Wow O' Wow! LOVE Millmage

Software / Firmware Millmage / LightBurn
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I’ve been following this group trying to catch up on Millmage. Had no idea even what it was. Watch the fantastic YouTube videos and decided to try the 30 day trial.

As most know I am not a power user and know just enough to get in over my head.

I downloaded few hours ago and within an hour getting comfortable. Was not sure how to connect to my LR4 but bungling around in the documents found it! AND it worked!!

So excited I just went ahead and bought :+1: :smiley:

Excited to dig in.
Curious. I’ve had an old netbook I bought like 4 years ago @jeffeb3 posted that were $100 at Micro-Center that I used as my control at the machine. I have decent laptop I can use at the machine, but I do most work on a strong desktop 30 feet away. My present workflow is just to d/l to the micro, walk over, connect the dinky netbook, and run.

What do most people do? I’m sure there is better way? Really prefer to do the heavy lift on the workstation. Maybe I am getting ahead of my ski’s on this.

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I do all my CAM work on my good desktop and then send the gcode file to the LR4 over wifi and run it from the machine.

Also agree that MillMage is awesome! I have been using it for quite a while now through the beta and for 99.8% of the work I do it is my favorite.

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Thanks Jonathan feel like I took a drink form a fire hydrant :grin:
Being lazy how do I send the file to the LR4? I thought it was not reliable to send the gcode files which is why I used sneaker net to walk it over?

Do I need to still need to use FluidNC?

thanks

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IF you have reliable strong WiFi signal where your LR4 is, you can set it up STA mode on your home WiFi. Then from your computer where you are doing your CAM you can go to the IP address for the jackpot and upload the gcode to the SD card that way. You still run the machine with FluidNC the same as you did any other time.

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I am using Millmage and really like it too. My workflow is similar to yours. I don’t like controlling the machine from another device. I do all my work in Millmage, export the GCODE, upload it using the Web interface and run the program. I run several “production” items, so it is better for me to just save it to the machine for multiple runs. That way my PC isn’t tied up, and I don’t have to worry about any communication issues. I have an old Surface tablet at the machine that I use to run and monitor everything.

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Keep an eye out on the MillMage forum - we’ve got a little companion application coming that will let you click Send in MillMage have all the gcode files necessary to run show up on whatever other computer is running that companion app. It’s meant for people running LinuxCNC or Mach 3/4 that can’t be controlled directly by MillMage but there’s no reason it can’t be used for anything.

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You’d be amazed at how well streaming a job from MillMage to FluidNC over WiFi works. :slight_smile:

But saving the entire GCode on the controller and running it from there should still be more reliable, and you get to stand right next to the machine to monitor it while it runs, as you should be.

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Starting from FluidNC version 4.0, they also support WebDAV to map the controller’s SD drive on a computer for shared file access

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Thanks Adam are you with the MillMage team? Is an incredible product! SO excited to learn it.

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Thanks I just have fun using my LR4 and if I get a snag not a big deal so I will for sure try it.

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I am not even sure which version FluidNC I’m at. It’s about 6-7 months old from Ryan but I will check today when I’m at the machine. I’m not sure but I thought it was suggested to wait a few before updating for stability???

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Yup! I’m the CTO for LightBurn Software.

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Love it! I’m retired for Molex for 30 years and had a fun ride (but happy to get off the ride :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:)
I’ve evaluated lot’s of software in my life ( I was the very first in our class of 4 to learn this new idea of 3-D modeling) and of course that was centuries ago. Before I retired I was assigned to evaluate our next step and we went with Siemens NX as we had global needs and 20,000 seats. But that was if I remember right like $30-40million.

Anyway I just like to feel and vibe and it’'s only been a day. I have not even run a job yet. I need to set up my initial gcodes.

But cheers to you and your entire team!!

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Yes, Fluid version 4.0 was released just a few weeks ago.

In any case, I would be cautious about upgrading and wait to see Ryan’s experience with it first.

Then again, if you backup your machine config .yml, you can easily revert back to a previous Fluid version. Just be prepared for a possible downtime of the machine.

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I do all my heavy lifting on a workstation. I use Seafile running on a server to sync my ‘STL’ and ‘gcode’ directories between the workstation and the shop laptops.

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Has anyone used FluidNC 4.0 on the Jackpot LR yet? Last I heard they were still testing it.

Edit: I see you had an answer further down.

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Ive been using MM for a long time now for my LR4 with jackpot.

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I was replying to his comment about FluidNC 4.0.

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I had done some testing on FluidNC v4.0 prior to release. My current intent is to look at it more seriously when v4.0.2 is released. There have been a lot of fixes.

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I still need to try webui v3 yet!

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