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https://github.com/bdring/pendantsforfluidnc

Pendants for controlling FluidNC CNC firmware
https://github.com/bdring/pendantsforfluidnc

Last synced: 24 days ago
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Pendants for controlling FluidNC CNC firmware

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README 

        
# PendantsForFluidNC

Pendants for controlling FluidNC CNC firmware



This is a collection of example "pendant" programs showing how to

program a auxiliary microcontroller or other computer to interact

with a FluidNC CNC controller. FluidNC uses the [GRBL serial

line protocol](https://github.com/gnea/grbl/wiki/Grbl-v1.1-Interface)

for control and status.  Unlike classic GRBL controllers which

speak that serial protocol on only one serial port,

FluidNC can have multiple "channels" simultaneously speaking

the serial protocol.  The additional channels can include

extra serial ports, TCP/Telnet connections, and TCP/WebSocket

connections.



Another serial port (UART) is an excellent way to connect an auxiliary

microcontroller (MCU).  Every MCU has at least one UART, and most have

two or more.  A UART needs only two signal lines and in some use

cases only one.  Most MCU UARTs can operate at least as fast as

115200 baud (10K characters per second) and some can go up to

1Mbaud (100K characters per second) or more.  That is typically

fast enough for a lot of interesting use cases.



## What is a Pendant?



In addition to the main operator's console, traditional CNC machines

often included an auxiliary control box that hung from a cable near

the machine.  Those boxes were called "pendants" because they were

hanging or suspended from overhead. Typically pendants could perform a

subset of the most common operations like jogging and job

start/pause/stop.  Thus the word "pendant" has come to mean any small

auxilary control for a CNC machine.



A FluidNC Pendant that is implemented on a small MCU can be very

inexpensive, since suitable MCUs can cost in the range of $1 to a few

dollars.  The packaging and user-facing I/O devices (small displays,

pushbuttons, etc) are likely to dominate the cost.



## What Can FluidNC Pendants Do?



In principle, a FluidNC Pendant could do anything that a traditional

GCode Sender program can do, limited only by the resources of the

MCU on which it is implemented.  Typically, a given pendant will

only do a targeted subset of the possibilities, because otherwise

it would be just another sender requiring a full computer.  Some

examples of small-pendant use cases include:



* Running "playlists" for art machines

* Jog controllers

* Input expansion

* Extra displays like light towers or OLEDs, to show machine state



## How Do I Use This Code?



This code is a collection of examples to help you develop your own

custom pendants.  Many of the examples can be compiled for several

different MCUs, including various ESP32 variants, AVR Arduinos and

some ARM MCUs.  We expect that you will start with an example that

is similar to your desired gadget and modify/extend it for your needs.

We do not provide free consultation for doing that.



One of the basic components that is useful for display pendants is

the GrblParser class.  GrblParser decodes standard GRBL protocol

report messages and calls user-supplied code to display the information

therein.



## Support



This code is not supported.  It is provided as a courtesy to help

you get started.  If you have ideas for new features, please implement

them yourself or contract with someone to do so.