Need new breakout board?

LightBurn Hardware Compatibility
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1

This likely has been answered but I don’t know enough to realize it.

I use Mac and Lightburn on a Creality Falcon2

I have a DM542T Breakout board and use Linuxcnc on my homebuilt cnc table, (good with the mechanics not so with the electronics). Kirimoto for the gcode creation.

I would like to use my Mac and Millmage, can I use an adaptor, UC100 usb motion controller.

Millmage looks so much easier to use partly because I am familiar with Lightburn and another design program.

Would live to be able to hang a laser on my gantry and have a BIG laser machine. (secondary)

If I need a different Motion controller I am ok with that. Can someone suggest what I need?

Thank you! so much.

David

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I’m sure you mean to say “Stepper Driver”

There are several GRBL motion controllers that should use DM542 and similar drivers.

Just a note you would still need LightBurn to drive laser. So you would possibly need to create macro in Lightburn to switch to laser mode $32=1 when using the laser attachment.

As of a specific controller? Maybe something like the MakerBase MKS DLC32?

I am sure the hive mind here can make some suggestions.

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Afternoon Jeremy,

Downloaded a copy to play with and I have more questions. (of course!)

I created a custom machine called garage entered parameters for x and Y found the max acceleration and speed.

Something I think I need is step configuration. I am missing something somewhere or likely don’t understand how this works.

Using linuxcnc I could enter values for the x, y sizes, max speed, limit switches. I also needed to enter values for steps and travel per inch of my ballscrews and rack/pinion.

I cannot find where to enter these step configuration values in Millmage.

Ideas what I am doing wrong?

Thank you.

David

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I don’t run MillMage but this is generally a controller function, not something the normal software does on the pc.

Generally, these are only tell it which direction and how fast, it’s up to the controller to figure out the details of these operations.

Where you might find it is under the Machine Settings (don’t know where it is in MillMage) which will read the values off your machine. If it’s going to emulate something it has to know these values.

I would think they would be grouped with the other settings, such as acceleration.

I re-read your post and confused myself more.

Many of these are setting in the firmware, usually Lightburn can read/write them. Not sure about your setup and it’s been a while since I’ve messed with gcode machine.

Hang in there, I’m sure someone else will drop in.

:grinning_cat:

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What @jkwilborn mentions is correct - MillMage is not a controller software, it is a sender.

For CNC hardware that uses a PC as the controller (Mach3, Mach4, LinuxCNC, etc) the motion control is done by the software on the PC. MillMage does not do motion controlling, but rather generates gcodes and sends commands to controllers that accept external gcode commands (Like grbl, grblHAL, etc)

We have a MillMage Compatibility checking tool here, which has the most popular machines in it: https://matrix.millmage.com/

The UC100 is just a parallel port to USB converter, it still requires a PC to run Mach 3/Mach4/LinuxCNC to do the motion control, and those particular firmwares do not allow for external control.

Using a controller like the Sienci SLB-EXT or a 6pack external would allow you to run firmware the MillMage can directly control.

Actually, come to think of it a PicoBOB would probably work great in your use case as far as wiring goes. PicoBOB CNC control module for GRBLHAL – Expatria Technologies

Looks like the PicoBOB is out of stock, but the Deluxe version has stock: PicoBOB-DLX CNC control module – Expatria Technologies

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Thank you Colin,

So in the Creality Falcon is there built in functionality that allows Lightburn to wire straight in and run? That works beautifully.

Using Linux cnc there seemed to be an awful lot of steps to get from drawing to cutting.

Thank you, David

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Yep, the Falcon has a controller built-in that LightBurn communicates with.

LinuxCNC is a great controller, but like Linux, it has a lot of customizability and that can be overwhelming.

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Thank you Colin,

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