Hello! That is a great table. I am sure I saw this when it came out. Very well built and bright build.
Dan has shared some good advice, let me add some to it:
- Grbl ESP32 by Bart Dring has been renamed FluidNC. There was just another post today asking about configuration. Maybe you two could share some of the debugging? FluidNC will let you upload gcode files (if it has an SD card), do manual control (jog left/right/up/down), play, pause home. It isn’t fancy (there is no preview, and there are unremovable Z axis buttons). But it is a great start.
- If you’re running a pi, v1pi would work, but I would recommend trying the octopi image first. Octoprint is very reliable. It also won’t have image previews and it has a lot of 3D printer buttons on it. But it will also allow you to upload files, you can extend it, or delete stuff if you write plugins for it. It can connect to grbl machines, so the fluidNC board would still work for this.
- There is a project by @texx called “sandypi” that runs on a pi similar to octoprint. It is much less mature (a few dozen users, at most). But it is shooting to be great for sand tables. There are image previews and some slick features. IIRC, it can also connect to grbl machines. So the fluidNC board is again a good choice.
If you have any students that are interested in writing a web interface for the machine, then it is worth looking into the api for octoprint and fluidNC. It may be that some student with JavaScript knowledge can make a nice static page that connects to one of those as the back end, and just provides a neat front end for sand machines. I can dream about that, anyway 
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