Description:

This application can be used on a standard Raspberry Pi with the CNC Serial hat to drip feed or transfer GCode files to a CNC machine.  This can eliminate the need for dragging a laptop or cart around the shop for loading machines.

For added convenience, the buttons on the left side can be used to execute specific NC files that can change a tool, start the spindle, move the table forward, etc.  

Transferring a file to the CNC Machine can also be done in single step mode to allow careful execution when trying a new file.  

Detailed logging and status information can help troubleshoot any situation.

Setting up a Raspberry Pi for serial communication is not super easy, but this blog post can guide you through all of the details needed to install the software and get the Pi connected to the network for wireless file transfers:

https://byte2bot.com/blogs/instructions/setting-up-a-raspberry-pi

Instructions:

• Download the tar file and copy to your Pi home folder.
• If you already have a CNCFeeder folder, please rename it to something else as the tar ball will expand into that folder.
• Type the following in the command prompt:  tar -xvf ./CNCFeeder_v0.3.0
• If you are using a Pi5, execute the application by typing ./CNCFeeder
• If you are using a Pi4, execute the application by typing ./CNCFeederPi4

Troubleshooting

This software was compiled on the Raspbian OS version 12 (bookworm).  To see what version of OS you are running, type:  lsb_release -a

If you get an error indicating that it cannot find the correct file, please try the following:

• sudo apt-get install upgrade
• sudo apt-get install update

If you get a permission denied error, please check the permission on the executable file to make sure it is actually executable:

ls -l

If you don't see 3 "x" in the left most column of data, type the following:

chmod +x CNCFeeder

Please contact us if you have any trouble getting the software to run.  If it starts up but encounters a problem, please send us the log files that it generates so we can help diagnose the issue.

Release Information:

v0.2.1: First major release

v0.3.0: Fixed a bug that limited the DataBits to 7.  Minor updates to serial communication library.  Added preliminary GRBL Handshaking, but this is largely untested.