Arduino based CNC

[jasonh]

A common el-cheapo solution for using arduino as a cnc machine controller is:

arduino (running grbl firmware)
+ grbl shield https://www.synthetos.com/project/grblshield/
to give 3 axis stepper control.

That combination works well for what you pay.

Q- Is arduino limited as a machine controller?
A- Yes. Using arduino as a 3-axis g-code interpreter pretty much pegs the chip, both in CPU power and IO. It works - but there's not much room for more features.

Q- Is the grbl shield step driver any good?
A- It's ok for smaller step motors on smaller machines. Those little driver chips will get hot.

Q- Does grbl have a limited g-code implementation?
A- Yes- comparatively speaking. if you want to take output from other cam processors you'll need to hack it to make it work. g0, g1 and g2 are the money codes on grbl.

I'm working with a homebrew setup that is a variant of the above:
https://github.com/deadsy/grbl_stm32f4

Jason H.

 

[canadianhorsepower]

CH, I have that program working. Ward's program has a few more features. I thought it might help me learn programming to convert the pic program to run on the Arduino.

Chuck

is this what you are targetting

http://www.worldofward.com/rotarycontroller/manual/main-menu/program-mode/program-examples/

 

[///]

Is it possible to port hex code to the Arduino?

Long answer, yes.
Short answer, no.

Steve makes the C source available in the same zip file that contains the hex.
You will get far more mileage porting the C source, definitely doable, but a big job due to different hardware. Probably better off starting from scratch but porting code snippets of the features you want.