Can Pronterface be used to send g-code to the TinyG v8?

Possibly a dumb question, but can Pronterface be used to send g-code to the TinyG v8 board to control an OpenBuilds Ox CNC? I’m trying to find a way to send it g-code without needing to use Chilipeppr.
http://www.pronterface.com/

Uh oh, has ChiliPeppr failed you?

Chilipeppr requires an internet connection, and it won’t run properly on older hardware that is otherwise fully capable of sending g-code, but doesn’t fully support OpenGL. Also, while having Chilipeppr always be up to date because it is online, this forced me to update my firmware as soon as I got it running. I’d like to avoid that in the future. Having an offline, standalone app like Pronterface would fit that bill.

That being said, I’m home now and I just tried using Pronterface with TinyG and it won’t connect. Perhaps there is a (relatively) simple way to hack Pronterface to work with TinyG?

TinyG uses a different protocol. It’s still ASCII text-based over serial port, but it’s much richer and asynchronously reports back data requested. You configure it with JSON (from a programming perspective), documented here: https://github.com/synthetos/TinyG/wiki/JSON-Operation

As long as flow control is properly configured on the port you can just stream gcode to the board and monitor responses. Of course, if you care to get a special command in ahead of the gcode you don’t want to fill your OS buffers too much so you have to throttle intelligently.

If you wish to go down that road feel free to contact me with any questions.

Did you ever find a solution to using Pronterface and the TinyG board? I’ve been looking for something as well as Chilipeppr just doesn’t cut it for me. At this point, I’m sorry I ever decided to use the TinyG board in my design with such limitation on how to talk to it. Somehow I though this was going to be much more widely supported.

@Keith What are you looking to control with the TinyG board?

If it’s a CNC machine, then both CNCjs and UGS are popular and known to work well.

For 3D printing though… I’m not sure as that’s not something I’ve personally done in years, and never with a TinyG nor g2core (the successor) board. :innocent:

@JustinClift I should have said what I was using it on. It’s a small mill that I modified to be for CNC. Mainly circuit board or very small parts. I was not aware of either of the applications you suggested. The first one I ruled out for being web-based, and the main part of ChilliPeppr that I don’t want. The other sounds sort of familiar, so I’ll have to look into it. Thanks for the suggestions.

Another sender is Candle — I had bad luck with UGS on Linux, and found Candle which has worked well. I’m not running a TinyG but am running grbl.

Looking at the Candle repo, it doesn’t mention TinyG nor g2core anywhere. It probably won’t work as is, though I haven’t personally tried it. :smile:

@Keith With CNCjs, it’s only a “local” web based thing, and doesn’t need an internet connection. eg the whole thing runs from your local computer.

I’m not personally a fan of ChilliPeppr as it seems to need an internet connection to run, and (to me) that’s a complete No Go for any kind of real world use. If the internet connection drops out, that’s the end of being able to do stuff until it’s back. CNCjs doesn’t have that problem. :slight_smile:

LaserWeb also supports TinyG and doesn’t need an internet connection. :wink:

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Interesting. At some point I need to try out lasering stuff. :slight_smile:

LaserWeb can also be used for CNC milling. The integrated CAM has laser and milling operations.

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I’ve used Chilipeppr and CNC.js with my OpenBuilds Ox running with a TinyG v8 board. I find Chilippepr ok, but I much prefer CNC.js. You supposedly don’t necessarily need an internet connection to run Chilipper, but I’ve found you actually do. I also like all the macro capabilities of CNC.js.

I haven’t tried Candle, so I cannot comment on it.

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