Ok, here’s the back story. I LOVE Carbide Motion…but until I can convince @Jorge to make a 4-Axis Controller, I decided to go the SuperGerbil (SG) controller in the meantime. Now this means I needed to use another motion controller…and SG demands that you use UGS (to start since they have a wizard that sets the controller and machine up).
I have read every tutorial and vied every video and while I can get it to do everything I need, I want more, and I see some quirks that annoy me.
So who wants to take me under their wing?
Ain’t that pretty? (PS 1:4.5 Scale Model)
This a scrap Setup Part
Note: #1-72 Head Bolts, 0.536 Dia Bore
Will @Winder answer was to post to the Google User’s Group…Where some of the same questions I have go unanswered for 2+ years…yeah nooooo.
M30 not recognized? Huh?
Guys using Carbide Motion have no idea how good they have it with @robgrz constant updates and upgrades. Is it perfect? Damn close…but remember you can NEVER please everyone.
So the search continues…Please don’t recommend CNCJS (OMG it’s junk with almost no information out there for the advance user)
Good thing you wrote that, saved me one awkward post, phew
I’m curious, are you willing to share the kind of advanced features you would like to use with UGS ?
And while NOT really advance, for the life of me I cannot figure out how/where to import my GRBL (saved) setting…or how to export them after I add them manually. GO ahead search search YouTube, Google for this item…I’ll wait…see nothing…absolutely no information out there. Never-mind that you need a Ph’d in computer science to install the darn thing…ok, phew…I vented. As AvE would say: Gah-Bage
I’ll grab some popcorn to watch the clash of the titans, this should be epic
Can I confess something: these days I use UGS exclusively to backup/restore my GRBL settings
.dmg work? [Direct Link]
No idea how well it does with 4 or more axes, but after trying almost every sender out there I use CNCjs for most things. With an occasional bCNC and Carbide Motion.
Oh I got it installed, but the problem was reading the page about the geek stuff that I needed (or could do)…Step 1, 2, 3, 4, ----87, 88…I was like huh? Serves me right for reading…
I never got that far…it loads, connects, but my wonderful (that sarcastic) SuperGerbil (kickstarter) board has some serious problems and hence I need to reload the GRBL setting…often…and I could not see how to save them, and researching it proved fruitless…so I abandoned it.
Are you comfortable reflashing the board with updated firmware?
You could define your machine defaults there and then you’d basically just need to do a “reset” anytime you wanted to go back to those defaults. If you change your settings often, that wouldn’t be ideal though.
I think @mikep switched to super gerbil and solved some issues with the firmware…he might be of help.
The board has been reflashed dozens of times…even replaced…the new board also loses all of its data when power is removed. Mike and I have talked…different issues.
To save settings you have to do a bit of text editing:
open the Log
send $$
select/copy the settings into a text file
edit them so that they have the correct form:
$<setting###> = <settingvalue###.###>
save as a .nc file
Unfortunately sending the settings all at once has been problematic on some boards — not sure if that’s still the case in Grbl 1.1
The most promising/used programs other and UGS and cncjs seem to be:
bCNC — Python, so pretty approachable
Gctrl — this is a Processing script which is well documented as well
GrblGru — the author is German and the program is closed source, but updates in response to user queries are quite frequent: https://www.grblgru.com/
EstlCAM — commercial program and the sending function seems to be tied in to having a stub controller on the Grbl board and the majority of the software running on the PC
Gcode-Sender from Sourcerabbit — another commercial program: https://www.sourcerabbit.com/GCode-Sender/ — the programmer was active here for a bit, but not finding the posts
Saving them as text has never been a problem, it’s easy to copy and past from UGS, but getting them to import/load into CNCjs
And these (listed) controllers actively support 4-5 Axis controllers?
(EDIT) In hindsight I wish I went with a Mach4 compatible board and commercial (robust) software. (Cause I am really disappointed with the Supergerbil board and UGS controller)
I believe bCNC might, pretty sure GrblGru does have multiple axis support, and of course for GUIGcodeWriter that would be something you’d need to program yourself.
