CNC or Computer Numerical Control is a foundational technique of programming a milling machine to remove material in three-dimensional space. While you likely recognize these tools for their use in metalwork, they can also be used to cut wood, carbon fiber, and foam. The latter is frequently used to create molds for plastic and ceramics. I have a Sainsmart 3018 CNC machine. I am trying to cut out a simple profile for it. I have purchase additional bit off amazon. The issue I am having is the setup.

• Tested on Ubuntu 18.04.
• Python 3.6

Setup host environment

Setup the host, only needs done once per host.

Setup Python Virtual Environment.

If you do not want the top level directory (CNC3018) to be the virtual environment root you can specify a different venv with ```VENV``:

Inline:

With Environmental Variables:

Activate environment.

• source bin/activate # Bash
• source bin/activate.csh # C Shells

Cleaning Environment.

udev integration [Optional]

Copy udev rules to alias the CNC device to /dev/cnc_3018, /dev/grbl_3018, and /dev/grbl.

Pictures of some outputs produced by these modules.

Testing laser intensity:

Testing feedrate:

Numpy to generate sine wave:

I purchased a Aliexpress CNC3018 cnc/engraver/mill/laser machine and started playing with it. The hardware is ok but the software provided is terrible and Windows only.

The machine itself runs on a custom Arduino board running grblan open source, embedded, high performance g-code-parser and CNC milling controller written in optimized C.

I wanted teach myself G-code and learn the low level commands and how they operated the machine.

Trying out different machine settings (Laser power, feed rate) is a very tedious and repetitive process. Being able to put it in a for loop has allowed me to figure out best settings for laser burning on different materials.

python_grbl is a Python module for interacting and interfacing with a grbl device.

python_gcode is a Python module for creating Gcode from Python.

Both are still very in their infancy. I'm spending more time using them and less time developing them, so I hope they are available for public consumption.

Pull requests are encouraged.

grbl:

Create a GRBL instance. port is the GRBL board serial devie.

Get laser_mode:

Turn off laser_mode:

Resetting Grbl:

Send something to Grbl:

$$ and $x=val - View and write Grbl settings

$G - View gcode parser state

Jog to position X=0, Y=0

Set mm mode.

Most of the Grbl settings are added as class attributes.

Get the Grbl settings w/cmd

Get laser mode ($32)

Set laser mode.

Run a GCode program or list of commands.

GCode

Programatically create G-Code programs with Python.

Program to draw a square:

Draw sine wave:

Save program to gcode file.

Load gcode file to instance:

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GRBL & GCode

Combining the above:

Create init & end programs:

Square Program:

Create a program to draw a row of boxes testing feed speeds on laser engraving.

Create a program to draw a row of boxes testing laser power:

1. Documentation.
2. Validate GCode.
3. More examples.
4. 3D Printer GCode.