grbl-LPC-CoreXY/README.md
Sonny Jeon ed790c9fa2 v1.1d: Tweaked interface a bit. Added realtime spindle speed and build option data. Minor bug fixes.
- Increment to v1.1d due to interface tweaks.

- Based on GUI dev feedback, the toggle overrides report was removed
and replace with showing “accessory state”. This shows a character if a
particular accessory is enabled, like the spindle or flood coolant.
These can be directly altered by the toggle overrides, so when they
execute, a GUI will be able to observe the state altering as feedback.

- Altered the real-time feed rate to show real-time spindle speed as
well. It was an over-sight on my part. It’s needed because it’s hard to
know what the current spindle speed is when overrides are altering it.
Especially during something like a laser cutting job when its important
to know how spindle speed overrides are effecting things.

- Real-time spindle speed is not shown if VARIABLE_SPINDLE is disabled.
The old real-time feed rate data field will show instead.

- Compile-time option data is now included in another message
immediately following the build info version string, starting with
`[OPT:`. A character code follows the data type name with each
indicating a particular option enabled or disabled. This will help
immensely with debugging Grbl as well as help GUIs know exactly how
Grbl was compiled.

- These interface changes are detailed in the updated documentation.

- Reduced the default planner buffer size from 17 to 16. Needed to free
up some memory…

- For increasing the serial TX buffer size from 90 to 104 bytes. The
addition of real-time spindle speeds and accessory enable data required
a bigger buffer. This is to ensure Grbl is performing at optimal levels.

- Refactored parts of the spindle and coolant control code to make it
more consistent to each other and how it was called. It was a little
messy. The changes made it easier to track what each function call was
doing based on what was calling it.

- Created a couple of new get_state functions for the spindle and
coolant. These are called by the accessory state report to look
directly at the pin state, rather than track how it was set. This
guarantees that the state is reported correctly.

- Updated the g-code parser, parking motion, sleep mode, and spindle
stop calls to refactored spindle and coolant code.

- Added a compile-time option to enable homing individual axes, rather
than having only the main homing cycle. The actual use case for this is
pretty rare. It’s not recommended you enable this, unless you have a
specific application for it. Otherwise, just alter the homing cycle
itself.

- Refactored the printFloat() function to not show a decimal point if
there are no trailing values after it. For example, `1.` now shows `1`.

- Fixed an issue regarding spindle speed overrides no being applied to
blocks without motions.

- Removed the toggle_ovr_mask system variable and replaced with
spindle_stop_ovr system variable. Coolant toggles don’t need to be
tracked.

- Updated README
2016-10-17 23:48:25 -06:00

7.3 KiB

![GitHub Logo](/doc/media/Grbl Logo 250px.png)


This is the development branch for Grbl v1.1's upcoming release. Please keep in mind, the new features here are beta, so use with caution. If you'd like to help, please report any bugs or oddities that you find! Thanks!


Grbl is a no-compromise, high performance, low cost alternative to parallel-port-based motion control for CNC milling. This version of Grbl runs on an Arduino with a 328p processor (Uno, Duemilanove, Nano, Micro, etc).

The controller is written in highly optimized C utilizing every clever feature of the AVR-chips to achieve precise timing and asynchronous operation. It is able to maintain up to 30kHz of stable, jitter free control pulses.

It accepts standards-compliant g-code and has been tested with the output of several CAM tools with no problems. Arcs, circles and helical motion are fully supported, as well as, all other primary g-code commands. Macro functions, variables, and most canned cycles are not supported, but we think GUIs can do a much better job at translating them into straight g-code anyhow.

Grbl includes full acceleration management with look ahead. That means the controller will look up to 16 motions into the future and plan its velocities ahead to deliver smooth acceleration and jerk-free cornering.

  • Licensing: Grbl is free software, released under the GPLv3 license.

  • For more information and help, check out our Wiki pages! If you find that the information is out-dated, please to help us keep it updated by editing it or notifying our community! Thanks!

  • Lead Developer: Sungeun "Sonny" Jeon, Ph.D. (USA) aka @chamnit

  • Built on the wonderful Grbl v0.6 (2011) firmware written by Simen Svale Skogsrud (Norway).


Official Supporters of the Grbl CNC Project

Official Supporters


##Update Summary for v1.1

  • IMPORTANT: Your EEPROM will be wiped and restored with new settings. This is due to the addition of two new spindle speed '$' settings.

  • Real-time Overrides : Alters the machine running state immediately with feed, rapid, spindle speed, spindle stop, and coolant toggle controls. This awesome new feature is common only on industrial machines, often used to optimize speeds and feeds while a job is running. Most hobby CNC's try to mimic this behavior, but usually have large amounts of lag. Grbl executes overrides in realtime and within tens of milliseconds.

  • Jogging Mode : The new jogging commands are independent of the g-code parser, so that the parser state doesn't get altered and cause a potential crash if not restored properly. Documentation is included on how this works and how it can be used to control your machine via a joystick or rotary dial with a low-latency, satisfying response.

  • Laser Mode : The new "laser" mode will cause Grbl to move continuously through consecutive G1, G2, and G3 commands with spindle speed changes. When "laser" mode is disabled, Grbl will instead come to a stop to ensure a spindle comes up to speed properly. Spindle speed overrides also work with laser mode so you can tweak the laser power, if you need to during the job. Switch between "laser" mode and "normal" mode via a $ setting.

  • Sleep Mode : Grbl may now be put to "sleep" via a $SLP command. This will disable everything, including the stepper drivers. Nice to have when you are leaving your machine unattended and want to power down everything automatically. Only a reset exits the sleep state.

  • Significant Interface Improvements: Tweaked to increase overall performance, include lots more real-time data, and to simplify maintaining and writing GUIs. Based on direct feedback from multiple GUI developers and bench performance testing. NOTE: GUIs need to specifically update their code to be compatible with v1.1 and later.

    • New Status Reports: To account for the additional override data, status reports have been tweaked to cram more data into it, while still being smaller than before. Documentation is included, outlining how it has been changed.
    • Improved Error/Alarm Feedback : All Grbl error and alarm messages have been changed to providing a code. Each code is associated with a specific problem, so users will know exactly what is wrong without having to guess. Documentation and an easy to parse CSV is included in the repo.
    • Extended-ASCII realtime commands : All overrides and future real-time commands are defined in the extended-ASCII character space. Unfortunately not easily type-able on a keyboard, but helps prevent accidental commands from a g-code file having these characters and gives lots of space for future expansion.
    • Message Prefixes : Every message type from Grbl has a unique prefix to help GUIs immediately determine what the message is and parse it accordingly without having to know context. The prior interface had several instances of GUIs having to figure out the meaning of a message, which made everything more complicated than it needed to be.
  • New OEM specific features, such as safety door parking, single configuration file build option, EEPROM restrictions and restoring controls, and storing product data information.

  • New safety door parking motion as a compile-option. Grbl will retract, disable the spindle/coolant, and park near Z max. When resumed, it will perform these task in reverse order and continue the program. Highly configurable, even to add more than one parking motion. See config.h for details.

  • New '$' Grbl settings for max and min spindle rpm. Allows for tweaking the PWM output to more closely match true spindle rpm. When max rpm is set to zero or less than min rpm, the PWM pin D11 will act like a simple enable on/off output.

  • Updated G28 and G30 behavior from NIST to LinuxCNC g-code description. In short, if a intermediate motion is specified, only the axes specified will move to the stored coordinates, not all axes as before.

  • Lots of minor bug fixes and refactoring to make the code more efficient and flexible.

  • NOTE: Arduino Mega2560 support has been moved to an active, official Grbl-Mega project. All new developments here and there will be synced when it makes sense to.

List of Supported G-Codes in Grbl v1.1:
  - Non-Modal Commands: G4, G10L2, G10L20, G28, G30, G28.1, G30.1, G53, G92, G92.1
  - Motion Modes: G0, G1, G2, G3, G38.2, G38.3, G38.4, G38.5, G80
  - Feed Rate Modes: G93, G94
  - Unit Modes: G20, G21
  - Distance Modes: G90, G91
  - Arc IJK Distance Modes: G91.1
  - Plane Select Modes: G17, G18, G19
  - Tool Length Offset Modes: G43.1, G49
  - Cutter Compensation Modes: G40
  - Coordinate System Modes: G54, G55, G56, G57, G58, G59
  - Control Modes: G61
  - Program Flow: M0, M1, M2, M30*
  - Coolant Control: M7*, M8, M9
  - Spindle Control: M3, M4, M5
  - Valid Non-Command Words: F, I, J, K, L, N, P, R, S, T, X, Y, Z

Grbl is an open-source project and fueled by the free-time of our intrepid administrators and altruistic users. If you'd like to donate, all proceeds will be used to help fund supporting hardware and testing equipment. Thank you!

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