I’d like to cut some wood without using a design and looking for some tips on doing so with a bluetooth keypad and/or joystick that’s connected to my computer, etc.
Are there some links, topics, or guides on doing this with a Shapeoko setup?
I don’t think so with your spindle. Maybe if you had a router. I can’t see how it would be easier or more precise to cut by hand than just designing a quick file?
I recommend getting a Wacom tablet, and doing your freehand work with that to a drawing program that can save SVG files, and then import that file into your G-code generator of choice to make the code and then have your machine cut it that way.
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Another alternative to a Wacom drawing tablet is either a pen display such as the Wacom Movink 13 or Cintiq, or a device with a Wacom EMR digitizer integrated into the display such as the Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro 360 or the LincStudio.
I’ve always used such devices since they first became available (the NCR-3125 I owned was donated to the Smithsonian by the guy I sold it to) and Carbide Create works quite nicely w/ a device which has a display w/ both touch and stylus input.
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CM has a “safety feature” that shuts off the spindle when jogging.
I’ve switched to Gsender mostly for this reason. I frequently do manual machining with the jog pendant, squaring up stock, edge facing, etc…
The only caveat with Gsender is after you enter the MDI to turn on the spindle, you have to click in the jog window to give focus back to the pendant.
I’m sure there are other gcode senders that allow manual machining as well.
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What would be a good Gcode program to use in conjunction with CCPro and CM? Been wanting to get into the Gcoding with my S5Pro but didn’t see anything with CM where I can go in and work inside the Gcode. I don’t save my designs to Gcode because I don’t have the program to support altering or programming Gcode. So, what works best with CCPro and CM?
Carbide Create Pro will allow writing out G-code (and with the basic Carbide Create one can upload a .c2d file which contains toolpaths into Carbide Motion and then extract the G-code to a file).
Carbide Motion takes G-code and sends it to the machine — there are “Quick Actions” which allow writing, storing, and sending G-code commands which are useful for some tasks.
In terms of working with G-code directly, the first consideration is, it’s a very simple programming language, and the firmware which Carbide 3D uses, Grbl, is quite memory constrained, so it is simplified down to just what a typical CAM program will output — which means no loops, no variable, no branching — writing G-code by hand for Grbl is an exercise in tedium.
There are a couple of programming tools to help with that, with one notable option being:
which is incorporated into bCNC I believe:
Written in Python, it has an old-school appearance and may appeal to folks who like that language.
I believe Universal G-code Sender also has a facility for macros for G-code or some sort of automation (for folks who like Java and that style of programming).
There are some editors/previewers, and one notable free option is:
which is a plug-in for Notepad++
and I’ve been working on a tool as referenced at:
What do you wish to do which you are having trouble doing using Carbide Create Pro and Carbide Motion?