Controlling a CNC with an RPI3

I’m a new member in the Balena community and thought I would share a small project I did to learn about the Balena tools.

Not too long ago, I decided to buy a RapRap CNC machine from V1Engineering. The recommended software for controlling the CNC runs on a PC and communicates via a serial connection. This works great except every time I want to use the CNC I have to take my laptop out to the garage (first world problems).

Luckily, there’s another version of the software that runs a web server and allows the CNC to be controlled through a web page. I’d been looking at BalenaOS and this was a perfect chance to take it for a spin on a Raspberry Pi. I’ve made a video showing the CNC doing a dry run through the webpage. This is great because I can upload models to the Pi from inside and then start them from my cell phone when I can keep an eye on them. I’d also like to eventually have more than one CNC and with Balena I can easily keep them all up to date.

I’ve really enjoyed using BalenaOS with this project and looking forward to using it in future projects.

The project looks really good @Nwneisen, great use-case for balenaCloud!

Keep us posted on future projects!!!

Thanks @dansku! I’m really happy with how it turned out. Looking into adding a webcam for remote monitoring next.