SKR 1.3 Crown Test

Hey everyone,

First time posting here.

I have recently completed the assembly and setup of the SKR 1.3 board with my DRV8825 drivers and TFT35 touch screen on the Marlin 2.0 distribution.

I am excited to say that I have all axis working with the touch screen, and at this point I believe I am ready to start a crown test. That Being said, somewhat embarassingly I am unable to figure out how to perform said test.

After doing some research, I am unable to see a way to move forward. Unfortunately, it looks like the Estlcam software is incompatible with this board and the only way that I am really seeing a way to move forward would be to load the Gcode onto the micro sd card of the SKR board and then “print” the file. That’s not the end of the world to me, however I am having a difficult time trying to figure out how to create the appropriate file for the test.

I have been 3d printing pretty extensively lately, designing in Fusion 360 and then slicing the model with Cura or similar software depending on which printer I am using.

If someone could shed some light onto this roadblock or point me in the right direction, I would be extremely greatful!

Thanks!

Joe

Definitely load the gcode onto a card. That’s why it’s a test…the gcode is known good, so your machine SHOULD make a good crown.
After that, go find the post processor (I think it’s on the milling basics page). Follow the instructions to get that into fusion. It will do for your cnc what the slicer does for your 3d printer, except creating the toolpaths for cnc is a lot more hands on than for the 3d printer.
Post back if that isn’t clear, because sometimes I do that to people :wink:

I’m also not sure what you mean by “estlcam software is incompatible with this board.”
You did list that you have marlin 2.0 on the board. I don’t use estlcam, but I think it can spit out the gcode for marlin, no? Maybe the estlcam firmware? I think I heard of that somewhere, but I think that would be a replacement for marlin, so maybe it’s a non issue for you?
Somebody will correct me pretty quickly if I’m wrong. And I’d like to thank that person in advance.

Tony, thank you for your replies!

Will report back soon, should also start a build thread I suppose.

Anyway, I’ll report back with how it went!

Joe

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The ESTLCam firmware is incompatible, but the CAM software is compatible. As Tony said, it just spits out gcode. But ESTLCam firmware is very specific to a narrow selection of boards. So you can’t use it as a CAD control program, just as CAM generation. For control, you need to use Repetier Host, Pronterface, cnc.js, or OctoPrint (or really, anything that can send gcode). The caveat with Repetier host is that it will often install Repetier Server with little warning, and that grabs your USB port, and is quite jealous about letting anybody else play with it.

Personally, if you have a spare Raspberry Pi laying about, blow the dust out of it, and install v1pi on it. Then you have the goodness of both OctoPi and cnc.js, for all you CNC and printing needs! :smiley:

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I found these two videos very helpful with some of your questions.

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Piling on here. The test crown can be ran from the sd card. Estlcam is compatible, but as K mentioned, just don’t use it as a controller. This is similar to using cura to generate gcode, but don’t actually connect cura to your computer. Take a look at the software workflow for some more info.

Well lads,

Ecstatic to announce that I had a successful crown test! Really happy with how it turned out. Thank you all for your help! Spindle just arrived today, in the process of printing the tool mounts for that then the end mills should be here from the shop this Friday.

Really stoked to get this thing dirty.

Thanks again!
Joe

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