New grbl cnc controller from Bart Dring

I saw this today and thought this would be a good controller for anyone interested in running grbl. Bart had designed a MPCNC specific version but this new one is way more flexible. It does auto squaring and can run up to 6 drivers.

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Okay, I am finally on board. As soon as it hits the tindie store I’m in.
@jeffeb3, do you have one of these already?

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I think I know what I’m going to replace my janky chinesium RAMPs stack with…

I don’t have one. I have the mpcnc one on my low rider. I also have a 2D one with tmc2130s for my zenxy.

Well, I will do my best to try this one out. I have a esp32 waiting.

Ok, this WILL replace my Ramps as soon as it’s available.

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I think I will to I like GRBL a lot so I’ll giny pig it

Looks good, using nodemcu I assume it get WiFi as it is built into the chip.

Yes…wifi enabled using ESP3D webgui over your network. Beware when looking at obtaining your ESP32 dev module that you get the right one. There are different ESP32 devboards with different pinouts. This is the pinout you are looking for (sorry about the advertising!)

Also I would advise you get the variant that uses the CP2102 usb-serial chip and not the CH340, I had problems with proper initialisation with the CH340 variant.

Bart has also released the gerbers of his previous board for those wishing to build one themselves.
P7160033

I’m not sure what the price difference will be, or if yoi care about the size, but the existing MPCNC board is also a good choice. Unless you are running a fancy VFD, I’m not sure the benefits of this more generic board would be.

Good point, I got caught out by this, Amazon have both versions but it’s important to get the right one.

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Links I have not seen this one

A New, Fully Modular CNC Controller at Buildlog.Net Blog

Not yet available through his Tindie site…

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Good point, I have the original board and it works well. The new board does have support for Trinamics drivers over SPI, that plus the expansion capability are the major benefits.

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Here is his shop in tindie:

Mpcnc board:

I forgot about the tmc drivers. That is pretty neat.

I have one coming. Hope it is here tomorrow. Why i got it was i am hoping to use it with Easel.

Shoot I thought it was missing a feature…squaring …turns out it is not.

Maybe that is the better option…

Danggit, I have the right USB but wrong pin out. Gotta get the full kit.

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Regular GRBL gcode gives more software options with less fussiness also

I was unsure about the auto squaring. If you look at the endstop logic, it uses one pin on the esp to do both endstops. I can imagine a solution like bringing both motors in until it trips, back off bot motors until it clears, then bring each motor in one at a time until they trip individually. But I have no idea how it’s actually done. I haven’t ever had endstops on my LR