Anyone rebuilt their machine with something opensource?
It surely should be possible to make it more usable with something GRBL alternative?
hmm. ok.
Last time I used it I really struggled with it. and the smart clamp where just a hinder. but perhaps I could use it directly with more success and not having the gcode generated through easel. I’m using fusion 360 to draw. any suggestions on what to do with carvey? upgrade something? auto leveling? someone tried anything that gets the machine more usable?
Sent PM
Also interested in finding an an alternative tool chain for Carvey. I’m cool with using Fusion360 for CAM but am unsure of how to handle the smart clamp calibration process. Any tips would be appreciated!
Would love to check out your PM’d advice @NeilFerreri1
I too, am also interested in finding an an alternative tool chain for Carvey and possibility of upgrade paths. Any suggestions on where to start looking?
Ditto! @NeilFerreri1…
I bought my Carvey 18 months ago - hated the “built-in” limitations of the Gcarvin firmware and started trying to decipher and edit it…
I also tried to get assistance thru support- but they were unwilling to work with me at all…
SO convoluted I gave up on it, Carvey has been on the shelf collecting dust ever since.
I bought another grbl mainboard and have been building my own machine. Had even thought of using the carvey and installing the new board and bypassing all the gcarvin mess…
Just seems a shame to chuck a perfectly good drive board when it is a simple matter of editing the firmware…
I truly wish the folks at inventables would have seen the opportunity to give the “non-classroom” customers what they need to make their machine usable… they might have been much more successful in sales…
Late to the party here, just seeing if anyone has done some significant upgrades to their Carvey and found this post (I’m investigating beefing up the spindle).
@Prime8 Why not modify gCarvin to do what you wish or use alternate firmware on the existing board? At the end of the day it’s a CNC mill running from an atmega2560.
PS, there is no debug protection so you an dump the existing firmware straight off the chip with ease in case you suspect there may be a difference between the gCarvin source and what’s running on the machine (I’ve also dumped mine and can share it but I don’t know if there are firmware differences across production runs).
FYI, there’s a convenient ICSP header directly next to the MCU. Here’s the GND pin for reference of orientation, though you can flash over USB but I wanted to ensure I had easy debug access as well and made this accessible from the back of the machine for convenience.
Any updates to this? Mainboard failed in a machine I have, and am unable to get a replacement. Looking to convert mine as well.