Way back in 2015, in this thread, some enterprising souls tried to work out a way to create a repeating process that carbide motion could run, so that one might be able to do multiple batches of the same program without having to sit through the homing process etc. At the time it was determined that GRBL did not support the GOTO command, and CM would ignore M0, which would let one stop the program and then resume it. The only solution was the brute force approach of copy/pasting the same code over and over again.
Here we are in 2022, and I’m curious if this has changed. I need to cut out 75 circular trays, each with a 10" diameter, on my Shapeoko 3 XXL, and I’d really, really, really, love to be able to just have the machine run the program, take the cutter to the full North position, and say “spindle change required, turn off spindle.” Then say “Spindle change required, turn on spindle,” and run the exact program over.
I can for sure make this work via brute force. But is there any better way, 7 years in?
I have moved on from CM’s “beginner” mode, which was instrumental in getting me safely started with my Shapeoko. I suggest looking into gSender on the following forum for further information:
Thanks, @CrookedWoodTex, I’ll start messing around with that. Can you possibly advise me on how to make a program like mine work? Should I just put in a GOTO? I can obviously find the answers to these questions myself by just testing them, but I’m kind of under a time crunch and would love any suggestions. My experience programming g-code is extremely thin.
As I mentioned above, I’d like the job to run, then have the machine ask for the spindle to be turned off. Once it’s off, the machine rapids to the furthest North position on the board and waits for the spindle to be turned back on, after which it just runs the same exact program, over and over forever or until I turn it all off.
Is your spindle controlled electronically?
If you use a 3rd party sender, you can typically just click “run” again and it will just run the same job. No need to set zeroes or home or anything.
If you want custom motion at the end of the program, that can be added to the gcode manually or to the post processor (if not using Create).
I have to turn the router on and off, unfortunately. I’ve been considering getting the electronic controller, but until now I couldn’t really justify it. I’ll find some time to play with gSender and see if it makes life any easier. If gSender supports GOTO, I feel like I can probably figure out a way to make this whole thing work.