Grbl tests 2022

Ahh ok. Maybe they will later implement it. It would be a shame not to be able to do it like that.

It may be possible to connect the rambo spi bus to the esp32 sd interface to allow the rambo mcu to directly access the sd card on the esp32 module. Something like:

  • Rambo sd/spi extension header → esp32cam spi (jumper p2 - 2,3,4)
  • Disable espui sd access in firmware
  • Logic level conversion between 5v and 3.3v

Let me dig into the espui stuff a bit more and at least get the card working to verify if it does or does not serve gcode. Even if we did wire it in we would still need to be able to select it so helping to get esp3d to use the card seems like the best option.

Fresh cup of coffee in my hand trying to decipher the SD card stuff. ESP3D/configuration.h at fa2023fe9483d5b777513ce5774c472dec449bfd · luc-github/ESP3D · GitHub

Okay it looks like it is NOT working yet, but close.

While you guys are making the future happen, I’m wondering why my v1 forum logo icon is shrinking more and more…
Screenshot_20220918-193702_One UI Home
I’m sorry, don’t mind me, I’m just enjoying the convo and eating my popcorn! :popcorn:

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Taking notes.

I can see the SD card on a ESP32-CAM finally! I read conflicting information about the settings. I have not tried to serve the gcode yet.

In esp3d/configuration.h I changed;
-#define SD_DEVICE_CONNECTION ESP_DIRECT_SD
-#define SD_DEVICE ESP_SDIO

That is it. My SD card is formatted fat32.

P.S. Found this cool esp32-cam site during my travels, 60+ ESP32-CAM Projects, Tutorials and Guides with Arduino IDE | Random Nerd Tutorials

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They seem to keep getting smaller with each update i do.

The WLED one has disappeared!

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What the heck, is there an icon zoom or something?

Wow - I’m not getting mad - thanks!!

@vicious1 I don’t have a board to connect a debug probe and properly test this. I most probably will have to order myself one but…If you want to give it a try also on the SKR…

Added setups for SRK Pro 1.2 and MKS Nano 1.2 by Paciente8159 · Pull Request #267 · Paciente8159/uCNC (github.com)

The feedback I get from people using my firmware have been mostly on Mega boards (RAMPS, MKS Gen L) and Bluepill and Blackpill modules. These boards come with custom bootloaders and different oscillator crystals so I’m not sure how this behaves.

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Okay. Anything in particular I am looking for or just go straight to the laser tests? I will say this week is going to be rough. Found some water leaking down the wall yesterday evening and I am taking my truck to the shop right now so the next few days I might be a little…unavailable.

So if I have not hit this by Thursday ping me about it again please!

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Sorry to hear about that. Hope you get everything in order soon.
No worries about tests.

And about testing… I’m honestly more curious on how the firmware would perform compared to regular Grbl (AVR), specially with the 16-bit mode enabled that is specially targeted at laser.

Regarding boards I got a decent amount of tests on RAMPS… But not on RAMBO… Rambo have a couple of features other boards don’t have like the digital steppers or the digipot.

The SKR PRO again no tests. Only go to this one if you feel like it (due to the settings handicap explained below).
I’ve made a basic configuration for it. All 6 stepper drivers and endstop pinouts, (including the serial pins used to configure TMC drivers via UART) like the TMC2208 and a couple of PWM.
I don’t have support on this MCU to store settings on the flash (due to the way the flash pages is built). At every power up the settings have to be loaded. I usually just do a $$ command, copy the values to an gcode file, edit them and then run that file load the settings.

In the mean time I will also add the fan pins configs since I don’t know how you got your board wired up. I’m also trying to get the SD card module to be able to allow storing machine settings to a file.

Nope the icon is showing really small now

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After an intense battle against the SPI-SD card interface driver this finally seems to have seen the light. The commands are still a bit funky but it’s usable. At least boards without an EEPROM and SD card interface can store settings this way. This is also better for boards with emulated EEPROM in flash since this prevent Flash usage/wear.

Tested with success in both in 2 different MCU (the AVR (mega board) and the LPC1768 (Re-arm). I’ll just add the SPI port pins configurations to both SKR and MKS boards.

Almost all buttoned back up. I hope none of that needs to be touched for another 30+ years.

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Regarding the topic of boards and headless solutions Mellow-3D seems to be adopting the ESP+Other MCU matting on their boards. In the case of Mellow they opted by STM32 as the controller chip.

One example is the FLY-CDY v3 and the Super8Pro.

I’m also under the impression that all the brands are starting to show up with high end boards based on Cortex-M7 MCU like the STM32F7 but the prices usually are almost double… My real question is if it is worth the price difference??

Most laser and hobby CNC use belt systems that require lower step rates then ballscrew driven systems. It all boils down (IMHO) to an equilibrium of gcode transmitting/parsing speed and motion planner calculations/buffer size to allow speeds to reach the optimal speeds (how far ahead the planner can look to calculate the accelerations).

In short. I still have my questions were the real bottle neck is in terms of firmware vs hardware…

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Arrived on the mail today.
This is a tiny board indeed.

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Sweet, that almost looks like you could fit it inside the LR3 beam.

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I don’t need a new board…
I don’t need a new board…
I don’t need a new board…

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OOOOOoooooohhhhhHHHHH!