Anything but Pronterface?!?!

Controllers Smoothie
1

I am using smoothie board for CNC. I dialed in and calibrated my distances, I spent the time to create a really nice CNC cut. I then tested with no bit in to make sure everything worked as expected. I adjusted the piece I wanted to cut so it was in the correct position, and ran another quick test. This time pronterface moved the head half the distance as before, closer to my zero. Ok great so maybe I missed something…… I go ahead and realign everything and run another test. It’s perfect so I insert my bit fire up my spindle and prepare to cut. This time it moves to the correct position but moves the spindle down cutting all the way through my wood and in to my mounting board. Shut everything down, zero out my equipment and check my alignment again. This time pronterface moves the head the full distance like it did when I originally set it up. So I test it a number of times with no bit in and get it all aligned again. Once I have it set I try to do a cut again figuring it has already destroyed my work piece why not? This time it moves into position but stops the bit about 1/2 inch above the work piece. I home my machine, I reset it a number of time with my bit now driven into my mounting board to ensure it is at zero. I shut down pronterface and open it again and reload my file. For good measure I reset one more time, but no matter what I do or where I set zero pronterface drops the bit 1/2 inch above my piece. I then restart pronterface again and this time it only moves my head half the distance again and drags the bit across the work piece in the process breaking it. Oh and I also removed my endstops before any of this to ensure they would not interfere.

I really just want to know if any other controller software will work with the Smoothieboard? I do not care if it’s Windows, Linux, or Mac I will run it because anything has got to be better.
I absolutely hate pronterface and it’s now costing me time and money that I don’t have.

Imported from wikidot

2

Im assuming unless I am using this board as a printer that pronterface is my only option.
Does anyone want to buy a slightly used smoothie board?
It’s the 4 motor one, it will control motors and such just fine but if you want to use it for CNC I don’t recommend it.
It has NEVER been used to cut or print, only continuously calibrated.
Make me an offer

3

Pronterface is a 3D printer controller, it will sometimes do some unexpected things when fed CNC-milling G-code. You could try using Smoothieboard’s web interface, it’s probably more appropriate.

What did you use to generate the Gcode ?

Can you show us the 20 first lines of the Gcode file ?

Did you use G92 to tell the board you were at 0,0 ?

Cheers.

4

Ok so it’s not for sale now. The web interface made all the difference in the world. Once it connected I zeroed it and did 2 tests, and both times the results were the identical, so I did a cut and it worked like a champ.

So the issue was using Pronterface via USB, now I know, thank you.

5

Is there any other software that is compatible or any chance to get smoothie board to work with Universal GCode Sender or even ChiliPepr?
I do feel the web interface is going to start to be limiting very soon without any sort of manual.
I would eventually like to start doing some 3d Touch Probe scanning and it appears the z-probe functions are very limited.
Any info or advise would be appreciated.

6

Hey there.

Both CP and UGS have on-going work being done to support Smoothie I believe. There are others working on it too.

You should be able to do everything with the web interface. If you need help with anything in particular, don’t hesitate to ask.

Cheers.