It depends, I don’t know the Woodpecker but have an Arduino-GRBL based CNC myself which operate just fine with standard Easel gcode files / straight from Easel. IanBeales 2018-04-18 03:01:01 UTC #14. It is an Arduino based system, I now have the sizing cutting correct. Jan 20, 2018 Does anyone know if we can flash the Grbl v1.1 on the woodpecker cnc board?
I got my kit cnc together last night. The software included is for windows. I only run linux. I found the Linuxcnc but I really just am not finding the answers to the questions I have.
This will primarily be for milling circuit boards. I am no stranger to reflashing microcontrollers. Here are the questions I have.
Will Linuxcnc work with my cheap USB mill as a controller?
Will it work with the firmware it came with?
Is there better firmware I should just change to from the start?
The PCB design software I have been using for a long time and would like to continue using can export PDF, PNG, SVG, Altium, BOM, or Gerber files.
Do I need another program to convert one of these formats to what Linuxcnc wants?
Thanks
Ralph, the only reference to this 'stock board' you mention that I could find is one AliExpress seller:
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/GRBL-0-9J-USB-port-cnc-engraving-machine-control-board-3-axis-control-laser-engraving-machine/1941516_32713561151.html
This isn't really a common board, and if there is no documentation for it it will be difficult for us to assist you.
The standard grbl limit inputs are on D9 (X) D10 (Y) and D12 (Z). See https://github.com/gnea/grbl/wiki/Connecting-Grbl
There are pins on the header that seem to be labelled A0-A7 and D13 - and the diagram on the above linked page tells you what those are used for.
I can also see some with labels starting with X/Y/Z but I can't make out the labels clearly. At a guess I'd expect those to be the ones you need for the limits. Can you tell us what they say? Maybe a close up photo from front and back of PCB near that connector would help us.
If you have a multimeter, it would be possible to use that to trace out the connections from the ATmega IC to the header pins as suggested by @luben111
All that said, this board uses a CH340 USB to serial chip, and this has been known to be the cause of communication problems for many people (data loss). I would personally recommend getting a board that is more common and well documented, such as the Protoneer shield, and an Arduino Uno to plug it into. I expect those stepper drivers on the Woodpecker board follow the standard 'Pololu' pinout, so you should be able to move them across to a new shield. After all the time and cost invested a CNC, you really don't want to use an unreliable and unsupported controller, even more so as a beginner.