How to install GRBL 1.1 on Keyestudio CNC GRBL v0.9 or V1.0 or V1.1

Not sure about which version I have…

Download the GRBL version

Download the GRBL v1.1h.20190825.

This link works: https://github.com/gnea/grbl/releases/tag/v1.1h.20190825

Arduino IDE

Simply install the latest Arduino IDE Version (I used 2.1.1 nigthly 20230630)

Import the library in the Arduino IDE

I’m on MacOS,

Sketch > Include Library > add .ZIP Library…

And you must only import the grbl directory using a zip format (I had to compress it manually)

Plug your Keyestudio CNC GRBL V?.?

In the arduino IDE, Select your board with Arduino Nano (this is the only one that worked…) and be sure that the processor is set to 328p

To see that: Tools > Board : “Arduino Nano” & Processor: “ATMega328P”

Once you are plugged and setup, click on File > Examples > grbl > grblUpload

A new window will open and from there I simply click on upload. And it worked without any errors and it took few seconds.

What’s next ?

I don’t know for now, I had this controller, a CNC and a Laser lying around. I might connect all of them to experiment ! (Thye current controller doesn’t support the Laser module…)

Tests dones with Success

Using cncJS on a raspberry PI.

• The laser works (Wear your safety equipment !)
  • The laser is a 5.5W 450nm (the one sold by sainsmart in fact.) I used it couple of times with the sainsmart 3018, and for engraving it did the job ! Never really took the time to experiment and learn all the things.
• The motors and homing features work ! (I had to update the config.h to fit my setup, like I didn’t configured the Z Axis for the homing)
• I’m Using the DRV8825 Stepper Motor Driver, they are hot, like … you can’t touch them… So I plugged a 120mm Fan to cool everything (My first hypothesis was that they were overheating… But that’s seems to be a driver issue on MacOS)
• Otherwise the limit switches are set for the X and Y axis, for some reasons that I didn’t dig deep enough… my origin is configured at the top left corner
  • The limit switches are configured with the NC and the noise reduction setup.
    • Check this link to get more information: https://github.com/gnea/grbl/wiki/Wiring-Limit-Switches
  • For the switches, I used the one that I had bought in the past for the Sainsmart 3018. It worked perfectly !
• Other than that, I setup the GRBL parameters to fit the reality, and so far it seems accurate ! Take your time, a ruler and a lot of patience !
  • Every machine is different, But I had to play with the M0, M1, M2thingy only for one axis. The other two were OK.
  • I read a lot and tried to figure out based on my physical components how to configure everything. that part was quite hard.
• Be prepared to solder parts, and design your controller like you want and be careful with the EMI, so far it seems to be OK. But I don’t have a lot of hours registered with this new setup.

Tests

I opened gSender and OpenBuilds Control on macos With Success !
All the configurations have been done using OpenBuilds Control.

The first real test on the machine:
Both of them freshly installed on MacOS. But after maybe 20 minutes it crashed, I retried 3 times. No success.
My usual setup is a Raspberry PI with cncJS. So I tried that one. And It worked without any issues !

Conclusion

Overall it was very fun to be back in the electronic part of the CNC World !
I’m glad that all I wanted worked as expected !

Next step, is to learn how to use the laser properly and create awesome stuff !