Chilipeppr not communicating with GRBL/X-Carve This DIY world is new to me.

CAD & CAM Tool Chain ChiliPeppr
1

Chilipeppr not communicating with GRBL/X-Carve

This DIY world is new to me. In reading this and the X-Carve forums, it’s clear you all speak a language that is totally alien to me (so forgive me for my ignorance).

We are trying to machine some simple aluminum molds created in Inventor, exported via .stp to Fusion where the toolpaths are created. We got the X-Carve to work with Inventables’ Easel, ran the program with some particle board with success, but the ball mill plunged into the aluminum at the end of the run, ruining the mold. We don’t like Easel!

With Chilipeppr/GRBL, as anyone put together a trouble-shooting list/link to help resolve communications issues?

  1. I created a Chilipeppr account logging in with my Gmail account. Regardless of what we do, we are “offline”. I read somewhere that it doesn’t matter, but how does one get “online?
  2. But here’s the real problem: we cannot get the GRBL state to read anything but “offline.”
  3. Port listed is Arduino Uno (Com4) grbl 115,200
  4. Serial port JSON Server running is “v1.88 composites”.
  5. We are using Windows 10 and have the option to use any browser. We are currently using Firefox. Is there a recommended browser?
  6. We cleared the cache, replaced the longer USB cable with one supplied by X-Carve and no change.
  7. Since attempting to use Chilipeppr, now Easel won’t connect.

I have a machinist with 20 years’ experience working on this and we have been pulling our hair out for two days to get this combo to communicate! Any help will be appreciated.

2

Well, you don’t need an account to use ChiliPeppr, so don’t worry about that. The latest SPJS is v1.92 so maybe upgrade that. If Easel can’t connect anymore it means you have SPJS running and the serial port is open to Grbl so the port is locked once it’s open. Make sure if you are switching back and forth you remember that. Are you sure you are picking the correct baud rate? It all depends on what version of Grbl and you didn’t tell us what version. Screenshots all solve/help this btw so you should post a screenshot.

3

Thanks for the quick response. We’ll check those items tomorrow and post a screenshot if needed.

4

Make sure that you choose ‘grbl’ buffer from the drop-down list inside the Chilipeppr SJPS widget, which is ‘default’ by default.

5

Actually inside the grbl workspace the buffer is defaulted to “grbl” and inside the TinyG workspace the buffer is defaulted to “tinyg”.

6

Again, I appreciate everyone’s help. I am sure there is a simple fix, but we don’t know how to get there quite yet.

  1. We upgraded to SPJS is v1.92.
  2. I am assuming we are using GBRL V 0.9j but I was unable to find a revision anywhere. Any tips?
  3. We unfortunately don’t have a clue (sorry) how to switch serial ports from SPJS to Easel or back. Could you walk us through the process?
  4. I have 3 screenshots, but I am not seeing any option to post them in this thread. I will post them in a new post with the same heading.
7

@jlauer It looks that http://chilipeppr.com/grbl defaults to ‘default’ and not ‘grbl’, just tested with @Michael_Milauskas few mins ago.

8

@sszafran Thanks so much for your help and enjoy your holiday. @jlauer We had multiple issues and all are resolved. Appreciate everyone’s input.

9

@Michael_Milauskas ​ I am very happy that I could help. Happy carving :slight_smile: