gcode senders

I don't know anything about this sort of stuff. - nada - nothing.

Seems like that sender - is a similar thing to Mach3

I don't know how grbl works of Linux or any of the geeky stuff.

Sooo - in my ignorance I will say the following:

My machine came equiped with a software driving program and th ecircuit board to run the machine as designed by the machine builder. I had all sorts of issues and problems.

I knew about Mach3 and there were LOTS and LOTS of small to mid sized machines using Mach3. Sooo - I upgraded the circuit board (BOB - breakout board) and upgraded to Mach3. From that point on - the machine issues are GONE and I am having fun with the machine. I didn't do the work - I bartered to have the work done by someone that knows how to do that stuff.

I would make sure I had a Mach3 setup, on about anything for my home shop. Not industrial, that is a different story. I will require the Chinese machine to be setup with Mach3 as well, when I am ready for that.

Again - I am ignorant - I know NOTHING - about the electronics of this stuff.

I am an applications guy, not an electronics guy.

Sorry, if this is just a stupid post.
 
I only have experience with linuxcnc.org's EMC controller and mach3 ... I assume the UGS is similar to mach3 in that it takes Gcode and translates it into whatever pulses are required to move a machine axis around. Does it require setup like how many steps per unit, which pins to use, etc?
 
So it does the job of mach3 - but less so. I suspect it's configured for a very specific set of electronics, then. There isn't going to be anything "easier" out there that I know of.

Mach3's the standard - it's pretty much what I'd tell you to use unless you want to tinker and explore with EMC. I had it running for a brief period, but I chose mach3 because I knew people who had experience with it who could help me.

I don't know how to say this without sounding like I'm bashing it - i'm really not - I can't really judge it since I have never used it - from what I've heard, though, it's not a full-fledged control system so much as a simple pulse generator without much else. To me, that's limited - to others, that might be a value. I don't like things that take my view of what's going on away - makes it hard to troubleshoot. If it were me, mach3 would be the only choice.
 
... I don't know how to say this without sounding like I'm bashing it - i'm really not - I can't really judge it since I have never used it - from what I've heard, though, it's not a full-fledged control system so much as a simple pulse generator without much else. To me, that's limited - to others, that might be a value. I don't like things that take my view of what's going on away - makes it hard to troubleshoot. If it were me, mach3 would be the only choice.

UGS (and similar products) stream gcode to the control system, in our case the Arduino Uno/gShield boards. UGS loads the entire gcode file, does some internal processing, then streams the code to the control system at a rate determined by the buffering in the control system. Additionally, it can send manual jog commands. There is also a window for sending commands manually to the Arduino. There is also a pop-up window showing the tool paths.

Easel, the free browser-based software by Inventable, is an all-in-one CAD/CAM/Control system. I've used it successfully, but find the design function a bit clunky. It controls a grbl-based machine just fine but has no provision for loading external gcode.

Since I've heard a lot about Chilipeppr, I've been trying it but find UGS a bit more straight-forward.
 
UGS (and similar products) stream gcode to the control system, in our case the Arduino Uno/gShield boards. UGS loads the entire gcode file, does some internal processing, then streams the code to the control system at a rate determined by the buffering in the control system. Additionally, it can send manual jog commands. There is also a window for sending commands manually to the Arduino. There is also a pop-up window showing the tool paths.

Easel, the free browser-based software by Inventable, is an all-in-one CAD/CAM/Control system. I've used it successfully, but find the design function a bit clunky. It controls a grbl-based machine just fine but has no provision for loading external gcode.

Since I've heard a lot about Chilipeppr, I've been trying it but find UGS a bit more straight-forward.

Thank you for that insight - i'm obviously not well versed in it. Thanks for shedding some light on it :)
 
I guess this is part of the hobby.

Some people like to play with wood - some with metal - some sculpt with a variety of materials.

Some people like to build things - some like to use things

Some like to use CNC routers and some like to build CNC routers.

Some that like to build routers want to do the entire build including the details of the electronics, and even to the point of writing the software to drive it.

For me - I will purchase the complete machine and be the user.

I see nothing wrong with any level of the hobby.

I will still go Mach3 - because I have no interest in the details of the electronics and it is just easier.

I am certainly learning a lot about the internal workings of the machine through these discussions.

I am learning about what Arduino is and what the g-code sender is.

It is interesting
 
Sounds like you made a good choice to pause and start fresh. I still don't have an idea of how big your project really is and if it's large or if the operations you're sending are just a lot of really light cuts. In either case, I'd do as Leo suggested at breaking some of the operations up into phases and doing maybe some rough out first, then some finer detail work in a second or third gcode file. I've broken up some of my files into different operations by figuring out the parts I could do separately and inserting the beginning and ending gcodes at those areas of the larger file. You can always have the last operation return to home for each to make sure you're still zero'd between running them.
 
Top