Making your own powerful Controller on the cheap side

X-Carve Upgrades
755

But not easel. Is there an affordable program that can run my machine nicely? And supports v carving?

756

Oh, Easel.

Affordable is a relative thing.

For sending there are Chillipepper (SP? cloud), Universal G-code sender (free stand alone), PicSender ($25 license), and others.

For design work there is Carbide Create (free stand alone), Fusion 360 (stand alone? free hobby version), Vcarve Desktop (about $350 stand alone Vcarve PRO (about $700 stand alone).

Many other CAD programs.

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757

I used fusion for designing my machine plates. But Iā€™m not completely proficient at it. And the next thing I need to learn is using it to create g code. And how to add to the code the spindle speed and relay triggering.

758

I donā€™t think Easel will work as you need to enter the M8 (or M7) command to activate the FOR direction on the VFD. Doing that spins the VFD up to the minimum RPM (like 7500). Easel would then want you to go through the ā€œCarveā€ process of Zeroing out your bit, which is now spinning and wont work.

I use UGS right now but have Picsender as well, either I think work fine. If I had a long carve, I would choose Picsender for stability.

Jer

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759

Easel supports M7/M8 commands and I think theyā€™re done after all the zeroing processā€¦

760

Well ā€¦ cool. Shows how long Iā€™ve been gone from it

761

But the S00000 Cannot be set. I keep hearing about Mach 3 but I donā€™t know much about it. Looks like itā€™s designed to be a standalone program that imports g code and can be run off a tablet/touchscreen.

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762

I donā€™t know what you mean by this. Can you explain?

Mach3 is a different interface to CNC machines. It runs on the host computer. It is a replacement for grbl. It has a different hardware interface (to the CNC machine).

Licensing fee. $175

763

Am I the only one seeing three faces and one upside down traffic light?

2 Likes
764

Rudolf teh reindeer to the left, then two dogs in awe and one traffic light (inverted)

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765

The first dog is wearing stereoscopic 3D glasses.

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766

Go ahead make fun. Iā€™m actually having some. :heart_eyes:

767

So what would be needed to run Mach 3? Arduino Uno wonā€™t work?

768

I think it can with the proper spindle setting in Easel setup.

But Iā€™ve never messed around with it.

769

If I were to run that it would more than likely mess up alllll my settings.

770

Seeing faces everywhere is one of my favorite hobbies. Making up words too.

To get back to topicā€¦

bCNC. Free, feature rich, fast (actually the fastest GRBL sender, as tested by Sonny).

771

MACH3 is a Windows program. You need a dedicated PC and either an Ethernet SmoothStepper, parallel port with breakout board (or a driver with a DB25 interface). There might be a USB based option as well.

MACH3 is like Easel Gcode sender/UGS/other sender combined with GRBL. It handles processing the code and the STEP pulse generation for motion.

772

Iā€™m looking to move to UCCNC instead of Mach3, but the ideas are the same. In my case, I needed an interface card between UCCNC (eth400 as I wanted an ethernet interface) which connects to a breakout board (pmdx-126 with a pmdx-107 for spindle control). The breakout board then connects to 4 individual stepper drivers then to motors.

My V-Carve will then use a different post processor for UCCNC instead of A GRBL one.

773

Moving away from GRBL, one could also consider Acorn and Masso .

774

So Mach 3 wonā€™t recognize the arduino. But it will a smoothieboard?