Hey guys,

I also recently bought a 3018 CNC. An offline controller was also included. But this one has an STM32F103RBT6. That means I shouldn't try this firmware, right?

regards maxl95

Hardware:
-Offline Controller based on SMT32F (same as shown in the developer pictures)
-CNC Controller is woodpecker v3.3 with grbl firmware v1.1

What Works:
-Serial probing cycle for baudrate seems to work
-Controller shows interface,.
-All menu entries are shown and can be selected.

What doesn't work:
-The only serial output from the offline controller is the $I sent in different baud rates to probe for the correct baud rate.

Test made:
-With a serial probe in tx rx terminals to check for comms, the behavior is as follows:
-A few $I are sent by the offline controller in different baud rates.
-The machine responses with [VER:1.1f.20170801:] [OPT:V,15,128] ok
-The offline controller understands the response and stops sending any further comunication.

The offline controller only shows the machine as X idle or sometimes Lockpad Idle, but no further comand comes out of the offline controller, not with a SD card file, not with the DRO, or any other entry on the menu.

I want to try this firmware on my offline controller that came with an STM32 clone, but st-info reports 0kb of flash size. I'm guessing the flash is locked and I would need to unlock it, but I want to make a backup of the original firmware before flashing yours.
Did your controller come with locked flash?

Steps to reproduce

• Create a folder on the SD card and add a GCode file to it
• Access the file chooser menu (via "Open")
• Open the folder
• Select the GCode file to start the job
• Wait for the job to complete (or produce an error - for testing purposes it's quicker to just not home the machine and attempt to run a job then it will error)
• The menu returns to the main screen
• Now access the file menu again and attempt to open the folder

Expected result

• Folder opens as previous

Actual result

• The folder does not open and instead the UI hangs. Buttons do nothing.

Cause

• Inside FileChooser, trail keeps track of the current path. This path isn't reset after job completion which means that when you go back into the file chooser menu and open a folder, that folder name is appended to the existing path.

Is it possible or add an option to change feed rate when running the program? I always start slow and adjust feedrate to make it run smooth

I am having the same issue with the same offline controller (ST32 based, same as you project photos) and the same CNC board (woodpecker cnc v3.3).

Looking at the schematics for Woodpecker CNC v3.3 it does not look like there is any connection to pin 8 of the offline controller jack

1 - 5v
2 - Gnd
3 - 5v
4 - Gnd
5 - TX
6 - Rst
7 - RX
8 - NC

When I connect the USB to the computer and use Putty to watch the out put I get

Detected GRBL device
GrblDRO::onButton(1,1)
GrblDRO::onButton(1,0)
GrblDRO::onButton(0,1)
GrblDRO::onButton(0,0)
GrblDRO::onButton(5,1)
GrblDRO::onButton(5,0)
GrblDRO::onButton(6,1)
GrblDRO::onButton(6,0)
GrblDRO::onButton(3,1)
GrblDRO::onButton(3,0)
GrblDRO::onButton(2,1)
GrblDRO::onButton(2,0)
 > (f 15,128) ''(len 0) 
 > (f 15,128) 'Grbl 1.1h ['$' for help]'(len 24) 
Msg '[MSG:'$H'|'$X' to unlock]'
 > (f 15,128) '[MSG:'$H'|'$X' to unlock'(len 25) 
GrblDRO::onButton(1,1)
GrblDRO::onButton(1,0)
GrblDRO::onButton(0,1)
GrblDRO::onButton(0,0)
GrblDRO::onButton(5,1)
GrblDRO::onButton(5,0)
GrblDRO::onButton(6,1)
GrblDRO::onButton(6,0)
GrblDRO::onButton(3,1)
GrblDRO::onButton(3,0)
GrblDRO::onButton(2,1)
GrblDRO::onButton(2,0)

Pressing the buttons will show as above but pressing [Exit/Step], selecting Reset (Ctrl-X), and [OK/Spindle] does not show any output on the Putty screen. If I press the reset button on the CNC the I will get the little bit of output shown in the middle (lines that start with > (f 15,128) ) and the display changes to add a line below "x Idle" that says "'$H'|'$X' to unlock" but the buttons and menu selection still do do not produce any output.

I tried connecting a UART directly to the offline controller and when I sent "[VER:1.1f.20170801:]" after I saw "$I" in the terminal window the display will change to the "x Idle" screen but pressing any buttons does not get any output. I tried sending the "[OPT:V,15,128]" and "ok" as well but it did not change the behavior.

Above vinpinto "Thanks man, that got everything solved, I'm still not sure why both states X and padlock are dependent on this, but removing this feature made everything work" Do you know what he removed to make it work? Any other thing I might look at?

Below are pics of the offline controller and CNC board I'm working with.

Originally posted by @mppkll in #5 (comment)

I'm trying to install this firmware on my STM32F103C8T6 based offline controller. I've installed all drivers for the St-Link V2 (Clone) updated its firmware and verified the pins are correct. I've soldered the SWD connection point wires, and installed Platformio within VS Code. I've cloned the files and compiled them. When I hit upload I get "init mode failed (unable to connect to target)" Do I have to delete the original firmware first? Or am I missing a reset process?

Could you please publish your resulting hex file for downloading.

Any idea why this error?

Building in release mode
Checking size .pio\build\controller\firmware.elf
Advanced Memory Usage is available via "PlatformIO Home > Project Inspect"
RAM: [===== ] 46.3% (used 9484 bytes from 20480 bytes)
Flash: [===== ] 51.9% (used 68040 bytes from 131072 bytes)
Configuring upload protocol...
AVAILABLE: blackmagic, cmsis-dap, dfu, jlink, serial, stlink
CURRENT: upload_protocol = stlink
Uploading .pio\build\controller\firmware.elf
xPack OpenOCD x86_64 Open On-Chip Debugger 0.11.0+dev (2021-10-16-21:19)
Licensed under GNU GPL v2
For bug reports, read
http://openocd.org/doc/doxygen/bugs.html
debug_level: 1

0x20000
hla_swd
*** [upload] Error 3221225477

First mentioned in #8

Hardware:
-Offline Controller based on SMT32F (same as shown in the developer pictures)
-CNC Controller is woodpecker v3.3 with grbl firmware v1.1

What Works:
-Serial probing cycle for baudrate seems to work
-Controller shows interface,.
-All menu entries are shown and can be selected.

What doesn't work:
-The only serial output from the offline controller is the $I sent in different baud rates to probe for the correct baud rate.

Test made:
-With a serial probe in tx rx terminals to check for comms, the behavior is as follows:
-A few $I are sent by the offline controller in different baud rates.
-The machine responses with [VER:1.1f.20170801:] [OPT:V,15,128] ok
-The offline controller understands the response and stops sending any further comunication.

The offline controller only shows the machine as X idle or sometimes Lockpad Idle, but no further comand comes out of the offline controller, not with a SD card file, not with the DRO, or any other entry on the menu.

I had just started reverse engineering my own little Controller (which seems to be identical to the one shown), when I stumbled across this awesome repository. However the Pin furthest from the Edge, which is labeled +5V, seems to be connected directly to the supply pins of the STM32F103, aswell as the output of the regulator (at least on my board). Am I missing something here or is it misslabeled as +5V?

It doesn't work with Vcarve. What could be a problem? When it tries to change the z-axis I have to press unlock to continue. I used firmware.hex from the release section with STM32 mcu. Everything works when I switched back to the original firmware that I saved.

Hi,

My hardware is APM32F103RBT6.

Thank you.

Hello,

great job with this firmware. Thank you.

Just an Information:
My most recent GRBL Offline Controller has no real STM Chip on it, but an GD32F103C8T6.
This chip has only 64k, so the verify step of the programmer fails because the code is too large to fit.

I plan to replace the chip by a STM32F103 with 128k, as soon as they are available again.

Hi,

When i flash the .hex firmware with a st link usb key v2, all seems to be OK but at the verification step , i have this error : Programming error @ 0x08010000!

Is it due to the problem of short memory of the GD32F103C8T6 chip ?

Do you have the same firmware but lighter ?