- Brand-new stepper algorithm. Based on the Pramod Ranade inverse time
algorithm, but modified to ensure step events are exact. Currently
limited to about 15kHz step rates, much more to be done to enable 30kHz
again.
- Removed Timer1. Stepper algorithm now uses Timer0 and Timer2.
- Much improved step generation during accelerations. Smoother. Allows
much higher accelerations (and speeds) than before on the same machine.
- Cleaner algorithm that is more easily portable to other CPU types.
- Streamlined planner calculations. Removed accelerate_until and
final_rate variables from block buffer since the new stepper algorithm
is that much more accurate.
- Improved planner efficiency by about 15-20% during worst case
scenarios (arcs).
- New config.h options to tune new stepper algorithm.
- Removed the dry run switch. It was getting overly complicated for
what it needed to do. In practice, single block mode and feed rate
overrides (coming in next release) does a much better job with dry runs
than 'dry run'.
- Trimmed all of Grbl's messages from help, status, feedback to
settings. Saved 0.6KB+ of flash space that could be used for v0.9
features.
- Removed some settings inits when set. Will depend on user to power
cycle to get some of these to reload.
- Fixed a bug with settings version not re-writing old settings, when
it should. Thanks Alden!
(All v0.8 features installed. Still likely buggy, but now thourough
testing will need to start to squash them all. As soon as we're done,
this will be pushed to master and v0.9 development will be started.
Please report ANY issues to us so we can get this rolled out ASAP.)
- User startup script! A user can now save one (up to 5 as compile-time
option) block of g-code in EEPROM memory. This will be run everytime
Grbl resets. Mainly to be used as a way to set your preferences, like
G21, G54, etc.
- New dry run and check g-code switches. Dry run moves ALL motions at
rapids rate ignoring spindle, coolant, and dwell commands. For rapid
physical proofing of your code. The check g-code switch ignores all
motion and provides the user a way to check if there are any errors in
their program that Grbl may not like.
- Program restart! (sort of). Program restart is typically an advanced
feature that allows users to restart a program mid-stream. The check
g-code switch can perform this feature by enabling the switch at the
start of the program, and disabling it at the desired point with some
minimal changes.
- New system state variable. This state variable tracks all of the
different state processes that Grbl performs, i.e. cycle start, feed
hold, homing, etc. This is mainly for making managing of these task
easier and more clear.
- Position lost state variable. Only when homing is enabled, Grbl will
refuse to move until homing is completed and position is known. This is
mainly for safety. Otherwise, it will let users fend for themselves.
- Moved the default settings defines into config.h. The plan is to
eventually create a set of config.h's for particular as-built machines
to help users from doing it themselves.
- Moved around misc defines into .h files. And lots of other little
things.
NOTE: Another incremental update. Likely buggy, still a ways to go
before everything is installed, such as startup blocks.
- Changed the '$' command to print help. '$$' now prints Grbl settings.
The help now instructs the user of runtime commands, switch toggling,
homing, etc. Jogging will be added to these in v0.9.
- Added switches: block delete, opt stop, and single block mode.
- Now can print the g-code parser state and persistent parameters
(coord sys) to view what Grbl has internally.
- Made the gc struct in the g-code parser global to be able to print
the states. Also moved coordinate system tracking from sys to gc struct.
- Changed up the welcome flag and updated version to v0.8c.
- Removed spindle speed from gcode parser. Not used.
(NOTE: This push is likely buggy so proceed with caution. Just
uploading to let people know where we're going.)
- New report.c module. Moved all feedback functions into this module to
centralize these processes. Includes realtime status reports, status
messages, feedback messages.
- Official support 6 work coordinate systems (G54-G59), which are
persistently held in EEPROM memory.
- New g-code support: G28.1, G30.1 stores current machine position as a
home position into EEPROM. G10 L20 Px stores current machine position
into work coordinates without needing to explicitly send XYZ words.
- Homing performed with '$H' command. G28/G30 no longer start the
homing cycle. This is how it's supposed to be.
- New settings: Stepper enable invert and n_arc correction installed.
- Updated and changed up some limits and homing functionality. Pull-off
travel will now move after the homing cycle regardless of hard limits
enabled. Fixed direction of pull-off travel (went wrong way).
- Started on designing an internal Grbl command protocol based on the
'$' settings letter. Commands with non numeric characters after '$'
will perform switch commands, homing cycle, jogging, printing
paramters, etc. Much more to do here.
- Updated README to reflect all of the new features.
- Installed a new 'alarm' method to centralize motion kills across
alarm or reset events. Right now, this is controlled by system abort
and hard limits. But, in the future, a g-code parser error may call
this too as a safety feature.
- Re(re)organized status messages to just print all errors, regardless
from where it was called. This centralizes them into one place.
- Misc messages method installed for any user feedback that is not a
confirmation or error. Mainly so that there is a place to perform
warnings and such.
- New stuff installed and still made the flash size smaller by saving
flash space from clearing out repeated '\r\n' pgmstrings.
- Fixed a bug where hard limits message would print everytime a system
abort was sent.
- Reorganized all of the status message feedback from both the g-code
parser and settings modules to be centralized into two message modules:
status feedback from executing a line and warnings for misc feedback.
- Pulled out the printPgmString() messages in settings.c and placed it
into the new module. (settings_dump() not moved).
- Some other minor edits. Renaming defines, comment updates, etc.
- Thank you statement added for Alden Hart of Synthetos.
- Hard limits option added, which also works with homing by pulling off
the switches to help prevent unintended triggering. Hard limits use a
interrupt to sense a falling edge pin change and immediately go into
alarm mode, which stops everything and forces the user to issue a reset
(Ctrl-x) or reboot.
- Auto cycle start now a configuration option.
- Alarm mode: A new method to kill all Grbl processes in the event of
something catastrophic or potentially catastropic. Just works with hard
limits for now, but will be expanded to include g-code errors (most
likely) and other events.
- Updated status reports to be configurable in inches or mm mode. Much
more to do here, but this is the first step.
- New settings: auto cycle start, hard limit enable, homing direction
mask (which works the same as the stepper mask), homing pulloff
distance (or distance traveled from homed machine zero to prevent
accidental limit trip).
- Minor memory liberation and calculation speed ups.
- Allowed status_message function to be called by others. This is to
centralize all feedback into protocol.c.
- Fixed a bug where line number words 'N' were causing the parser to
error out.
- Allowed homing routine feed rates to move slower than the
MINIMUM_STEP_RATE parameter in config.h.
- Homing performs idle lock at the end of the routine.
- Stepper idle lock time will now not disable the steppers when the
value is set at 255. This is accomodate users who prefer to keep their
axes enabled at all times.
- Moved some defines around to where they need to be.
- printFloat() function execution doubled in speed. This is a precursor
to status reporting, since GUIs may query real-time position rapidly.
- Decimal places added to settings (for now). This may disappear in
future pushes, but here for testing purposes.
- Homing cycle will now cycle twice (spec more/less in config) to
improve repeatability and accuracy by decreasing overshoot.
- New Grbl settings added: Enable/disable homing cycles, homing seek
and feed rates, switch debounce delay, and stepper idle lock time.
- Please note that these settings may change upon the next push, since
there will be more added soon. Grbl *should* not re-write your old
settings, just re-write the new ones. So, make sure you keep these
written down somewhere in case they get lost from a code bug.
- Refactored settings migration to be a little smaller and managable
going forward.
- Limit pin internal pull-resistors now enabled. Normal high operation.
This will be the standard going forward.
- Updated all of the 'double' variable types to 'float' to reflect what
happens when compiled for the Arduino. Also done for compatibility
reasons to @jgeisler0303 's Grbl simulator code.
- G-code parser will now ignore 'E' exponent values, since they are
reserved g-code characters for some machines. Thanks @csdexter!
- The read_double() function was re-written and optimized for use in
Grbl. The strtod() avr lib was removed.
- Added machine position reporting to status queries. This will be
further developed with part positioning/offsets and maintaining
location upon reset.
- System variables refactored into a global struct for better
readability.
- Removed old obsolete Ruby streaming scripts. These were no longer
compatible. Updated Python streaming scripts.
- Fixed printFloat() and other printing functions.
- Decreased planner buffer back to 18 blocks and increased TX serial
buffer to 64 bytes. Need the memory space for future developments.
- Begun adding run-time modes to grbl, where block delete toggle, mm/in
reporting modes, jog modes, etc can be set during runtime. Will be
fleshed out and placed into EEPROM when everything is added.
- ALPHA status. - Multitasking ability with run-time command executions
for real-time control and feedback. - Decelerating feed hold and resume
during operation. - System abort/reset, which immediately kills all
movement and re-initializes grbl. - Re-structured grbl to easily allow
for new features: Status reporting, jogging, backlash compensation. (To
be completed in the following releases.) - Resized TX/RX serial buffers
(32/128 bytes) - Increased planner buffer size to 20 blocks. - Updated
documentation.
- Fleshed out the original idea to completely remove the long slope at
the end of deceleration issue. This third time should absolutely
eliminate it.
- Changed the acceleration setting to kept as mm/min^2 internally,
since this was creating unneccessary additional computation in the
planner. Human readable value kept at mm/sec^2.
- Updated grbl version 0.7d and settings version to 4. NOTE: Please
check settings after update. These may have changed, but shouldn't.
- Before updating the new features (pause, e-stop, federate override,
etc), the edge branch will soon be merged with the master, barring any
immediate issues that people may have, and the edge branch will be the
testing ground for the new grbl version 0.8.
- Update grbl version and settings version to automatically reset
eeprom. FYI, this will reset your grbl settings. - Saved
3*BLOCK_BUFFER_SIZE doubles in static memory by removing obsolete
variables: speed_x, speed_y, and speed_z. - Increased buffer size
conservatively to 18 from 16. (Probably can do 20). - Removed expensive!
modulo operator from block indexing function. Reduces significant
computational overhead. - Re-organized some sqrt() calls to be more
efficient during time critical planning cases, rather than non-time
critical. - Minor bug fix in planner max junction velocity logic. -
Simplified arc logic and removed need to multiply for CW or CCW
direction.
- Significant improvements in the planner. Removed or reordered
repetitive and expensive calculations by order of importance:
recalculating unchanged blocks, trig functions [sin(), cos(), tan()],
sqrt(), divides, and multiplications. Blocks long enough for nominal
speed to be guaranteed to be reached ignored by planner. Done by
introducing two uint8_t flags per block. Reduced computational overhead
by an order of magnitude. - Arc motion generation completely
re-written and optimized. Now runs with acceleration planner. Removed
all but one trig function (atan2) from initialization. Streamlined
computations. Segment target locations generated by vector
transformation and small angle approximation. Arc path correction
implemented for accumulated error of approximation and single precision
calculation of Arduino. Bug fix in message passing.
- Junction jerk now re-defined as junction_deviation. The distance from
the junction to the edge of a circle tangent to both previous and
current path lines. The circle radii is used to compute the maximum
junction velocity by centripetal acceleration. More robust and
simplified way to compute jerk. - Fixed bugs related to entry and exit
factors. They were computed based on the current nominal speeds but not
when computing exit factors for neighboring blocks. Removed factors and
replaced with entry speeds only. Factors now only computed for stepper
trapezoid rate conversions. - Misc: Added min(), next_block_index,
prev_block_index functions for clarity.
