- A very very low feed rate command like `G1 X100 F0.01` would cause
some floating-point round-off error and freeze Grbl into an infinite
loop. To fix it, introduced a MINIMUM_FEED_RATE parameter in config.h
to ensure motions always complete.
- MINIMUM_FEED_RATE is set at 1.0 mm/min by default. It’s recommended
that no rates are below this value, but 0.1mm/min may be ok in some
situations.
This is likely the last major change to the v0.9 code base before push
to master. Only two minor things remain on the agenda (CoreXY support,
force clear EEPROM, and an extremely low federate bug).
- NEW! Grbl is now compile-able and may be flashed directly through the
Arduino IDE. Only minor changes were required for this compatibility.
See the Wiki to learn how to do it.
- New status reporting mask to turn on and off what Grbl sends back.
This includes machine coordinates, work coordinates, serial RX buffer
usage, and planner buffer usage. Expandable to more information on user
request, but that’s it for now.
- Settings have been completely renumbered to allow for future new
settings to be installed without having to constantly reshuffle and
renumber all of the settings every time.
- All settings masks have been standardized to mean bit 0 = X, bit 1 =
Y, and bit 2 = Z, to reduce confusion on how they work. The invert
masks used by the internal Grbl system were updated to accommodate this
change as well.
- New invert probe pin setting, which does what it sounds like.
- Fixed a probing cycle bug, where it would freeze intermittently, and
removed some redundant code.
- Homing may now be set to the origin wherever the limit switches are.
Traditionally machine coordinates should always be in negative space,
but when limit switches on are on the opposite side, the machine
coordinate would be set to -max_travel for the axis. Now you can always
make it [0,0,0] via a compile-time option in config.h. (Soft limits
routine was updated to account for this as well.)
- Probe coordinate message immediately after a probing cycle may now
be turned off via a compile-time option in config.h. By default the
probing location is always reported.
- Reduced the N_ARC_CORRECTION default value to reflect the changes in
how circles are generated by an arc tolerance, rather than a fixed arc
segment setting.
- Increased the incoming line buffer limit from 70 to 80 characters.
Had some extra memory space to invest into this.
- Fixed a bug where tool number T was not being tracked and reported
correctly.
- Added a print free memory function for debugging purposes. Not used
otherwise.
- Realtime rate report should now work during feed holds, but it hasn’t
been tested yet.
- Updated the streaming scripts with MIT-license and added the simple
streaming to the main stream.py script to allow for settings to be sent.
- Some minor code refactoring to improve flash efficiency. Reduced the
flash by several hundred KB, which was re-invested in some of these new
features.
- Added a grbl planner simulation tool that was written in Matlab and
Python. It was used to visualize the inner workings of the planner as a
program is streamed to it. The simulation assumes that the planner
buffer is empty, then filled, and kept filled. This is mainly for users
to see how the planner works.
- Updated some of the compile-time ifdefs when enabling line numbers.
The leaving the un-used line numbers in the function calls eats a
non-neglible amount of flash memory. So the new if-defs remove them.
- Changed line number integer types from unsigned to signed int32.
G-code mandates values cannot exceed 99999. Negative values can be used
to indicate certain modes.
- Homing cycle line number changed to -1, as an indicator.
- Fixed a reporting define for the spindle states that was broken by
the last merge.
WARNING: There are still some bugs to be worked out. Please use caution
if you test this firmware.
- Feed holds work much better, but there are still some failure
conditions that need to be worked out. This is the being worked on
currently and a fix is planned to be pushed next.
- Homing cycle refactoring: Slight adjustment of the homing cycle to
allow for limit pins to be shared by different axes, as long as the
shared limit pins are not homed on the same cycle. Also, removed the
LOCATE_CYCLE portion of the homing cycle configuration. It was
redundant.
- Limit pin sharing: (See above). To clear up one or two limit pins for
other IO, limit pins can now be shared. For example, the Z-limit can be
shared with either X or Y limit pins, because it’s on a separate homing
cycle. Hard limit will still work exactly as before.
- Spindle pin output fixed. The pins weren’t getting initialized
correctly.
- Fixed a cycle issue where streaming was working almost like a single
block mode. This was caused by a problem with the spindle_run() and
coolant_run() commands and issuing an unintended planner buffer sync.
- Refactored the cycle_start, feed_hold, and other runtime routines
into the runtime command module, where they should be handled here
only. These were redundant.
- Moved some function calls around into more appropriate source code
modules.
- Fixed the reporting of spindle state.
- Added a new source and header file called system. These files contain
the system commands and variables, as well as all of the system headers
and standard libraries Grbl uses. Centralizing some of the code.
- Re-organized the include headers throughout the source code.
- ENABLE_M7 define was missing from config.h. Now there.
- SPINDLE_MAX_RPM and SPINDLE_MIN_RPM now defined in config.h. No
uncommenting to prevent user issues. Minimum spindle RPM now provides
the lower, near 0V, scale adjustment, i.e. some spindles can go really
slow so why use up our 256 voltage bins for them?
- Remove some persistent variables from coolant and spindle control.
They were redundant.
- Removed a VARIABLE_SPINDLE define in cpu_map.h that shouldn’t have
been there.
- Changed the DEFAULT_ARC_TOLERANCE to 0.002mm to improve arc tracing.
Before we had issues with performance, no longer.
- Fixed a bug with the hard limits and the software debounce feature
enabled. The invert limit pin setting wasn’t honored.
- Fixed a bug with the homing direction mask. Now is like it used to
be. At least for now.
- Re-organized main.c to serve as only as the reset/initialization
routine. Makes things a little bit clearer in terms of execution
procedures.
- Re-organized protocol.c as the overall master control unit for
execution procedures. Not quite there yet, but starting to make a
little more sense in how things are run.
- Removed updating of old settings records. So many new settings have
been added that it’s not worth adding the code to migrate old user
settings.
- Tweaked spindle_control.c a bit and made it more clear and consistent
with other parts of Grbl.
- Tweaked the stepper disable bit code in stepper.c. Requires less
flash memory.
- Homing travel calculations fixed. It was computing the min travel
rather than max.
- Auto-start disable and pausing after spindle or dwell commands.
Related to plan_synchronize() function call. Now fixed, but still need
to work on the system state.
- Pushed a fix to make this branch more Arduino IDE compatible. Removed
extern call in nuts_bolts.c
- Updated the stepper configuration option of enabling or disabling the
new Adaptive Multi-Axis Step Smoothing Algorithm. Now works either way.
- Updated some copyright info.
- NEW! An active multi-axis step smoothing algorithm that automatically
adjusts dependent on step frequency. This solves the long standing
issue to aliasing when moving with multiple axes. Similar in scheme to
Smoothieware, but more advanced in ensuring a more consistent CPU
overhead throughout all frequencies while maintaining step exactness.
- Switched from Timer2 to Timer0 for the Step Port Reset Interrupt.
Mainly to free up hardware PWM pins.
- Seperated the direction and step pin assignments, so we can now move
them to seperate ports. This means that we can more easily support 4+
axes in the future.
- Added a setting for inverting the limit pins, as so many users have
request. Better late than never.
- Bug fix related to EEPROM calls when in cycle. The EEPROM would kill
the stepper motion. Now protocol mandates that the system be either in
IDLE or ALARM to access or change any settings.
- Bug fix related to resuming the cycle after a spindle or dwell
command if auto start has been disabled. This fix is somewhat temporary
or more of a patch. Doesn’t work with a straight call-response
streaming protocol, but works fine with serial buffer pre-filling
streaming that most clients use.
- Renamed the pin_map.h to cpu_map.h to more accurately describe what
the file is.
- Pushed an auto start bug fix upon re-initialization.
- Much more polishing to do!
- Revamped and improved homing cycle. Now tied directly into the main
planner and stepper code, which enables much faster homing seek rates.
Also dropped the compiled flash size by almost 1KB, meaning 1KB more
for other features.
- Refactored config.h. Removed obsolete defines and configuration
options. Moved lots of “advanced” options into the advanced area of the
file.
- Updated defaults.h with the new homing cycle. Also updated the
Sherline 5400 defaults and added the ShapeOko2 defaults per user
submissions.
- Fixed a bug where the individual axes limits on velocity and
acceleration were not working correctly. Caused by abs() returning a
int, rather than a float. Corrected with fabs(). Duh.
- Added build version/date to the Grbl welcome message to help indicate
which version a user is operating on.
- Max travel settings were not being defaulted into the settings EEPROM
correctly. Fixed.
- To stop a single axis during a multi-axes homing move, the stepper
algorithm now has a simple axis lock mask which inhibits the desired
axes from moving. Meaning, if one of the limit switches engages before
the other, we stop that one axes and keep moving the other.
- Pushed limit switch active high option (i.e. NC switches).
- Updated defaults.h to be in-line with the new settings.
- Refactored feed hold handling and step segment buffer to be more
generalized in effort to make adding feedrate overrides easier in the
future. Also made it a little more clean.
- Fixed G18 plane select issue. Now ZX-plane, rather than XZ-plane, per
right hand rule.
- Cleaned some of the system settings by more accurately renaming some
of the variables and removing old obsolete ones.
- Declared serial.c rx_buffer_tail to be volatile. No effect, since
avr-gcc automatically does this during compilation. Helps with porting
when using other compilers.
- Updated version number to v0.9b.
- Updates to README.md
- Reinstated the feed hold feature with the new stepper algorithm and
new optimized planner. It works, but will be re-factored a bit soon to
clean up the code.
- At this point, feedrate overrides may need to be installed in the
v1.0 version of grbl, while this version will likely be pushed to the
edge branch soon and pushed to master after the bugs have been squashed.
- Measured the overall performance of the new planner and stepper
algorithm on an oscilloscope. The new planner is about 4x faster than
before, where it is completing a plan in around 1ms. The stepper
algorithm itself is minutely faster, as it is a little lighter. The
trade-off in the increased planner performance comes from the new step
segment buffer. However, even in the worse case scenario, the step
segment buffer generates a new segment with a typical 0.2 ms, and the
worse case is 1ms upon a new block or replanning the active block.
Added altogether, it’s argubly still twice as efficient as the old one.
- Overhauled the stepper algorithm and planner again. This time
concentrating on the decoupling of the stepper ISR completely. It is
now dumb, relying on the segment generator to provide the number of
steps to execute and how fast it needs to go. This freed up lots of
memory as well because it made a lot tracked variables obsolete.
- The segment generator now computes the velocity profile of the
executing planner block on the fly in floating point math, instead of
allowing the stepper algorithm to govern accelerations in the previous
code. What this accomplishes is the ability and framework to (somewhat)
easily install a different physics model for generating a velocity
profile, i.e. s-curves.
- Made some more planner enhancements and increased efficiency a bit.
- The changes also did not increase the compiled size of Grbl, but
decreased it slightly as well.
- Cleaned up a lot of the commenting.
- Still much to do, but this push works and still is missing feedholds
(coming next.)
- Returned the max step rate to 30kHz. The new arc algorithm works uses
so much less CPU overhead, because the segments are longer, that the
planner has no problem computing through them.
- Fixed an issue with the acceleration independence scaling. Should now
work with accelerations above 400mm/sec^2 or so.
- Updated README
- Arc mm_per_segment parameter was removed and replaced with an
arc_tolerance parameter, which scales all arc segments automatically to
radius, such that the line segment error doesn't exceed the tolerance.
Significantly improves arc performance through larger radius arc,
because the segments are much longer and the planner buffer has more to
work with.
- Moved n_arc correction from the settings to config.h. Mathematically
this doesn't need to be a setting anymore, as the default config value
will work for all known CNC applications. The error does not accumulate
as much anymore, since the small angle approximation used by the arc
generation has been updated to a third-order approximation and how the
line segment length scale with radius and tolerance now. Left in
config.h for extraneous circumstances.
- Corrected the st.ramp_count variable (acceleration tick counter) to a
8-bit vs. 32-bit variable. Should make the stepper algorithm just a
touch faster overall.
- Maximum velocity for each axis is now configurable in settings. All
rapids/seek move at these maximums. All feed rates(including rapids)
may be limited and scaled down so that no axis does not exceed their
limits.
- Moved around auto-cycle start. May change later, but mainly to ensure
the planner buffer is completely full before cycle starting a streaming
program. Otherwise it should auto-start when there is a break in the
serial stream.
- Reverted old block->max_entry_speed_sqr calculations. Feedrate
overrides not close to ready at all.
- Fixed intermittent slow trailing steps for some triangle velocity
profile moves. The acceleration tick counter updating was corrected to
be exact for that particular transition. Should be ok for normal
trapezoidal profiles.
- Fixed the Timer0 disable after a step pulse falling edge. Thanks
@blinkenlight!
NOTE: This push is a work-in-progress and there are known bugs that
need to be fixed, like homing acceleration being incompatible. Released
for testing. Settings will definitely be overwritten, as new settings
were needed.
- Acceleration independence installed in planner. Each axis can now
have different accelerations and Grbl will maximize the accelerations
depending on the direction its moving. Very useful for users like on
the ShapeOko with vastly different Z-axis properties.
- More planner optimizations and re-factoring. Slightly improved some
of the older calculations, but new acceleration calculations offset
these improvements. Overall no change in processing speed.
- Removed planner nominal length checks. It was arguable whether or not
this improved planner efficiency, especially in the worst case scenario
of arcs.
- Updated readme and changed to markdown format.
- Improved planner execution speed by 5% or more. Re-factored most of
the calculations in terms of the square of velocity. This removed a lot
of sqrt() calculations for every planner_recalculate.
- Oops again. Thought the new planner changes made things much better,
but there was a bug. Improvements we on the order of 20% execution time
reduction, rather than half. The increase to 30kHz Ranade timer
frequency also increased the overall overhead, so the total planner
change? Zero. But, it's still better.
- Planner execute speed has been more than halved from 4ms to 1.9ms
when computing a plan for a single line segment during arc generation.
This means that Grbl can now run through an arc (or complex curve)
twice as fast as before without starving the buffer. For 0.1mm arc
segments, this means about the theoretical feed rate limit is about
3000mm/min for arcs now.
- Increased the Ranade timer frequency to 30kHz, as there doesn't seem
to be any problems with increasing the frequency. This means that the
maximum step frequency is now back at 30kHz.
- Added Zen Toolworks 7x7 defaults.
- 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.
- Updated interface protocol to play nicer with interface programs. All
Grbl responses beginning with '$' signifies a setting. Bracketed '[]'
responses are feedback messages containing either state, parameter, or
general messages. Chevron '<>' response are from the real-time status
messages, i.e. position.
- M2 Program end command was causing a system alarm. Fixed. Thanks
@blinkenlight !
- Added a purge buffer (and lock) command. This is an advanced option
to clear any queued blocks in the buffer in the event of system
position being lost or homed. These queued blocks will likely not move
correctly if not purged. In typical use, the purging command releases
the homing axes lock in case a user need to move the axes off their
hard limit switches, but position is not guaranteed. Homing is advised
immediately after.
- Created a system-wide sync current position function. Cleans up some
of the repetitive tasks in various places in the code that do the same
thing.
- Removed the clear all switches command '$S'. Not really needed and
helped clean up a sync call.
- Other minor tweaks. Readme updated slightly..
(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.
- 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.
- 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 acceleration to the homing routine.
- Homing now accounts for different step rates when moving multiple
axes without exceeding acceleration limits.
- Homing now updates all internal positioning variables to machine zero
after completion.
- "Poor-man's" debounce delay added.
- Updated the delay_us() function to perform faster and more accurate
microsecond delays. Previously, the single increments would add
noticeable time drift for larger delays.
- Fix a bug in the stepper.c prescalar calculations that was changed in
the last commit.
- Other minor fixes.
- G54 work coordinate system support. Up to 6 work coordinate systems
(G54-G59) available as a compile-time option.
- G10 command added to set work coordinate offsets from machine
position.
- G92/G92.1 position offsets and cancellation support. Properly follows
NIST standard rules with other systems.
- G53 absolute override now works correctly with new coordinate systems.
- Revamped g-code parser with robust error checking. Providing user
feedback with bad commands. Follows NIST standards.
- Planner module slightly changed to only expected position movements
in terms of machine coordinates only. This was to simplify coordinate
system handling, which is done solely by the g-code parser.
- Upon grbl system abort, machine position and work positions are
retained, while G92 offsets are reset per NIST standards.
- Compiler compatibility update for _delay_us().
- Updated README.
- Program stop support (M0,M1*,M2,M30*). *Optional stop to be done.
*Pallet shuttle not supported.
- Work position is set equal to machine position upon reset, as
according to NIST RS274-NGC guidelines. G92 is disabled.
- Renamed mc_set_current_position() to mc_set_coordinate_offset().
- Fixed bug in plan_synchronize(). Would exit right before last step is
finished and caused issues with program stops. Now fixed.
- Spindle now stops upon a run-time abort command.
- Updated readme and misc upkeeping.
- Fixed a premature step end bug dating back to Simen's 0.7b edge
version is fixed, from which this code is forked from. Caused by Timer2
constantly overflowing calling the Step Reset Interrupt every 128usec.
Now Timer2 is always disabled after a step end and should free up some
cycles for the main program. Could be more than one way to fix this
problem. I'm open to suggestions.
- _delay_ms() refactored to accept only constants to comply with
current compilers. square() removed since not available with some
compilers.
- Grbl now tracks both home and work (G92) coordinate systems and does
live updates when G92 is called.
- Rudimentary home and work position status reporting. Works but still
under major construction.
- Updated the main streaming script. Has a disabled periodic timer for
querying status reports, disabled only because the Python timer doesn't
consistently restart after the script exits. Add here only for user
testing.
- Fixed a bug to prevent an endless serial_write loop during status
reports.
- Refactored the planner variables to make it more clear what they are
and make it easier for clear them.
- 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.
