Are there any useful outputs from these two connector sockets? It would be very handy if an output signal could be generated for triggering external functions, etc.
I have the same question but no one ever seems to answer any questions about these 2 ports. Why is that?
Thanks for your reply, Peter. I dunno why the two connectors have been ignored. As an electronics designer & technician, I looked inside the Controller unit and saw that they are still just using an ATMega chip which, according to Sonny the GRBL maintainer, is stuffed full of G-code firmware and doesn’t have room for anything else, apparently. So why they would add additional connectors to a controller unit that doesn’t have any room for additional firmware beats me. Is this a case of new product ambition stymied by a lack of understanding on the electronic design side? Hmmm… I truly wonder. Any comments, Rob Grzesek?
I was also wondering about this. Hopefully someone from the company can clarify. It would be nice to be able to use one of these connectors as an auxiliary output to operate a relay for either air assist or vacuum by just adding a couple lines to the g-code. Maybe someone knows the g-code commands that correspond to any of the pins on these connectors.