isn’t as nice and fluid as operating a tft from GRBL, but it gets the job done and has some extras that make things easier.
You could just get an esp32 to run grbl and use any wifi connected device to operate the built in web UI 
Esp32 is my next step more than likely. In fact I would order now if I could find a 6axis board for it. My primo has dual endstops, and I want to add a 4th axis at some point. Bart looks like he is only selling 3ax boards. I could mill a pcb for it… but little time for that right now. So hoping someone else comes up with an affordable solution before I get sick of waiting lol.
6 pack controller
It is Bart’s 6 axis board. Even supports spi coms for the tmc5160 drivers. I just ordered one
Awesome… Just frigging awesome!!! Thanks for sharing that.
I will be ordering one of those myself very soon. It even has spots for relays, mach3, and all. I just put in a ton of time designing parts for my rig to make it look/feel decent. Problem is I have a ramps box here, a relay there, another relay over yonder, you know the deal. So I’ll have to spend some time making a nice enclosure for the board and cutting/soldering harnesses to fit it. It will be worth the effort though… I see esp32 has a bright future ahead and I’m already missing out on some things.
You can also run the esp web ui and attach the serial to any grbl board (I think). The webui is a separate project that bart embeds in grbl_esp32. The wifi on the skr boards is just an esp8266-01 attached to a serial port, running the same ui. I imagine there may be some config for marlin vs. grbl.
That has to be the cheapest option. Those things are about $2.
Thank you Jeffeb3… perfect advice and clutch timing! I was literally a few minutes from spending $109+s&h, and for me 8266 would be free as I have at least a half dozen modules in my spares box. Heck, I even have a few spare wemosd1 mini’s if I don’t feel like going to town on a pcb. It will only cost me a UART touchscreen if I decide to add that.
I was just at Bart’s site reading up before making an order when I realized it would cost me $109 in parts to replace my ramps with that setup. I need at least 12 io ports (dual endstops, zmax, probe, flood, mist, vacuum, 3-button e-stop panel… and more for future needs of course). That would be 3@ $20 io boards on top of the $50 main board. That, and I would not have any spare io without buying more $20 boards (and ramps has leftover pins for free).
Then I noticed the stock status changed from “hurry only 25 left” to no indicator. So was stopping by here to see if anyone knew if that might mean back in stock, or backorder. Then I read across your reply… and changed my mind. This is not to take away from Bart’s boards… they look fabulous, and would result in a super clean install (would be very interesting for someone starting from scratch). OTOH, I kinda wondered though, reading up on reviews regarding sdcard and pinging while operating… Marlin went overboard and made it to where you had to go 32bit just to print smoothly in many cases… my guess is adding a webserver to the chip is hastening down that same path. Nothing wrong with a little bling (touchscreens, webservers, etc), but anything that affects the primary purpose of the tool (in my case, nice cuts is the only purpose of the machine) in a bad way just kills it for me. I’d rather deal with fortran cards than have stuttering motion mess up my cuts lol! But seriously, money can buy all the touchscreens you want, but perfect cuts are not so easy to come across (so I stay focused on that).
Along the same lines, I read some folks concerned about 8bit being able to handle GRBL laser pwm. Well, so far so good I have had what certainly appear to be perfect results with my mega grbl doing laser mode. It is working for sure (cool to watch the laser dim as it goes into corners etc).