I recently bought a used ~2014 OpenBuilds C Beam mill. It has an Arduino UNO with a CNC Shield. I downloaded OpenBuilds CONTROL and it said I was running 0.9 of GRBL and need to update the firmware. I downloaded Arduino IDE and downloaded the grbl-master 1.1 library and added it to the IDE software. I turn on verbose mode and it will compile and start downloading, I get around 30# signs and then I get the following message: avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding It never finishes and now my Arduino has no firmware. OpenBuilds CONTROL also will not find firmware or upload it. I tried pressing the reset button the shield, which seems to reset the Arduino as well. I tried swapping USB cables. What am I doing wrong here? I am using a new Macbook Air to do the upload it that matters. I have a Windows 11 desktop coming tomorrow that I can use as well. Thanks in advance for your help! Chris
Means the bootloader on the arduino wasn't responding. Possibly a very old one (uno vs older versions of arduino used different bootloaders). Consider treating yourself to a new up to date BlackBox: see docs.openbuilds.com/blackbox to learn more
Also, that CNC Shield most likely is a Chinese version 3.0 and so is most likely obsolete and does not use the most recent GRBL pinout. A couple pins were switched with the newer versions of GRBL. Connecting Grbl · gnea/grbl Wiki
What did you guys sell in the 2015 timeframe? Did the previous owner have to put together their own controller? I found my old authentic Arduino Uno R3 last night which is a couple of years old. I was able to flash it with GRBL 1.1 OpenBuild CONTROL with no problem. This morning I was planning on plugging the CNC shield into my Arduino. Are you saying it will not work? I am not ready to spend over $200 to get this running, Is there a shield available that will work with GRBL 1.1 and my machine?
The catch comes in when mixing old and new. The 2015 hardware has outlived its relevance a little. You could of course continue using older tech, but then stick to Grbl 0.9, and Grbl 0.9 compatible software toolchains (I.E UGS and GrblPanel - not CONTROL, etc) If you want to run more modern software - it makes more sense to use appropriate hardware from the same generation. Upgrading your old setup to a nice new 32Bit GrblHAL based BlackBox X32 will have massive performance and ease of use advantages for you as well. CNC shields are massively underpowered with their little pololu drivers to, for example, the BlackBox X32 Grbl 1.1 is getting long in the tooth too and won't be around for very much longer - if you want to leave the Grbl 0.9 world, skip over it and rather get something from the current generation of controllers, instead of the outgoing generation Grbl 1.1 based boards - for it will eventually end up the same route the Grbl 0.8 and Grbl 0.9 generations went Of course, if you do insist, the chinese fakes are all for Grbl 0.9, so you'd have to buy the originals from the original designer (Protoneer): Arduino CNC Shield – 100% GRBL Compatable (also rarely available, as its also becoming an outdated option, his ebay store has gone offline a while back, and the Elecrow link is for Grbl 0.9 based boards too) The C-Beam machine (our first kit) was only released in Jul 2015 (C-Beam Machine Mechanical Bundle) - so if its from 2014, it might have been a DIY design by the previous owner. As far as I know we never used Arduinos/CNC Shields - the first kits used to come with an xPro and later a BlackBox Yes, as Grbl swopped some pins around to support PWM spindles:
Hi Peter: Thanks for the detailed response! The reason for getting this going as cheaply as possible is twofold. 1, it works/worked just fine. 2, I know I will shortly upgrade to a larger unit and will sell this one. I bought this just to dip my toes in. It sounds like my new Audrino, running GRBL 0.9 and plugged into the legacy CNC shield should make it functional again with legacy software. I may also try to flash the existing Audrino with GRBL 0.9 software to see if I can get it working. Per your recommendation, upgrading to the BlackBox x32 would get me access to GRBLHal and the latest CNC software. Here are some photos of the unit, I guessed at the 2014 date based on the date code on the stepper motors.
Correct! The mistake was trying to use more modern firmware/software The old's fine, as long as its mixed with old As far as I know our motors were always solid Black, so also looks like 3rd party. Suspect the original owner may have bought the C-Beam machine mechanical only kit, then put together the electronics from other sources. The plates under the limits, the roller end on the limits, etc are further clues of non-openbuilds parts Imagine the best there is - LEAD1010 or 1515 with BlackBox X32 (; - checkout the Black Friday Specials (;
Alright, success! I was able to flash my Arduino R3 with GRBL 0.9j and place my CNC Shield on it and start controlling the OpenBuilds C beam via UGS. It seems that my z-axis limit switches failed open, so I need to replace those. The limit switches on the x and y axis work fine. I have a stupid question, what is considered the 0,0,0 point? I assume on the z axis (router) all the way down is the 0 point. Looking at the front of the machine is the front left corner of the platen the x and y 0 point? You are probably right about this being a custom build. A lot of the parts are 3d printed.
The X0, Y0 and Z0 corner (in the machine co-ordinate system) in a grbl system is the back, right, up corner. It is also the maximum dimension for each axis - as you move away from that corner the co-ordinates become more negative. Your workplace coordinates system (there are 6 of them but most people only use the first one - selected with G54 in g-code) works a bit differently - you set the XYZ zero in the same place on your workpiece as you set the origin in your cam software and your co-ordinates can be positive and negative - moving back, right, up from the zero points will be positive. All movements refer to the tool movement relative to the table. Alex.
Ok, so in UGS when I press - I want the router to go down, towards the front of the machine, and/or to the left?
router UP is the Z axis 0!!!!!! that way the Gcode can do safety moves at or near Z0 and avoid hitting things on the table. for more info Home, Fusion360 and G53 Z moves
I had an issue with UGS and calibrating the limit switches. Apparently, GRBL 0.9j changed a pin assignment to enable a variable speed spindle. I was able to comment it out in the configuration file and now all the limit switches work fine. Z limit switch not working · Issue #1128 · grbl/grbl I am using GRBL on the controller, UGS to feed GCODE to the controller, and either thingverse or SketchUp to build my 3d models. Is there opensource free software to convert STL to GCODE for CNC mills? I see there is vCarve and I am using a trial license of MeshCAM but both of those are pretty expensive. The OpenBuilds software does not support the STL file format. For the home hobbyist, is MeshCAM a worthwhile purchase? Thanks, Chris
I have tried a couple of different types of software for machining .stl files, however I have never tried Meshcam. I will say without hesitation that VCarve Desktop v11.5 makes it so very easy. I had never used it before I built my rotary CNC machine. I basically watched a couple of videos and was carving stuff. After a couple carves, I was able to quickly load in the work stock size, import the model, and then create tool paths in less than 10 minutes. That is for rotary. For 2-sided it takes a little longer because you have to create two of everything. I believe it was worth every penny. And, for you, you pay the same for all the new features that I had to pay an additional $90 to upgrade to when they went from Version 10 to 11. As for other software that can do 3D carves, Carveco can do it. It is subscription based. But, in theory if you were going to repeatedly make the same items for a business, you could generate your gcode for those items then cancel the subscription if you no longer need it. Then, if you decide you need it again, you could re-subscribe. I have toyed with doing this with Zbrush.
"For the home hobbyist, is MeshCAM a worthwhile purchase?" I have a copy of Meshcam and I am not real impressed with its performance. The G code files it creates remind me of the slicer software from a 3D printer. It will do the job but it will take a job that should only take a few hours at most and turn it into a 20 hour cutting project as it processes in layers.
Meshcam is the only thing I have available ATM so I have been using that for learning the basics. But it takes a lot of manual manipulation of the g-code post processing to get it to run the jobs I want to do in a reasonable amount of time, which is mostly hole patterns for now. The guys here have a lot of experience so I would listen to what they recommended.
The sheer amount of Vectric Tutorials on YouTube should be a convincing factor too. It really is worth it.
if you are just drilling holes then why not use Sketchup (Make2017 free version is great) and SketchUcam? SketchUcam has a hole pattern wizard (-:
Mostly for legacy reasons. I have been using TurboCad for decades now and I have so may drawings and resources already developed. I have looked at some of the other options like aspire and fusion 360 but haven't had a good excuse to take the plunge yet. I am also not a fan of subscription software.
