Smoothieware support

[arthurwolf]

Hi.

Smoothieware is a GRBL port originally, and uses essentially the same protocol to communicate ( with some things missing )

It'd be very nice to make bCNC compatible, that'd make plenty of Smoothie users happy.

We can probably even send a board for testing.

Tell us what you think.

Cheers.

[HomineLudens]

Hi @arthurwolf
Being a grbl derivate I think it can be done.

Recently there has already been a user here #123 that asked for support.
I gave a look a fast look that day but didn't find a how to stream gCode to Smoothie. Pronterface seems to use a different approach than grbl, uploading the whole file instead of send part of gcode untill the small atmega buffer is full.

I'm just curious to understand what differs from grbl.
I think @vlachoudis is the only one can decide for give support to another board.

[arthurwolf]

Hey.

Smoothie uses the same kind of "wait for ok before sending" buffer/communication.
But it doesn't have the non-gcode-standard stuff ( $, $$, Ctrl-X ) GRBL added.

Pronterface does both streaming ( and is compatible with grbl ), and uploading entire files, you choose which one you use.

Cheers.

[vlachoudis]

Hi @arthurwolf

I think that is possible to make bCNC compatible with the smoothie board at least for the basic things that are "equivalent" with grbl. I was just looking your website. I see that the board has a lot of extra features (more axis, sd card support etc..). If these additional features of smoothieware needs to be controlled by the interface then it would require more work.

Cheers
Vasilis

[arthurwolf]

@vlachoudis No you could ignore all those extra features, and just get it to communicate simply, and that'd already be a great help to Smootihe users.

[vlachoudis]

OK if I have something to experiment with, it should be doable.

[arthurwolf]

Can you contact me at wolf.arthur@gmail.com, with your shipping adress ?

I'll send you a 4XC board with a broken stepper motor driver or mosfet.
Should still be fine for testing communication, and will even be adequate
for a cnc router or laser cutter ( or 3D printer if you wire an external
driver or replace the broken one ).

Cheers !

On Sun, Oct 25, 2015 at 9:44 PM, Vasilis Vlachoudis <
notifications@github.com> wrote:

OK if I have something to experiment with, it should be doable.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#143 (comment).

Courage et bonne humeur.

[vlachoudis]

Don't worry all is need is something to communicate with.

[vlachoudis]

I was thinking that since smoothie is grbl based that the communication would be similar. But reading your documentation I understand that there a lot of differences. Many of the features of bCNC depends on the grbl communication protocol eg probing, auto leveling, function evaluation, feed overrides.. If my understanding is correct it would imply a lot of changes in the code

[arthurwolf]

Hey there.

If some functions are not implemented right away, it's no problem. As long
as basic gcode sending and jogging works, it'll already be a lot of use to
Smoothie users. I'm sure other people will come in and contribute more if
the basic stuff is added.

Cheers.

On Wed, Nov 11, 2015 at 10:18 PM, Vasilis Vlachoudis <
notifications@github.com> wrote:

I was thinking that since smoothie is grbl based that the communication
would be similar. But reading your documentation I understand that there a
lot of differences. Many of the features of bCNC depends on the grbl
communication protocol eg probing, auto leveling, function evaluation, feed
overrides.. If my understanding is correct it would imply a lot of changes
in the code

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#143 (comment).

Courage et bonne humeur.

[arthurwolf]

Hey, sorry for the delay.

I just asked our shipping department to send a board to you.
Please don't feel obligated to do anything, it's just to help you in case you want to add Smoothie support.
Please know a lot of people would love to see that added, and @wolfmanjm the main Smoothie dev likes the bcnc software, and could probably help you implement whatever is missing in Smoothie.

Cheers !

[wolfmanjm]

FYI I am adding grbl-like responses to grbl-like commands, so things like $# will work $H etc. $$ won't as it makes no sense for smoothie.
Streaming you just send stuff, and consume the ok, the USB takes care of flow control so you don't need to worry about buffer sizes and stuff so it is easier than grbl., although I could add dummy buffer sizes if it makes it easier, as there is no buffer per se it'll always be big. Also I'll add ? responses although we have something similar, it just returns a different format.

PS I love bCNC I use it on my CNC running grbl at the moment as there is no equivalent for smoothie.

[vlachoudis]

Great. If responses are similar will make easier the integration. However I am thinking that is better to create a specific sender routine for smoothie inside bCNC, and the user on setup could choose the controller type.

[vinz1080]

Hello, Is smoothiware already supported? Just downloaded and tested last version of bCNC with my smoothieboard but I wasn't able to connect to my board. I selected the right COM port and smoothie type but no communication at all.

Thank you and greetings from Meyrin :)

[wolfmanjm]

It should connect, however there is a bug in streaming gcode which is being worked on at the moment.

[vinz1080]

Hi Jim,
thank you for your reply. Just a question : is this issue smoothie or bCNC related? Just to know which component I will need to upgrade when a fix will be available. I'm of course available to test if you need.