I’m using Fusion 360 and the Carbide 3d Post Processor plugin. This results in .NC files with parentheses comments. For example:
%
(reverse)
(T1 D=6.35 CR=0 - ZMIN=-0.254 - flat end mill)
G90
G17
G21
If I send that file directly to the Shapeoko, it locks up after the first comment. I’ve also verified this by directly opening a serial port to the Shapeoko controller and just typing in commands as follows:
$ picocom --baud 115200 --flow h /dev/ttyACM0
Terminal ready
Grbl 1.1h ['$' for help]
[MSG:'$H'|'$X' to unlock]
<Alarm|MPos:0.000,0.000,0.000|FS:0,0|Pn:P|WCO:-913.256,-1003.081,-114.050>
$$
[G54:-913.256,-1003.081,-114.050]
[G55:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G56:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G57:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G58:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G59:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G28:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G30:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[G92:0.000,0.000,0.000]
[TLO:0.000]
[PRB:0.000,0.000,0.000:0]
$I
[VER:1.1h.20190830:]
[OPT:VN2,14,128]
(test)
At the point after I type (test), the machine stops accepting any new input. It’s completely dead until I disconnect and reconnect the serial port.
It’s also worth noting that ‘%’ on the first line of the GRBL results in ‘error: 9’
Interestingly, loading the same file to Carbide Motion works great. It appears that Carbide Motion is interpreting the comments and ‘%’ and stripping them out before sending them to the machine. That’s fine, but the machine shouldn’t lock up if comments are sent to it. Many non-Carbide pieces of software (like CNCJS and GCodeSender) don’t interpret the GCode as it’s sent. They certainly don’t modify it in flight. This means they pass the comments directly to the GRBL interpreter on the Shapeoko. This locks up the machine and basically doesn’t work.
I looked at the code for the GRBL 1.1h firmware and it looks like it should handle comments successfully. There also aren’t any issues noted, so I suspect that the firmware loaded on the Shapeoko 5 Pro is a proprietary fork off the main GRBL code that breaks this (big assumption).
The other thing that could be happening is somehow I messed up my machine, but I haven’t done anything weird to it and EVERYTHING else works except parentheses comments.
Would love to get this resolved - let me know how I can help!