So the grblshield seems more complication than I had hoped.
According to their website "The Arduino grblShield is a complete hardware solution for Dank’s CNC motion control system called grbl. Compatible with the Uno and other 328p versions of the Arduino development platform."
Which is exactly what I want.
I"m looking at their wiki but it seems to be for the v3 model...Apparently the first step is to get the grbl code onto the Arduino...a complication I did not expect.
According to the wiki:
According to their website "The Arduino grblShield is a complete hardware solution for Dank’s CNC motion control system called grbl. Compatible with the Uno and other 328p versions of the Arduino development platform."
Which is exactly what I want.
I"m looking at their wiki but it seems to be for the v3 model...Apparently the first step is to get the grbl code onto the Arduino...a complication I did not expect.
According to the wiki:
There has been some confusion as to exactly how to to get grbl onto the Arduino hardware. There are a number of methods described in various places. We've tried many of them. Some work, some don't.
As of Dec 2011 the following are the methods we recommend for obtaining/programming a grbl onto the Arduino hardware.
There are three methods that Synthetos recommends and supports for getting grbl loaded onto your Arduino. While there are other ways to accomplish this task. These are the ONLY methods that we have found that work reliably enough to actually support. Any questions about other methods will be referred back to this list.
- Purchase a Pre-Loaded Arduino Uno with the lastest version of grbl loaded.
- Purchase a Pre-Loaded ATmega328p chip with the lastest verison of the grbl firmware.
- Use AVR Studio 4 with an external AVR Programmer to flash grbl onto your Arduino.
So, since I already have an Arduino Uno, I won't be able to use option 1.
Option 2 - purchasing a pre-loaded ATmega328p chip - I didn't immediately understand, but apparently that is actual chip built into the Arduino UNO
Option 2 - purchasing a pre-loaded ATmega328p chip - I didn't immediately understand, but apparently that is actual chip built into the Arduino UNO
Option 3 - loading the grlb code myself - seems complicated. According to the wiki "If you click any wrong settings in AVR Studio (fuse sections) you can brick your Arduino."
Also their wiki
This is the most "involved" way to load grbl onto your Arduino, but also the most flexible. This method requires that you have access to a Windows based machine (or a Windows VM), download AVR Studio 4 and have access to an AVRISPMKII programmer. If any of the above mentioned requirements seem unknown to you you might want to use method 1 or 2 instead.
So, I've decided to go with option 2 - buy a pre-loaded chip. So I guess we'll have to wait a little longer before I can really get started :/