I'm using OpenBuilds control and the IOT relay to turn my router on and off. Is there a way to have the router start up automatically when I start the "Run Job" button and stop automatically when gcode file has finished?
This would typically be handled by your CAM software, when you generate the gcode. Are you using Openbuilds CAM by any chance? If so, you want to go into Settings, where you select your machine. Make sure you have "Turn Spindle On and Off" selected under "Select your Tool initialization" section.
Edit your VCarve post to add an M3S1000 in the header and M5 in the footer See Post Processor Editing
Peter, that's way beyond my skill level. I was hoping that there was something in Control software that could be set to auto start, then stop the router with each gcode program run once an IOT relay was installed.
Which post processor are you using with Vectric @dlhoulton ? Some of them already have those commands, but "commented out" (have a + sign in front of them). Let me know which post processor you are using and I'll talk you through the modification. Alex.
Alex, my work flow goes like this. I use Vcarve Pro, then save my tool paths with Grbl (mm) (*.gcode). Then I use OpenBuilds Control to run the gcode file. My machine is a WorkBee 1010. I'm using the Inventables X Controller to control the WorkBee. Hope that makes since. I'm still new at this and not sure of all the terms used in this sport!!
Give it a try it really is as easy as editing a text file in notepad and changing M3 to M3S1000 - follow the instructions on the Vectric documentation
That makes perfect sense @dlhoulton. That post processor already has the M3 and M5 commands in the header and footer. They are prevented from working by the +sign at the beginning of the line they are on. You can edit the post processor with notepad, delete the +sign and add S1000 after the M3. It would be a good idea to add a new line after the M3 line saying G4 P1000 - that will create a 1 second pause to let the router get up to speed. Delete the +sign from the beginning of the M5 line and the post processor will put the spindle start and spindle stop commands in your g-code file. Don't ask me how to set your controller to operate the IOT relay though Alex. EDIT - I would suggest saving the modified post processor with a new name so you can easily go back to the original if you want to. You will find the Vectric post processors in Program Data/Vectric.
But he is using an Inventables X controller which I've never heard of (being new to this hobby) so I'll leave that bit to people who know what they are talking about Alex.
lol! Sorry my bad, read Workbee and made assumtions (; Still good read for you, not as hard as it looks
Alex, I opened the Grbl_mm.pp file in Notepad. I don't see any (+) in front of anything except in the title of each section and they all have (+). Also I copied the file Grbl_mm.pp file to my desktop and using Notepad tried saving the file using the name Openbuild instead of Grbl and it saved it as a .txt file.
Next time I'm on my PC I'll make those changes and post the file here. It will have the .txt extension but will just need renaming with the .pp extension. Alex.
Wow, what a surprise. When I connected the IOT relay to my X-controller and started my latest carve, something unexpected occurred. I turned on the router in OpenBuilds Control software using the provided icon (button) "spindle on" and the router started up. I was expecting at the end of the carve I would have to use the provided icon (button) "spindle off" , but to my surprise at the end of the carve the machine went back to work home and the router shut off by it self. I think, for safety sake this is better than changing settings and have the router turn on then off automatically buy just clicking on the "Run" button. This was unexpected, but for my level of using a CNC router this made the process more simple and added a level of safety. Now I just need to figure out a way to provide this same process while using UGS Platform.
The grbl-mm post already has M3 at the top, and M5 at the bottom... But Grbl actually needs M3S1000 (where 1000 should be the same as the value configured in $30 in Grbl Settings) to turn PWM full-on The Post processor edit is to add S1000 next to M3 (not removing the Plus as suggested above. Its already there, just missing the S-Word as I mentioned last week )
Yes - my bad - I was actually looking at a copy of that post processor where I had commented out those M3 and M5's - apologies. Alex.
