I made my own print circuit boards by hand and etched them with Boric acid in the late 70's and found that using drilles found in Welding torch cleaning tools work quite well. They come in very small sizes and can drill very fine for HSS drilling.
Hi John, thanks for the tip, but nowadays cheap carbide drills from china are ~$0.30 when bought in sets, so there really is no reason to use HSS anymore unless you're in a hurry and need a drill rightaway
+martin2250 Yeah, my cnc machine is very diy, and it gets a lot of abuse, so it's difficult to dial out the surface error, it tends to shift by itself over time! This will be a lifesaver
How do you home your X,Y axis after changing bits? Seems like I always end up moving the spindle while changing them, so is never 'exactly' the same as before.
If you mean milling the outline, it's layer 46 ("Milling"). I just drew the path of the endmill by hand using a stroke width of 2mm to account for the cutter radius. The toolpath was "not autogenerated" in that sense.
martin2250 Ne so schnell bin ich nicht ... Baue gerade an einem Voyager Modell mit homemade Licht und Sound Steuerung auf Arduino Basis gesteuert über Bluetooth mit eigener Android App. Wenn ich weiter bin mache ich vielleicht mal einen eigenen YT channel. Aber die Zeit ....
+giantkilleroverunity It is, but I do it this way because I use the engraver to probe the board and don't want to re-zero again. Also I never had a single pad fly off on me, even ones that were laid out for smaller drill sizes accidentally.
Hi Martin, I see you're using ChiliPeppr just to preview, but have you tried using the Auto-Leveller built into ChiliPeppr? It does pretty much what you showed in your custom software, but you get a nice 3D previewer as it's running and it generates the final Gcode with one click.
Hi John, Yes, I did use Chilipeppr and I do quite like it in general, but there are some things that led me to write my own software: -at the time that I wrote the software, the GRBL version of ChiliPeppr missed every other probe cycle because of the command (G38.2) was sent when the probe pin still touched the surface, effectively making the probe feature impossible to use. By now that got fixed, at least in Jarret's fork. Since I didn't know of any other software that does it (and still don't), I had to make my own, at least for the time. -This might not actually be true but I think Chilipeppr does not split up moves that are longer than the grid size, this might be a problem with warped boards. -I never tried it, but does ChiliPeppr allow to adjust multiple GCode files without having to reprobe the board? Also sometimes I need to make adjustments to the drilling or milling files while I'm already etching away. -At last, just a personal preference, I don't particularly trust any browser to be stable, especially on the critical task of CNC milling. It never crashed on me, but I just have, over time, built up more confidence on my workflow. Nevertheless, Chilipeppr is very good, I especially like the modular concept.
martin2250 You are correct that ChiliPeppr still does not split up long moves. To do that is a bit tougher because you have to convert one line of Gcode to multiple lines. It's definitely possible with a bit of extra code. Sounds like you solved that in yours. It's not trivial as you have to do a lot of math, so congrats on doing the math. It would have been awesome to have you tweak the Auto-Leveller in ChiliPeppr rather than roll a brand new one, but I understand. ChiliPeppr does let you apply the matrix to subsequent files of Gcode without reprobing. Just drag in your new Gcode file and click "send Gcode to workspace". It uses the probe file that's loaded. You can also load previous probe files and do the same process. I can understand the trepidation of the browser, but I'm not sure I'd trust Java any more than I trust the browser. Garbage collection in Java is pretty rough and can cause problems milling long jobs. So, nothing is perfect. Also, once you get your stuff in the browser you can do amazing things like turn an old smartphone into a jog pendant so it can talk in parallel to your CNC while your browser is talking from your laptop. Doing that from Java is just never going to happen. The work you did on your probe app is awesome and one of the goals I'm trying to do with ChiliPeppr, and thus why it's so modular, is to try to have it be a rich environment that folks feel comfortable putting energy into rather than fragmented apps and desktop downloads so we can all advance forward the industry together and our open source tools. So, I'm always curious to find out what isn't appealing to folks to try to solve that.
John Lauer To be fair, the math is not that hard, Chilipeppr already parses all X Y and Z positions of every line, so adding the splitting mechanism won't be too much touble. I would love to contribute to Chilipeppr and in fact, I already took a brief look at the source, but I just don't know enough Javascript to really do anything. If you'd like I can at least send you my source code, but It's not especially tidy or commented in any way. I do have to admit that a browser environment does offer benefits, and I'll probably going to use it more in the future. (using your smartphone as a pendant did already happen in the UGS nightly and I often use it.)
martin2250 Well, for the math being hard part, I mean doing the ray intersections on a plane where you take the Gcode XY position and project it onto the warpage plane from the probe locations. Did you use an alternate approach? On the long lines, yes, that's simply breaking the line up and projecting each point as if it had been there originally. I would love it if you got more involved in CP. I think we all could benefit from your brain. I didn't do a ton of Javascript either until lately and now I'm in love with it. I posted a lot of videos on extending/modifying ChiliPeppr in my channel to help folks get started.
John Lauer Yes, that's exactly how I'm doing it right now: If the length of a linear move is greater than the probe grid size, it will be divided into sections smaller or equal to the grid size. Also I cheated a little by ignoring arcs, as pcb-gcode does not use them anyways. I'm working on a similar program though that does some nifty calculations for finding arc centers, so I think I'm prepared for implementing those as well. I might give CP another go, although honestly I'm not looking forward to working with js.
hello and I have been working with your program, but really when you start milling instead of going into a low seems my drill is raised and not cut or record anything any suggestions, that using Arduino and grbl shield with pololu, sensing it perfect the problem is when you do the engraving get started as it rises and uncut only makes movements, I congratulate you is a great program but perhaps they do not know how to use could help
Hi Emms , sorry, I don't fully understand your problem. If you run your generated GCode without using my program to level it out, does it work as intended? Did you set the correct Z-zero? It has to be the same in UGS as in my utility. The best option is to re-zero it again after switching to UGS. Also, there is a new version of this program available which fixes some errors with the latest release of GRBL. Please let me know of any problems.
I am having an awful runoff. I am using a dremel like tool that I bought for little money, but when I put in the milling bit, it wobbles like there is no tomorrow.What spindle are you using?
I've heard of people shimming their bearings, glad it worked for you :) It didn't do my cheap dremel any good, so I had to switch to heavier machinery.
Hallo Martin , good job mate .. but i have a question if you can help me ..i'm trying to use your hight prob with my cnc shild v3 ..i dontr know where should i connect the wiers in the shild ... what i'm using now SCL with the GND ..but from the 1st touch it gives me completed .. dont know wich output in the cnc shield is the A5 .. thanx for help..
Hi Omar, I don't know which pin to use on that specific board. you can try to use a multimeter to check for continuity between A5 and any accessible pins.
The video was shot very sloppy. Regardless of that you were able to convey all the important informations, present all the required software and show the whole process in detail. +1 for you! I wish all the tutorials on youtube could be at least as good as yours! Thanks and see you again!
+InnerBushman Totally agree on that, but I didn't have a tripod available (no excuse for the bad editing/20 min video). Glad you like it anyways and thanks for the feedback! :)
+martin2250 Naah, the length of the video wasn't that much of a bother. Before watching your video I watched some dude's 9:22 minutes long video titled "PCB to Gcode Tutorial" where he spent 8:40 of that time to draw the damn board in eagle! Then he quickly run the Eagle's ULP, clicked some options and quickly executed the thing. No commentary, no nothing! I thought I'm gonna flip out! Anyway, there is one thing you could do to improve this video. It is to add in the video description the URLs for downloads of the tools you used. Right now I'm trying to set up a similar tool chain for LinuxCNC so i can do the same thing on my CNC machine. I was hoping some of the tools will turn out to be useful but i think I might not overcome the incompatibility. My machine is not controlled via serial port. It has it's own Linux OS and accompanying software AXIS (former EMC) and the stepper drivers are bit-banged via printer port. Still, a very good tutorial (aside from camera work lol) :-]
I'm trying to use your program and everything seems to work the same except after hiting save the cnc does nothing. I use fritzing for pcb designe ,flatcam to create g-code , and drag and drop into your program.it creates a box that matches my pcb so I figured I have done everything right so far. when I open the com port I hear the program take control of the cnc ,but after the next few steps ,unlocking etc, and finaly hiting" save" the cnc does not move. any advise? thanks
Hello, Martin. I also thank you for program and video. I downloaded GrblHeightProbe2.exe, it works under Win7, but does not start under WinXP, complain 'not valid win32 app'. What can be done? want to use old XP pc for cnc control. Thank you.
This is Awesome!!! I recently purchased a "T8 CNC". I am guessing I need to change or update the firmware on my Arduino. Could you do a video on that too?
Thanks! Uploading a hex file to an Arduino is way out of the scope of this video. Try searching for instructions on how to use Xloader or compile grbl with the Arduino IDE
martin2250 So, while not related, but related through the cover image... I see a circuit board connected to a coil. I am awaiting some stuff from Mouser to make a wireless electric transfer project. Is this something similar?
Mike Solomon This is a small NFC capable board, it uses an AtTiny84 clocked at 13.56MHz. It needs external power and only receives minimal current from the phone, so no power transfer. If you want more info, I'd suggest checking out the author Nonan
Hi Martin. First of all, thank you for your excellent job ! your tutorial helped me a lot ! I tried to do what you described in the video but unfortunately i have a problem. When i use PCB-gcode in Eagle, i only get two files, one for for the drilling and the other one with for the etching and i never get other files for the border. When i use the HeightProbe2 program, i drag and drop these two files and then the x and y dimensions become some strange values (-317826,127000) while my pcb is about 30mmx30mm. Of course when i try to operate the program like this it gives me an error. When i manually change the dimensions so i have a reasonable numbers of points to probe, i open the COM port normally and release the safety and press start but the program hangs and i have no response from the machine. Can you help me with that? Thank you in advance,
Hi, I'm glad you like my tutorial and I'm happy to provide help! To get the outline (board.mill.tap) you need to 1: draw the outline on layer 46 (Milling) with a line that has the same width as your bit. 2: check the "generate milling" checkbox in the setup. It will generate both top and bottom files. As for the strange values in Height Probe: did you use mm as units in the setup (in 2nd tab)? if that doesn't help, you can send me the files (upload to Gdrive/dropbox and send me the link)
martin2250 Thank you very much for your reply. I checked the box you mentioned, as well as another box for text (as i have a small text on my pcb bottom layer) and i got a total of 6 files (with extra 2 files for text for top and bottom and two other files for border for top and bottom layers). As for the Height probe, yes i used mm in the setup of the PCB-gcode and all dimensions are in mm. I uploaded the resulting files (for the bottom layer) as well as the schematic and the board files on google drive drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B86aQlNAG71RX1V0dG5zZEw2M2s&usp=sharing Sorry for the inconvenience, but this is my first PCB milling job on a CNC machine.
1: if you want text on the copper side, you have to use vector font instead of proportional. Also if you move it to the milling layer 46 and check "generate text" you will end up with a single enggraved line instead of having to mill the outlines. the generated file can just be appended to the board.etch.tap 2: The files in the drive folder do work, but in the "G-Code Options" tab you have to check "use simple drill code", because none of my programs support the canned drill cycle command ( G82 ) 3: I don't know what the decimal seperator in your country is, here in Germany, a comma is used and a dot just marks every third digit. My program was written in a way that it adapts the english style (which is jsut the other way around), so -31.573 is just about -31 1/2 mm, this seems reasonable. If it does get interpreted wrongly, that could be due to the regional settings of your computer. 4: After you hit Start, it will ask you where the height map should be stored, the machine will don nothing before you hit Save in the new dialog that pops up. I hope your problem resolves itself, if not, don't hesitate to contact me again! Martin
martin2250 Thank you for your help. I Checked "use simple drill code" and i regenerated the files. I went to the computer regional settings and changed the format to German. Now when i drag and drop the three files for the bottom layer, i get some reasonable dimensions. The problem now is that when i open the com port and uncheck the safety button, i press start and chose a location to save the resulting file but the program seems to stop and the CNC doesn't show any response whatsoever. I uploaded a print screen for the windows and uploaded it in case this helps. drive.google.com/file/d/0B86aQlNAG71RSzFlRWZ3RU52aUE/view?usp=sharing Thank you in advance.
The console shows what the PC sends to grbl. since it stops at the probe command, there are some things that could cause this: 1: grbl does not recognize the command. are you using the latest 0.9g build of grbl? 2: are the probe pin and ground connected to the bit / pcb? although the machine should move and crash into the pcb if they weren't. If you don't mind me asking, which regional setting did you use before? I'll have a quick look where my program fails. Also, the program should work as you set it up, but I'd suggest changing the dimensions to something more human-friendly. I usually round it up to the next full mm. Though nothing to really worry about.
+Danilo pedroso martins grbl is a free piece of software which runs on an atmega 328. You can get it from their github repository. Anyways, I beleive you meant GCode which is the program that grbl interprets into motions. I used the PCB-GCode addon for Cadsoft EAGLE for that.
martin2250 I'm having a problem that I try to solve three days ago. I do everything like in the video, but when it comes to saving everything hangs. I updated my shapeoko 3 to grbl 1.1 so I could use Carbide Motion V4, could that be it? would you have any tips to help me?
Can you try downloading and installing grbl 1.1f from gnea/grbl on github? (I don't know if carbide motion adds its own changes or which exact version of grbl 1.1 it uses). If that doesn't work please open universal gcode sender and post the responses to "?" (status report, only shown when verbose is turned on) and to a manual probe command "G38.2 Z -10 F 30" (be sure to connect your probe cables)
no wonder, GRBL Heigh Probe has been discontinued as clearly stated in the video description. its replacement OpenCNCPilot should work just fine with your setup
why the need to probe the full surface,when the cut depth should negate any surfacr irregularities ,which for a copper clad board would be irrelevant,one probe for tool zero deck height should be enough,probing like that is used more for curved surfaces to be milled ,to keep the mill cut uniform throughout the cut . Im not be-moaning your set up,it's just a long process for which really only needs one probe,then set the withdraw height to clear the copper for the tool to move to the next cut if need be. I've seen a mouse carved,the probe was spring loaded on a micro switch element set to a couple of thou' contact distance to keep probing accurate. It's your time,but that probe method is way too long dude. good vid and nice work.
Yeah, it's pretty time consuming, but you can always specify a larger grid size. I think it is neccessary to probe at least the four corners if you don't make sure your work area is totally flat (add to that your method of fixturing and warpage in the PCB blank). At least when using V-bits i've had boards where 0.1mm of cutting depth meant the difference between a good cut and having some copper left over. and when you're working with SMD parts with small pin pitches you want to go as shallow as possible. Even with a flat work surface and new PCBs from a good manufacturer I've seen variation of 0.2mm across the board, which could ruin any project.
hi martin,i was'nt criticising your intentions,just the tedious amount of probing,im using vista and my norton anti virus rejects the xloader,and universal g-code sender is for win7 and up,so i have'nt even tried the mock up cd rom 3 axis yet,im a technician,i need to update my pc,and what you have is a very good piece of kit for pcb manufacture,i'm sick of the ferric chloride,i turned on to toner transfer,as good as it is,milling is just so accurate,plus drilling holes too. Have you made any multiple pcbs of the same type on one sheet,this is what im after too,so i can walk away and get on with it. A good method of clamping is to use long edge clamps with a shoulder and recess ,where the recess is on the bottom edge of the long clamp(mdf strip) ,the shoulder holds down along a full edge,4 of these may help stop warping ,and will hold it rock solid,seen this method used to hold large pieces of timber on a cnc router bed,mdf dust is toxic,a plastic chopping board cut to decent strips.the edge clamp is super low profile.Just a bit of info passed on that i saw. All the best.
Hi John, thanks for the tip. I've since switched to hot-gluing the board at the edges and it mostly does the job. I've not produced any panelized designs, the largest board so far was around 100x80mm with wide traces and gaps, but I'm fairly sure it is possible. If you want to try my software, you'll need .NET 4.6, I hope MS released it for Vista. Greetings
john amptech well son if you're milling pcb for Very fine pitch components such as tqfn or even finer if the machine cuts deeper than the required parameter the v bit will actually make the pad smaller. This is important for fine pitch work
I made my own print circuit boards by hand and etched them with Boric acid in the late 70's and found that using drilles found in Welding torch cleaning tools work quite well. They come in very small sizes and can drill very fine for HSS drilling.
Hi John, thanks for the tip, but nowadays cheap carbide drills from china are ~$0.30 when bought in sets, so there really is no reason to use HSS anymore unless you're in a hurry and need a drill rightaway
Super useful helping me to understand how to interact with my engraver that I hope to use for pcb milling. Thanks for sharing!
you're welcome :)
Hi! I'm trying to use you software, but when i drag and drop the ".plt" file into it, not happens! Where is my fault? Thanks!
Wow...... that auto-level technique is really clever. Nice. Thanks for showing this video. Great.
Hi Martin , could you please share picture with bird, that you have on desktop ?
I really enjoyed that, nice work!
***** Thanks!
Great tutorial, thank you. I find I have to cut 1mm depth with a 10 degree bit to stop getting air cuts! This is gonna change my life :)
+AS Motion Lab
Thanks! I really hope the 1mm depth was only before using HeightProbe, this depth would cut through the entire fiberglass on my PCBs :)
+martin2250 Yeah, my cnc machine is very diy, and it gets a lot of abuse, so it's difficult to dial out the surface error, it tends to shift by itself over time! This will be a lifesaver
How do you home your X,Y axis after changing bits? Seems like I always end up moving the spindle while changing them, so is never 'exactly' the same as before.
friend,
Which layer you used the eagle to understand that the program that was the limit of the PCB?
If you mean milling the outline, it's layer 46 ("Milling"). I just drew the path of the endmill by hand using a stroke width of 2mm to account for the cutter radius. The toolpath was "not autogenerated" in that sense.
Very nice step by step tutorial and very nice program for height adjustment. Wirklich gut.
Gruß
Michael
Danke! Hast du es schon ausprobiert?
Grüße
Martin
martin2250 Ne so schnell bin ich nicht ... Baue gerade an einem Voyager Modell mit homemade Licht und Sound Steuerung auf Arduino Basis gesteuert über Bluetooth mit eigener Android App. Wenn ich weiter bin mache ich vielleicht mal einen eigenen YT channel. Aber die Zeit ....
+martin2250 hola
great video -- what knife are you using?
It is good practice to drill first so as to not spin off the donut/pad.
+giantkilleroverunity
It is, but I do it this way because I use the engraver to probe the board and don't want to re-zero again. Also I never had a single pad fly off on me, even ones that were laid out for smaller drill sizes accidentally.
very nice i would like to do my own pcb's one day
because this protoboard is not for me to many jumper wires
Nice work! Im wondering what pins you use for probing the pcb surface, can you let me know? Thank you
+Victor Yanez
Thanks! the pins are A5 and ground
Hi Martin, I see you're using ChiliPeppr just to preview, but have you tried using the Auto-Leveller built into ChiliPeppr? It does pretty much what you showed in your custom software, but you get a nice 3D previewer as it's running and it generates the final Gcode with one click.
Hi John,
Yes, I did use Chilipeppr and I do quite like it in general, but there are some things that led me to write my own software:
-at the time that I wrote the software, the GRBL version of ChiliPeppr missed every other probe cycle because of the command (G38.2) was sent when the probe pin still touched the surface, effectively making the probe feature impossible to use. By now that got fixed, at least in Jarret's fork. Since I didn't know of any other software that does it (and still don't), I had to make my own, at least for the time.
-This might not actually be true but I think Chilipeppr does not split up moves that are longer than the grid size, this might be a problem with warped boards.
-I never tried it, but does ChiliPeppr allow to adjust multiple GCode files without having to reprobe the board? Also sometimes I need to make adjustments to the drilling or milling files while I'm already etching away.
-At last, just a personal preference, I don't particularly trust any browser to be stable, especially on the critical task of CNC milling. It never crashed on me, but I just have, over time, built up more confidence on my workflow.
Nevertheless, Chilipeppr is very good, I especially like the modular concept.
martin2250 You are correct that ChiliPeppr still does not split up long moves. To do that is a bit tougher because you have to convert one line of Gcode to multiple lines. It's definitely possible with a bit of extra code. Sounds like you solved that in yours. It's not trivial as you have to do a lot of math, so congrats on doing the math. It would have been awesome to have you tweak the Auto-Leveller in ChiliPeppr rather than roll a brand new one, but I understand.
ChiliPeppr does let you apply the matrix to subsequent files of Gcode without reprobing. Just drag in your new Gcode file and click "send Gcode to workspace". It uses the probe file that's loaded. You can also load previous probe files and do the same process.
I can understand the trepidation of the browser, but I'm not sure I'd trust Java any more than I trust the browser. Garbage collection in Java is pretty rough and can cause problems milling long jobs. So, nothing is perfect. Also, once you get your stuff in the browser you can do amazing things like turn an old smartphone into a jog pendant so it can talk in parallel to your CNC while your browser is talking from your laptop. Doing that from Java is just never going to happen.
The work you did on your probe app is awesome and one of the goals I'm trying to do with ChiliPeppr, and thus why it's so modular, is to try to have it be a rich environment that folks feel comfortable putting energy into rather than fragmented apps and desktop downloads so we can all advance forward the industry together and our open source tools. So, I'm always curious to find out what isn't appealing to folks to try to solve that.
John Lauer To be fair, the math is not that hard, Chilipeppr already parses all X Y and Z positions of every line, so adding the splitting mechanism won't be too much touble. I would love to contribute to Chilipeppr and in fact, I already took a brief look at the source, but I just don't know enough Javascript to really do anything. If you'd like I can at least send you my source code, but It's not especially tidy or commented in any way.
I do have to admit that a browser environment does offer benefits, and I'll probably going to use it more in the future. (using your smartphone as a pendant did already happen in the UGS nightly and I often use it.)
martin2250 Well, for the math being hard part, I mean doing the ray intersections on a plane where you take the Gcode XY position and project it onto the warpage plane from the probe locations. Did you use an alternate approach? On the long lines, yes, that's simply breaking the line up and projecting each point as if it had been there originally. I would love it if you got more involved in CP. I think we all could benefit from your brain. I didn't do a ton of Javascript either until lately and now I'm in love with it. I posted a lot of videos on extending/modifying ChiliPeppr in my channel to help folks get started.
John Lauer Yes, that's exactly how I'm doing it right now: If the length of a linear move is greater than the probe grid size, it will be divided into sections smaller or equal to the grid size. Also I cheated a little by ignoring arcs, as pcb-gcode does not use them anyways. I'm working on a similar program though that does some nifty calculations for finding arc centers, so I think I'm prepared for implementing those as well.
I might give CP another go, although honestly I'm not looking forward to working with js.
hello and I have been working with your program, but really when you start milling instead of going into a low seems my drill is raised and not cut or record anything any suggestions, that using Arduino and grbl shield with pololu, sensing it perfect the problem is when you do the engraving get started as it rises and uncut only makes movements, I congratulate you is a great program but perhaps they do not know how to use could help
Hi Emms ,
sorry, I don't fully understand your problem. If you run your generated GCode without using my program to level it out, does it work as intended? Did you set the correct Z-zero? It has to be the same in UGS as in my utility. The best option is to re-zero it again after switching to UGS.
Also, there is a new version of this program available which fixes some errors with the latest release of GRBL.
Please let me know of any problems.
I am having an awful runoff. I am using a dremel like tool that I bought for little money, but when I put in the milling bit, it wobbles like there is no tomorrow.What spindle are you using?
+Rolando Martin
I'm using a Kress 800
I've heard of people shimming their bearings, glad it worked for you :) It didn't do my cheap dremel any good, so I had to switch to heavier machinery.
Hallo Martin ,
good job mate .. but i have a question if you can help me ..i'm trying to use your hight prob with my cnc shild v3 ..i dontr know where should i connect the wiers in the shild ... what i'm using now SCL with the GND ..but from the 1st touch it gives me completed .. dont know wich output in the cnc shield is the A5 ..
thanx for help..
Hi Omar, I don't know which pin to use on that specific board. you can try to use a multimeter to check for continuity between A5 and any accessible pins.
yeah ist the SCL but after the 1st Point it stops and giving me completed..
Try the new version 'OpenCNCPilot' I am not supporting this old one anymore
Like a charm Martin ..
thanx so much .. really a very very good job +1
The video was shot very sloppy. Regardless of that you were able to convey all the important informations, present all the required software and show the whole process in detail. +1 for you! I wish all the tutorials on youtube could be at least as good as yours!
Thanks and see you again!
+InnerBushman
Totally agree on that, but I didn't have a tripod available (no excuse for the bad editing/20 min video).
Glad you like it anyways and thanks for the feedback! :)
+martin2250 Naah, the length of the video wasn't that much of a bother. Before watching your video I watched some dude's 9:22 minutes long video titled "PCB to Gcode Tutorial" where he spent 8:40 of that time to draw the damn board in eagle! Then he quickly run the Eagle's ULP, clicked some options and quickly executed the thing. No commentary, no nothing! I thought I'm gonna flip out!
Anyway, there is one thing you could do to improve this video. It is to add in the video description the URLs for downloads of the tools you used.
Right now I'm trying to set up a similar tool chain for LinuxCNC so i can do the same thing on my CNC machine. I was hoping some of the tools will turn out to be useful but i think I might not overcome the incompatibility. My machine is not controlled via serial port. It has it's own Linux OS and accompanying software AXIS (former EMC) and the stepper drivers are bit-banged via printer port.
Still, a very good tutorial (aside from camera work lol) :-]
I'm trying to use your program and everything seems to work the same except after hiting save the cnc does nothing. I use fritzing for pcb designe ,flatcam to create g-code , and drag and drop into your program.it creates a box that matches my pcb so I figured I have done everything right so far. when I open the com port I hear the program take control of the cnc ,but after the next few steps ,unlocking etc, and finaly hiting" save" the cnc does not move. any advise? thanks
Did you actually use the old software? If so try OpenCNCPilot as this software is no longer supported
Hello, Martin. I also thank you for program and video. I downloaded GrblHeightProbe2.exe, it works under Win7, but does not start under WinXP, complain 'not valid win32 app'. What can be done? want to use old XP pc for cnc control. Thank you.
Sorry for answering so late, you need .NET Framework 4 for running the program. normally it should show a message that as some more info on that.
Did you show how to make the connection for those two wires? And arduino? Isnt that the key point?
Hook it up to the Probe input of your board. See the grbl wiki for details.
Where can I download the program u used to design the PBC board? ...and what's the name of it?
+Buen Tipo
It's Cadsoft EAGLE, you can download it from element14.com.
if you need eagle, I can send you one
yes please. I appreciate it.
Very concise, to the point.
Thank you...
Not a compliment I expected on a 20 minute video, thanks! Be sure to check out OpenCNCPilot, the successor to my old software.
Hello, nice work, how do you choice the option to cut the pcb in 2+ times? i cant find where it is,, ty good day.
Thanks! I edit the code by hand
oh i thought that. can give me some tips to do that? or give me the lines that i should modify, ty
just duplicate the entire milling code and edit the second plunge command to go down deeper
This is Awesome!!! I recently purchased a "T8 CNC". I am guessing I need to change or update the firmware on my Arduino. Could you do a video on that too?
Thanks!
Uploading a hex file to an Arduino is way out of the scope of this video. Try searching for instructions on how to use Xloader or compile grbl with the Arduino IDE
Hey Martin how do i setup G38.2 in Universal Gcode sender as it keeps on saying Unsupported statment
Cheers Benjamin
I see you've found OpenCNCPilot already, but just for the record you need to use grbl 0.8 or higher for this command to work.
hi martin, some scheme to connect the arduino, as used?
+Pablo Barrera
Hi Pablo,
I just followed this diagram from the wiki: github.com/grbl/grbl/wiki/Connecting-Grbl
Hi Martin, Thanks for sharing the video.. Nice tutorial ... learn a lot ... thanks
S.Sanjeewa Gnanarathne
Glad you like it, be sure to check out the latest version if you plan to try it out!
Is the source code for the software available?
I found it. Thanks!
Thanks. This is really excellent info!!!
Thanks! You're welcome
martin2250 So, while not related, but related through the cover image... I see a circuit board connected to a coil. I am awaiting some stuff from Mouser to make a wireless electric transfer project. Is this something similar?
Mike Solomon This is a small NFC capable board, it uses an AtTiny84 clocked at 13.56MHz. It needs external power and only receives minimal current from the phone, so no power transfer. If you want more info, I'd suggest checking out the author Nonan
Hi Martin. First of all, thank you for your excellent job ! your tutorial helped me a lot ! I tried to do what you described in the video but unfortunately i have a problem. When i use PCB-gcode in Eagle, i only get two files, one for for the drilling and the other one with for the etching and i never get other files for the border. When i use the HeightProbe2 program, i drag and drop these two files and then the x and y dimensions become some strange values (-317826,127000) while my pcb is about 30mmx30mm. Of course when i try to operate the program like this it gives me an error. When i manually change the dimensions so i have a reasonable numbers of points to probe, i open the COM port normally and release the safety and press start but the program hangs and i have no response from the machine. Can you help me with that?
Thank you in advance,
Hi, I'm glad you like my tutorial and I'm happy to provide help! To get the outline (board.mill.tap) you need to 1: draw the outline on layer 46 (Milling) with a line that has the same width as your bit. 2: check the "generate milling" checkbox in the setup. It will generate both top and bottom files. As for the strange values in Height Probe: did you use mm as units in the setup (in 2nd tab)? if that doesn't help, you can send me the files (upload to Gdrive/dropbox and send me the link)
martin2250 Thank you very much for your reply. I checked the box you mentioned, as well as another box for text (as i have a small text on my pcb bottom layer) and i got a total of 6 files (with extra 2 files for text for top and bottom and two other files for border for top and bottom layers).
As for the Height probe, yes i used mm in the setup of the PCB-gcode and all dimensions are in mm. I uploaded the resulting files (for the bottom layer) as well as the schematic and the board files on google drive
drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B86aQlNAG71RX1V0dG5zZEw2M2s&usp=sharing
Sorry for the inconvenience, but this is my first PCB milling job on a CNC machine.
1: if you want text on the copper side, you have to use vector font instead of proportional. Also if you move it to the milling layer 46 and check "generate text" you will end up with a single enggraved line instead of having to mill the outlines. the generated file can just be appended to the board.etch.tap
2: The files in the drive folder do work, but in the "G-Code Options" tab you have to check "use simple drill code", because none of my programs support the canned drill cycle command ( G82 )
3: I don't know what the decimal seperator in your country is, here in Germany, a comma is used and a dot just marks every third digit. My program was written in a way that it adapts the english style (which is jsut the other way around), so -31.573 is just about -31 1/2 mm, this seems reasonable. If it does get interpreted wrongly, that could be due to the regional settings of your computer.
4: After you hit Start, it will ask you where the height map should be stored, the machine will don nothing before you hit Save in the new dialog that pops up.
I hope your problem resolves itself, if not, don't hesitate to contact me again!
Martin
martin2250 Thank you for your help. I Checked "use simple drill code" and i regenerated the files. I went to the computer regional settings and changed the format to German. Now when i drag and drop the three files for the bottom layer, i get some reasonable dimensions. The problem now is that when i open the com port and uncheck the safety button, i press start and chose a location to save the resulting file but the program seems to stop and the CNC doesn't show any response whatsoever. I uploaded a print screen for the windows and uploaded it in case this helps.
drive.google.com/file/d/0B86aQlNAG71RSzFlRWZ3RU52aUE/view?usp=sharing
Thank you in advance.
The console shows what the PC sends to grbl. since it stops at the probe command, there are some things that could cause this:
1: grbl does not recognize the command. are you using the latest 0.9g build of grbl?
2: are the probe pin and ground connected to the bit / pcb? although the machine should move and crash into the pcb if they weren't.
If you don't mind me asking, which regional setting did you use before? I'll have a quick look where my program fails.
Also, the program should work as you set it up, but I'd suggest changing the dimensions to something more human-friendly. I usually round it up to the next full mm. Though nothing to really worry about.
how did you generate the grbl?
+Danilo pedroso martins
grbl is a free piece of software which runs on an atmega 328. You can get it from their github repository.
Anyways, I beleive you meant GCode which is the program that grbl interprets into motions. I used the PCB-GCode addon for Cadsoft EAGLE for that.
tks, I'll check it out, I'm making my first mill
This process is ok for Shapeoko 3?
Yes. The Shapeoko 3 also uses GRBL, so it will work just fine
martin2250 I'm having a problem that I try to solve three days ago. I do everything like in the video, but when it comes to saving everything hangs. I updated my shapeoko 3 to grbl 1.1 so I could use Carbide Motion V4, could that be it? would you have any tips to help me?
Can you try downloading and installing grbl 1.1f from gnea/grbl on github? (I don't know if carbide motion adds its own changes or which exact version of grbl 1.1 it uses).
If that doesn't work please open universal gcode sender and post the responses to "?" (status report, only shown when verbose is turned on) and to a manual probe command "G38.2 Z -10 F 30" (be sure to connect your probe cables)
martin2250 I'm using GRBL 1.1f, it appears in carbide motion and GRBL Heigh Probe V2. I gave the command you suggested and the answer is error: 9
no wonder, GRBL Heigh Probe has been discontinued as clearly stated in the video description. its replacement OpenCNCPilot should work just fine with your setup
Grbl Control github.com/Denvi/grblControl/ provides all the features, including Auto level
When this video was released, there were no other options which is the entire reason I made it in the first place.
Thankyou SOOOOOOOO Much...
купи штатив для камеры
yeah, probably should
why the need to probe the full surface,when the cut depth should negate any surfacr irregularities ,which for a copper clad board would be irrelevant,one probe for tool zero deck height should be enough,probing like that is used more for curved surfaces to be milled ,to keep the mill cut uniform throughout the cut .
Im not be-moaning your set up,it's just a long process for which really only needs one probe,then set the withdraw height to clear the copper for the tool to move to the next cut if need be.
I've seen a mouse carved,the probe was spring loaded on a micro switch element set to a couple of thou' contact distance to keep probing accurate.
It's your time,but that probe method is way too long dude.
good vid and nice work.
Yeah, it's pretty time consuming, but you can always specify a larger grid size. I think it is neccessary to probe at least the four corners if you don't make sure your work area is totally flat (add to that your method of fixturing and warpage in the PCB blank).
At least when using V-bits i've had boards where 0.1mm of cutting depth meant the difference between a good cut and having some copper left over. and when you're working with SMD parts with small pin pitches you want to go as shallow as possible.
Even with a flat work surface and new PCBs from a good manufacturer I've seen variation of 0.2mm across the board, which could ruin any project.
hi martin,i was'nt criticising your intentions,just the tedious amount of probing,im using vista and my norton anti virus rejects the xloader,and universal g-code sender is for win7 and up,so i have'nt even tried the mock up cd rom 3 axis yet,im a technician,i need to update my pc,and what you have is a very good piece of kit for pcb manufacture,i'm sick of the ferric chloride,i turned on to toner transfer,as good as it is,milling is just so accurate,plus drilling holes too.
Have you made any multiple pcbs of the same type on one sheet,this is what im after too,so i can walk away and get on with it.
A good method of clamping is to use long edge clamps with a shoulder and recess ,where the recess is on the bottom edge of the long clamp(mdf strip) ,the shoulder holds down along a full edge,4 of these may help stop warping ,and will hold it rock solid,seen this method used to hold large pieces of timber on a cnc router bed,mdf dust is toxic,a plastic chopping board cut to decent strips.the edge clamp is super low profile.Just a bit of info passed on that i saw.
All the best.
Hi John, thanks for the tip. I've since switched to hot-gluing the board at the edges and it mostly does the job. I've not produced any panelized designs, the largest board so far was around 100x80mm with wide traces and gaps, but I'm fairly sure it is possible.
If you want to try my software, you'll need .NET 4.6, I hope MS released it for Vista.
Greetings
cheers
john amptech well son if you're milling pcb for Very fine pitch components such as tqfn or even finer if the machine cuts deeper than the required parameter the v bit will actually make the pad smaller. This is important for fine pitch work
Good instructions
awesome
thanks!