RPi4 as a CNC controller.

[jcdammeyer]

My second cheap Break Out Board arrived this week. At $4 or so it makes for a cheap buffer along with relay. Standard PC Parallel port input. Connected to a MESA 7i92H which talks to a Raspberry Pi4 via Ethernet. The other little board is a CAN bus and RS485 (MODBus) interface HAT. The Pi4 runs LinuxCNC.

I'm putting this project onto one board to experiment with installing the Tormach CNC user interface.

 

[Dan Dubeau]

Cool, I will be following this one closely.

 

[Cryoine]

I'll be here as well since I too am looking into this, I have a PI3 and looking into setting up a EtherCAT system for my new machine(that i will be building) running linuxCNC

 

[jcdammeyer]

I'll be here as well since I too am looking into this, I have a PI3 and looking into setting up a EtherCAT system for my new machine(that i will be building) running linuxCNC

I'm not sure the Pi3 is up to the task but OTOH, I recall that there are a few guys on the LinuxCNC list using a Raspberry Pi and they might well be Pi3s. I'll ask.

 

[Cryoine]

I'm not sure the Pi3 is up to the task but OTOH, I recall that there are a few guys on the LinuxCNC list using a Raspberry Pi and they might well be Pi3s. I'll ask.

from what I can tell they should be similar in performance, its just that its more manual to setup. You will have to get the real time kernel installed then install Linux cnc on it where as with the pi4 you just get the image that already has everything setup.

my current CNC machine used for PCBs has a super cheap Chinese 3 axis grbl board which I need to toss out as soon as possible lol, but I am investing too much time into this machine where I just need to build a bigger better one from scratch.

 

[jcdammeyer]

@Cryoine Ah. That makes sense.

 

[jcdammeyer]

from what I can tell they should be similar in performance, its just that its more manual to setup. You will have to get the real time kernel installed then install Linux cnc on it where as with the pi4 you just get the image that already has everything setup.

my current CNC machine used for PCBs has a super cheap Chinese 3 axis grbl board which I need to toss out as soon as possible lol, but I am investing too much time into this machine where I just need to build a bigger better one from scratch.

One of the linux CNC group members in Italy posted this information:
----------------
At this link you can find a recent image ready to use

Installing LinuxCNC 2.8.4 on Raspbian 10 (Buster) tested on Raspberry Pi 3B+, Pi

Tested on Raspberry pi 3B+, Pi 4B, Pi400 1) Download from www.raspberrypi.com/software/operating-s...spberry-pi-os-legacy a image of stable...

forum.linuxcnc.org

Installing LinuxCNC 2.8.4 on Raspbian 10 (Buster) tested on Raspberry Pi 3B+, Pi
Tested on Raspberry pi 3B+, Pi 4B, Pi400 1) Download from www.raspberrypi.com/software/operating-s...spberry-pi-os-legacy a image of stable...
forum.linuxcnc.org

 

[jcdammeyer]

Andy Pugh, one of the LinuxCNC maintainers posted this as a reminder.

The stock LinuxCNC image might well work, but be aware that the reason
we tend to suggest Pi4 is that the Pi4 has the ethernet on the PCI
bus, not on the USB bus.

--
atp

Just something to be aware of.

 

[jcdammeyer]

Andy also mentioned this.

SPI (Such as 7C80) ought to work though.
atp

Unfortunately like the 7i92H it's also out of stock and costs $249.
In fact even Pi4 B units are currently out of stock although listed at Canakit at $109.

 

[gerritv]

I admine your determination to try Pathpilot on the RPi. Your main obstacle I think will be the dumpster fire known as GTK2. Even getting a dev environment to make some changes to the GUI is a challenge.
And then there is this, Tormach is looking at replacing GTK with Qt in 2024: https://forums.tormach.com/t/does-t...lot-to-python-3-x-and-gtk-4-or-at-least-3/602

Frankly I am amazed that the GUI looks as good as it does, given that it uses GTK2.
I bought an HP SFF for $50 and run PP on that from their USB install media.

 

[jcdammeyer]

I admine your determination to try Pathpilot on the RPi. Your main obstacle I think will be the dumpster fire known as GTK2. Even getting a dev environment to make some changes to the GUI is a challenge.
And then there is this, Tormach is looking at replacing GTK with Qt in 2024: https://forums.tormach.com/t/does-t...lot-to-python-3-x-and-gtk-4-or-at-least-3/602

Frankly I am amazed that the GUI looks as good as it does, given that it uses GTK2.
I bought an HP SFF for $50 and run PP on that from their USB install media.

What's an SFF?

 

[kevin.decelles]

Small form factor

 

[Cryoine]

One of the linux CNC group members in Italy posted this information:
----------------
At this link you can find a recent image ready to use

Installing LinuxCNC 2.8.4 on Raspbian 10 (Buster) tested on Raspberry Pi 3B+, Pi

Tested on Raspberry pi 3B+, Pi 4B, Pi400 1) Download from www.raspberrypi.com/software/operating-s...spberry-pi-os-legacy a image of stable...

forum.linuxcnc.org

Installing LinuxCNC 2.8.4 on Raspbian 10 (Buster) tested on Raspberry Pi 3B+, Pi
Tested on Raspberry pi 3B+, Pi 4B, Pi400 1) Download from www.raspberrypi.com/software/operating-s...spberry-pi-os-legacy a image of stable...
forum.linuxcnc.org

oh this seems like something that i can dive into, ill check it out but my brother floated the idea of just using a chrome book