Arduino Mega 2650 GRBL

X-Carve Upgrades
1

It looks like some people have managed to get GRBL to run on a Mega 2650. Has anyone here tried? I had 2 thoughts about this “upgrade”.

  1. I would be able to add an addition stepper aka Y1 and Y2, or maybe a 4th axis eventually.
  2. I would also be able to add additional switches,

Which brings me to another topic, and my primary motivation for this research. Part of my routine before starting a carve is making sure the distance between the end of the maker slide and the y-axis plate are very close to being the same. I was thinking if I could add a limit switch to the other side and add it to the homing routine it would be one less thing to worry about.

There is a CPU map for 2560 in the grbl-1.0c so I don’t think it would be a stretch

2

Found this:

I am running Ardunio Uno with GRBL-shield, I have two motors on my Z-axis (Y1 & Y2), no issues.
The 4th driver of the GRBL-shiled can only duplicate X/Y/Z so probably can not be used for a 4th axis directly. Provided the Arduino can output signal for a 4th axis then all you’d need is a single extra driver :slight_smile:

1 Like
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Uno and Grbl here as well, I am looking to do some upgrades including bigger steppers. GRBL-shield is limiting me in my choices

4

The arduino can control any stepper driver you want. The Gshield is only used due to its simplicity. Money is usually the only drawback from using other solutions. A Geko Drive is the first thing that comes to mind.

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Grbl will run on Mega 2650. There are multiple vendors selling Arduino Shields with noise capacitors and probe connection pins for the UNO. This allows you to have a separate driver for each motor.

Protoneer sells one for Grbl 0.9, other ebay offerings are mostly made for Grbl 0.8. There is a difference in pinout.

With this Shield you can reach 80% of the power output of the X-Controller. When cooled properly this should not be a problem.