Yeah I’m very confused by what’s happening here.
GrblHAL should respond to the ? in exactly the same way that GRBL does… I’ve tested for this.
And it doesn’t matter if it’s a laser or CNC machine - the response formatting should be the same.
Is the “Show All” button on before you connect to your machine? If it is, there’s a bug where you need to turn it off and on again after the connection is established.
It may be worth putting your $10=511 back, all the extra values do is send extra messages in the status message, and that won’t break the position parsing at all.
The board selection in the Arduino IDE only matters if you need to compile and upload code to the controller.
The Serial Monitor should be accessible without selecting a board.
511 is the same as 3 if you ignore the 5, and that is “Both” for reporting.
With all that has been said, it sounds like the grblHAL software is corrupted and a fresh EXE needs to be installed on the controller board. I do not think a recompile is necessary at this time.
I believe it’s doing some additional reporting as well @MikeyH 
From their github wiki:
= bitmask where bit 0 = machine_position, 1 = buffer_state, 2 = line_numbers, 3 = feed_speed, 4 = pin_state, 5 = work_coord_offset, 6 = overrides, 7 = probe_coordinates, 8 = sync_on_wco_change, 9 = parser_state, 10 = alarm_substate, 11 - run substate
So I read 511 as meaning the bits enabled are 0 through 8 respectively. So 511 would report machine position, the buffer state, the line number (if available), the feed speed, the pin state, the WCO, overrides, the probe coordinates and it would flag a WCO change.
As far as I know, anything past bit 2 is extended from GRBL.
I ran into 511 a while back. I knew it meant extra but I had no idea what. Yes, GRBL only defines the first 2 bits.
Based on the image @Snoopy posted, it appears his is honoring only Bit5.
I will give this a try again.
OK
I have tried them again with the console window showall button on and off in connected and disconnected and stille get same result . Click on get all button just gets me a polling (OK) followed by (?) continually as per the images i gave.. I lso tried to get serial monitor in Adrino but it wants a board. Sorry not sure what to do from here. I am happy to try anything but at this point it appears it wont work.
True, but that does not mean it can’t. I think I read that it does work using grblHAL.
I’d brought up grblhal with Oz three years ago with Lightburn/Linux and word was LightBurn only supported the GRBL spec so all of the extensions of 32bit GRBL can’t be seen or manipulated in Lightburn and have to be changed in the console. That would also meen if LightBurn/Mage is writing anything now saved in the file it will not preserve the extended data.
Too bad there is not a “standard” for extended GRBL. When I ask others to do the $$ thing in the Console, I get back all sorts of $xx stuff that is not defined by the GRBL standard. The manufacturers are free to compile them into whatever they want. Seeing $10=511 is a classic example. GRBL says 1, 2, or 3 (00000011). The number 511 is 111111111 (9 bits) all turned on.
How is Lightburn supposed to keep up with that?
I totally agree, it’s what will percolate to the top. Maybe adding new words to the config is more of a pain or is frowned upon so they add bits to existing fields. Agreed it sucks and it would have been nice if GRBL devs picked a platform to move to 32bits but instead they just seemed to freeze at 8bit and let others fork. GRBLHAL seems to be the GRBL-like winner for multi-machine platform while FluidNC would be a 2nd choice.
I messed with GRBLHAL on a cheap diode machine on STM32 MCUs three years ago when I brought it up on these forums and I’ve seen it mentioned often over the three years. And it’s really crazy if a device maker uses an 8-bit controller today instead of 32-bit controller. $0.02
GrblHAL is a well-documented firmware derived from GRBL. We could keep up with it.
But the problem is that most manufacturers start with the GRBL arduino code, and then just shove their own proprietary and undocumented features into it.
Or worse. We’ve seen manufacturers write their custom firmware from scratch, and borrow only a subset of the GRBL commands list, and brand their laser as “GRBL-compatible” when it really isn’t.
It’s chaos, and we’re trying our best to find a good solution, but it’s not trivial. It would also need buy-in from the manufacturers. And that’s been difficult to get.
HI There.
Just as follow up as i have install latest update and still dont work..
I can understand that it could be a nightmare keeping up with all the different variants out there.
Just letting that it still dont work and with several others out which are all free they work without issue.
I just do hope eventually it will work as i use lightburn on the laser and would love to use the cnc version..
Anyway we will see how it and i will keep trying any new versions.
@Snoopy did you reset your $10=511?
Just because LightBurn doesn’t explicitely handle the added GrblHAL extensions doesn’t mean you can’t use them as normal.
I run a GrblHAL cnc myself (Kubus Pro) with LightBurn and MillMage without any issue. This is why I’m flummoxed by the problems you have to get a simple position report out of your machine.
Can you share the configuration bundle and the exact controller model? (if you don’t know, then the manufacturer and model of the CNC you’re trying to use will do).
HI There. Not sure what you need however..
MY Laser uses a different common controller Ruida so its allways been ok and is a custom built machine.
MY CNC is a design from the PRintNC style and are using the Flexihal controller recommended and appears to work great on other software..
(Expatria Technologies GRBLHAL)
SO not sure what you need but im happy to supply anything that may help.
regards
Shane
You just provided what I need to lookup and potentially procure a controller to recreate the problem you have with your cnc 
What version of firmware are you running. I am running the same controller here and have not had any issues but my firmware is probably a year old. We also have an Altmill in house whose controller is a descendent of the Flexi and works without issue
are you running the pendant too? I feel like I saw you mention that.
HI there
I am running firmware dated MAR 13 2025 For PRINTNC. When it didnt work at first i did do a firmware update incase there was a issue or chnage but made no difference. And i am running the Jog2k control.