Carbide Motion on a Raspberry Pi

If you’ve got a Raspberry Pi 4 lying around give this a shot over the weekend:

https://carbide3d.com/carbidemotion/pi

This was a quick R&D project and we just got it working a few hours ago so we haven’t tested it too much yet. We don’t know if the Raspberry Pi will become a supported platform for us yet, but let us know if you find it useful.

PS- Be sure you run sudo apt-get update before trying to install this package if you’re on a fresh Pi install

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That’s an interesting development. Will be trying that as soon as I can liberate a Pi from the various ‘tinker’ projects I’ve got on the go.

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Very cool. I am going to try that tonight.

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Let me know how it works for you.

A few observations to make this easier for other folks. There are 2 flavors of IP OS 32 bit and 64 bit. This build is running on the 32 bit OS. For me it shows up in the Menu option for Graphics. I suggest a 1080 p screen or better resolution. I’ve tested it in a 4K screen. On the PI Foundation Touchscreen some controls are off the screen edge. This is due to the low resolution of this display.

Cheers.

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More notes. I have run it on a Pi Laptop conversion running at 720p. Once connected, because the settings are per Shapeoko, per PC, Go directly to settings. Click send configuration data, then select the default settings fort your Shapeoko. Click OK it will prompt you for the Z axis type. You will need to rehome the Shapeoko. From here it will run as normal. I was able to run and complete the hello world tutorial.

Enjoy!

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This is exciting! Thanks for sharing @robgrz

Very appreciative. Thank you.

Does it have to be a Pi 4?
Does it matter which OS is on the Pi? Standard raspian image?

Just set up my Shapeoko 3 two days ago so this is perfect timing as I was looking into ways to either wirelessly control the machine with a Pi through grbl, or to get a Windows 10 Tablet and mount it on the frame

I’ve got a spare Raspberry Pi B+ hanging around, I wonder what this would run like on one of them resistive stylus 3.5" screens, as you can pick them up for pennies these days and it makes for a really nice compact cheap solution for controlling your Shapeoko whilst at the machine

I understand that this was only made less than a day ago but fingers crossed for good scaling with the software to come as it’ll work fine on a 320x480 3.5" screen as all you’re really doing is jogging and zeroing the machine

Thanks for all your time and effort with this!

s-l1600|500x500

I believe Carbide Motion requires a resolution of 1280x1024 to display properly. Anything less than that starts cutting stuff off.

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Yeah, getting this to work on a touch screen would be very nice (esp. if the touch screen would work well for navigating file dialogs to select files to run)

For jogging one can’t help but wonder if the game controller support will work, or if one could add a few more buttons to something along the lines of:

(or use a gamepad controller similar to how:

Apparently the nicer touch screens work well:

https://www.amazon.com/SunFounder-RasPad-3-0-Built-Touchscreen/dp/B08Q7TH7GK

I’m currently considering:

(though I really wish someone would make a screen with Wacom EMR stylus support for Raspberry Pis)

Awesome @robgrz, I’ve been hoping for some time this would happen, thanks to you and the team for putting in the hours!

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I’ll be testing this today. I’m definitely interested in this.

In further tinker sessions, could you all add the unofficial REST API from CM4 back in? I use it with MQTT and my Home Assistant installation to trigger automations in my smart home. I’ve actually held off upgrading to CM5 because of it.

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Thank you nwallace and WillAdams for your response!

I hope in the near future they can support lower resolutions/different UI layouts
As it’s a little wasteful in my eyes to buy a 7-10" higher res touch screen just for using as a jogger, zero’er and file loader

Through the magic of terrible 5 minute editing I wanted to see if it would work on a 3.5" screen, and with a custom layout it looks fine

I think you’ve also got to remember that people who are doing this upgrade/project, won’t be everyday consumers, so it’s fine if the program is less intuitive

Controller support would be fantastic!

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I have tested the following - All Work

Pi4, 4GB Ram Current Pi OS 4 K screen

Pi4, 2GB Ram Current Pi OS 800 x 480 screen - some controls off screen

Pi3 B+ 2GB Ram Current Pi OS 720p screen

Pi3 A+ , 512Mb Pi OS Ver 9/2020 1080p

Pi Zero W, 512Mb Pi OS Ver 9/2020 1080p Hours to set up, Painfully slow

My Suggestion is the PI4, the A+ is $10 less but you then need a USB Hub and it has a slower processor. The 32 Bit Pi OS by default has VNC installed for remote connections.

The Pi 400 with a keyboard cover might be a good fit in a Shop. They are New and in short supply.

Pi 4 2GB ~$35

Pi 3 A+ 512MB ~$25

Pi Zero W 512MB ~$10

Power Supply, Keyboard, Mouse & Monitor not included

Thanks

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You’re a champ, thanks from everyone

Shame that the controls are off screen for 800 x 480 as this would be a really nice set up with a 3.5" screen (They are 320x480 though)

I’m going to purchase a 3.5" screen in hopes that in the next version a smaller res is supported (320 x 480)

I’ve used a Raspberry Pi for Octoprint for my 3D Printer, but never actually used the Pi OS, is there scale settings inside Pi OS that could scale it to fit the display?

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I would not expect to see a version that would work on that small of a screen. If they make one, great but I would not make purchases on a hope that they will. It seems very unlikely. There are plenty of options with 720p or greater which would be much more likely to be supported if they choose to support the RPi at all.

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So I tested this out with a Raspberry Pi 4+ and the 7" Touch screen. It appears that the UI does not scale with a FIXEDMODE resolution like the 7: uses. But everything else appears to operate normally.

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