Testing out the pyCNC project, a python implementation for CNC controlling.

Hello,

I am currently trying to use the pyCNC project from Nikolay Kha, in oder to controll a DIY cnc milling machine. For the time being I was using an arduino board, CNC shield ,grbl and UGS, but I am trying to change this set up for a raspberry pi 3, and the pyCNC project. PyCNC uses DMA hardware to achieve real time control of the stepper motors, specifically it uses the RAMPSv1.4 board.

Now, I have the pyCNC GitHub repo cloned in my raspberry Pi, it runs as it's supposed to run, BUT I don't currently have the RAMPSv1.4 board in my possesion. I do though have the CNC shield board and the stepper motor hat from waveshare ( I'll link everything on the end) and I am trying to connect one of these boards to the Pi for testing purposes, in order to make sure that pyCNC sends Gcode commands to the steppers as intended. Unfortunately none of my efforts was fruitful, and I failed to move my motor using the pyCNC.

My questions are the following, has anyone succesfully tried to control a CNC machine or a 3D printer using the pyCNC project? If yes, what kind of hardware have you used? Is it possible to use CNC shield with pyCNC? Any other suggestion regarding pyCNC if you are familiar with it are welcome.

Thank you in advance, Ilias.

- pyCNC : https://github.com/Nikolay-Kha/PyCNC
- CNC shield : Arduino Compatible CNC Shield Instructions
- RAMPSv1.4 : https://reprap.org/wiki/RAMPS_1.4
- Stepper Hat : https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/Stepper_Motor_HAT

UPDATE:
I have not seen anyone yet use a Pi as the back end motion controller for a CNC. I have seen, and have used, it as the front end user interface to a 3D printer. https://www.cnczone.com/forums/gener...nt-method.html

I think part of your problem is going to be getting enough I/O. While there are boards out there that have enough interface circuits, most have a built in ASIC or CPU's that handle all the motion calculations. Some of these controllers are ARM based and could possibly use a modified Pi code-base but the amount of coding required would be enormous.

Have you seen the new Duet card? All the firmware is open source so you can tweak whatever you want. https://www.duet3d.com/Duet3Mainboard6HC This is the controller that I used on the project above. It has a Pi as the front end processor.

Hello Max thank you for replying,

I 'll consider the Duet card since all the firmware is open sourced, but I am interested in a more pythonic aproach. I invite you to check Nikolay Kha's pyCNC open-source project. He actually managed to use the raspberry Pi as a front end UI, as well as "back end" motion controller. Well not exactly, he connects the Pi on a DMA board, which copies bytes which represent GPIO states from RAM buffer directly to GPIO without using CPU's cores. The best thing about this project is that it is written in pure python and any modes are really easy, you can easily write a more elaborate GUI, or add new Gcommands etc.

- pyCNC : https://github.com/Nikolay-Kha/PyCNC

- example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41wdmmztTNA