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Using Grblpaulkaplan edited this page 18 days ago 20 rev isions

This wiki is intended to provide various instructions on how to use Grbl. Please feel free to

contribute and help keep this page up-to-date!

After flashing Grbl to your Arduino, connecting to Grbl is pretty simple. You can use theArduino IDE itself to connect to Grbl. Experiment or play with it, just to see if you like it.

Other serial port programs, like CoolTerm or PuTTY, work great too. The instructions are

pretty much the same.

Open up the Arduino IDE and make sure your Arduino with Grbl is connected to your

USB port.

Select the Arduino's Serial Port in the Tools menu, as you would normally with an

Arduino.

Open up the 'Serial Window' in the Tools menu.

If you are using Grbl v0.9, make sure to change the baud rate from 9600 to

115200.

Once open, you should see a Grbl welcome message like Grbl v0.Xx ['$' for

help] . This means all is good! You're connected!

Make sure you change the "No line ending" drop-down menu to "Carriage

return". If you are using any other serial port program, you must do the same.

If you haven't received the welcome message or some garbled characters, make

sure that the baud rate is set at 9600 (or 115200 for v0.9+).

From here, you can simply start sending Grbl some g-code commands, and it'll perform

them for you. Or, you can type $ to get some help on what some of Grbl's special

commands are or how to write some of your machine settings into Grbl's EEPROM

memory.

When have started to feel comfortable with g-code/CNC and you're ready to run a whole

g-code program, we recommend that you use one of the many great GUIs that users

have written to stream your g-code programs to Grbl and to fully harness all of Grbl's

grbl / grbl

Clone in

Getting Started (For New Users.)

Grbl grbl/grbl Wiki GitHub https://github.com/grbl/grbl/wiki/U

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capabilities.

NOTE:Check out ShapeOko's Wiki. It has the most up-to-date and comprehensive list of

Grbl GUIs.

How to Stream G-Code Programs to Grbl

Universal G-code Sender (UGS)[Java Cross-Platform]


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A full-featured GUI, developed by @wwinder, that streams, g-code visualizer, and has

complete control and feedback functionality for Grbl's higher level features. It's written in

Java, which means it can be run on any Java-capable machine including the

RaspberryPi! The Grbl group works closely with this project and highly recommend using

this GUI. If you find any issues or would like to request more GUI features, @wwinder

has done a wonderful job in completing many of the requests.

Easel[Browser-based CAD + CAM + Grbl controller]


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Easel is a web based project developed by Inventables specifically for us with the

Shapeoko + Grbl. It is an all-in-one package for design (including SVG imports), toolpath

generation and machine control. In addition to 2D design tools, Easel lets you preview

your toolpaths in 3D before sending them to your machine. Easel is in constant

development by the Inventables team. You can request features or report issues through

the feedback button in the app.

GRBLweb[Web Browser]


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GRBLweb is a web based GCODE sender and controller for GRBL. Multiple serial

devices can be connected to control multiple machines.

There is also a pre-built Raspberry Pi image based on Raspbian running GRBLweb

available here.

Maintained by retired computer professional @gerritv, GrblPanelis a GUI that

implements more advanced features and functionality commonly found in production

machines like Haas, Fanuc, etc. All of the required tools for setting up and running a

milling job are neatly arranged and designed to be easily accessible based on

decades-old accepted workflows in machine shops. GrblPanelcurrently only works in

Windows via .Net v4.5, but will eventually be updated for cross-platform use through

[Mono](http://www.mono-project.com].

NOTE: If you are having difficulties with streaming to Grbl, we will ask you to use

this Python streaming script to eliminate the GUI you are using as the source of the

issue. Before posting to the issues thread, please use this script to run your g-code

GrblPanel [Windows]

Python Streaming Scripts (Officially Supported by Grbl)

[Cross-Platform]


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program.

Included with the source code and officially supported by Grbl, two Python streaming

scripts are supplied to illustrate simple and more complex streaming methods that work

well cross-platform. These scripts don't ful ly support all of the Grbl's features, but are

intended more as a way to compare or troubleshoot other garden variety or newly-written

GUIs out there. These are located in the 'script' folder on the main repo. Note:The

streaming scripts require the pySerialmodule installed.

Install the pySerialmodule.

Download simple_stream.pyPython script.

Open the script in a plain text editor and change the following l ine to reflect your

system:

s = serial.Serial('/dev/tty.usbmodem1811',9600)

In place of/dev/tty.usbmodem1811(Mac), you should put the serial port device

name of your Arduino. This will be different for each machine and OS. For example,

on a Linux system this would look like/dev/ttyACM0. Or on a Windows machine,

this may look like COM3.

The script looks for and reads gcode from a file named grbl.gcode, you should

create this file and put the gcode you want to execute in it. Or simply change this

name in the script to your needs.

Open a terminal/command window and change directories to the location of the

Python script and execute the Python script with the following command:

./simple_stream.py (Mac/Linux) python simple_stream.py (Windows)

You should now see the gcode being streamed to grbl along with 'ok' messages and

your machine should begin moving.

The other, more advanced streaming script stream.pyhas command line arguments and

does not require modifying the script itself, unlike simple_stream.py. The main

difference is that stream.pyuses a character counting scheme to ensure the Grbl's serial

read buffer is ful l, which effectively creates another buffer layer on top of Grbl's internal

motion queue. This allows for Grbl to access and parse the next g-code blockimmediately from the serial read buffer, rather than wait for the 'ok' send and response in

the simple_stream.pyscript. This is very useful for motions, like curves, that have very

rapid, short line segments in succession that may cause buffer starvation, which can lead

to strange motion hiccups. In other words, it ensures a smoother motion. Use this script,

if you are not afraid of command line or are experiencing weird motions.


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A simple graphical user interface: https://github.com/jgeisler0303/grblUI. Programmed in

Java, using rxtx for serial communication. Should theoretically run on Linux, Mac and

Windows alike. Apparently some problems on Mac. Any feedback, tips and tricks

appreciated (Issues or Wiki in grblUI). Check out the ready to use jar in the Downloads.

A graphical G-Code Streamer: https://github.com/cody82/grblgui. Programmed in Java,

using rxtx for serial communication and OpenGL 2.0 for rendering.

Notable features:

It displays the job duration and remaining time to complete in minutes.

It displays current speed.

You can toggle feed hold and enter G-Code commands.

It displays the buffer status graphically on the toolpath!

In development:

Simulate the milling process and display the resulting model.

Currently under development in C# https://github.com/nm156/CNCInfusion

https://github.com/downloads/OttoHermansson/GcodeSender/gcodesender.exe

http://www.contraptor.org/forum/t-287260/gcode-sender-program

Other than CoolTerm or PuTTY, Linux and Mac systems have a great lightweight serial

emulator called screen that's either built in or easily installable (apt-get install screen)

through the terminal interface.

If your device is connected on /dev/ttyACM0 (for Mac, /dev/tty.usbxxxx), type screen

/dev/ttyACM0 115200 to connect to the device at 115200 baud. There you'll be connected

Other GUIs

grblUI

grblgui

CNCinfusion [Windows]

Gcode Sender [Windows]

Serial Emulators:


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to Grbl. To exit

To get out of the screen interface, simply press Ctrl-a followed by a k .

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