As many of you know, our machines are based on the fantastic GRBL machine controller, which is open source and available for everyone to play with and review. For the past couple of years, we’ve stayed with the same version because it was stable and because the newer releases didn’t add much that we needed. The two features that we’ve been privately begging for, feed rate overrides and the ability to kill a move and flush the motion buffer, have finally made it into version 1.1.

We’ve been testing those features for a few weeks and making changes to Carbide Motion to support them and we can say without reservation that it’s an awesome upgrade.

Feed rate overrides let you change the cutting speed of the machine int he middle of a cut, in real time. It’s been the #1 feature that we’ve missed having in the machine.

The ability to kill a move and flush the motion buffer is something we’d been asking for to provide better jogging performance. Users who’ve been with us from the beginning know that we’ve been tweaking our jogging code to try and make it better (sometimes unsuccessfully). We’re hoping that this feature will finally get us where we want to be.

Unfortunately, there were some changes to the GRBL protocol that make 1.1 function poorly with our existing Carbide Motion so we had a decision to make, add a bunch of hacks to Carbide Motion to support both versions or mandate GRBL 1.1 once we release a compatible Carbide Motion. We chose the latter to make sure that we keep our code as maintainable as possible.

Here’s the plan:

1. Finish updating Carbide Motion for GRBL 1.1
2. Release the new firmware and Carbide Motion with instructions to manually refresh the firmware. This release will happen on the blog and only be for brave users.
3. We’ll release a firmware update tool that will update all Carbide 3D machines to the latest GRBL without any of the normal complexity.
4. We’ll encourage all of the normal users to upgrade.

We’re shooting to get #1 and #2 done in the next few weeks and get feedback before pushing it out wider.

It’s important to make it clear that this update will work on all Carbide 3D machines, even the original Kickstarter machines.

More than anything, congrats and thanks to Sonny Jeon for keeping the GRBL project moving forward and making it perform better and better all the time. GRBL is a project that we’re proud to support.

Yesterday we uploaded Carbide Motion 366 to fix reports of “Cutter Stopped Responding” messages. This should almost never happen “in real life” but it’s happening anyway. From what we can tell, it seems to be the operating system delaying some messages getting passsed around the program.

Build 366 has the following changes:

• Boosted priority of main thread when program starts
• Eliminated timeout for GRBL to reply to status requests
• Extended timeout for initial GRBL reply

As we begin to finish up support for GRBL 1.1, we’ve stopped putting a lot of effort into this branch of Carbide Motion so this might be the last release of Carbide Motion V3.

We just updated the store with our Black Friday sales:

Shapeoko 3, XL, and XXL:

• Free shipping to the continental US and Canada
• Free Makita trim router

Nomad 883 Pro:

• Free shipping to the continental US and Canada plus
• Free vise
• Free threaded table

Here are the links:

• Nomad 883 Pro
• Shapeoko 3
• Shapeoko XL/XXL

These deals are valid starting today so there’s never been a better time to buy a machine from Carbide 3D. This pricing will be valid through Nov 28th.

We’d also be missing a big opportunity if we didn’t include our favorite sale video:

Edward’s been doing a series of projects on Youtube on the Shapeoko. We realized yesterday that we haven’t shared these on our own site at all, only with our Youtube subscribers.

Here are the first three to get you caught up:

Making a simple sign

Making a coffee pod holder

Making a Halloween prop

We just uploaded build 289 of Carbide Create with some bug fixes:

• Rotations for polygons were not loaded/saved
• Zero marker position was not updated when a file was loaded
• Better DXF compatibility for some Solidworks DXF files

Check it out and let us know what you think. (Your existing install should see the update available)

We get a lot of questions about what router to use with the Shapeoko, the DeWalt DWP611 or the Makita RT0701C. We’ve been meaning to do a deatiled writeup for a while but it looks like we can cross it off the todo list.

Winston Moy, a long-time Shapeoko MVP, just posted a great Youtube that shows the differences and similarities.

It’s time for our somewhat-annual State of Carbide 3D. We’re a small company but at the core we’re product development people so we always have a lot going on. Here’s what we can share:

GRBL

Two of the most common requests for our machines were feedrate overrides and more fluid jogging. Both of these depended on changes to GRBL, the embedded motion controller we use, so we were not able to make those changes alone.

Sonny Jeon, the developer behind GRBL, has managed to fit both of these into the latest 1.1 release.

We’ve been testing 1.1 here and it’s been flawless. Unfortunately, the protocol that GRBL uses to speak to the PC changed so we’re having to change Carbide Motion to match. Rather than try to make Carbide Motion work with both versions of GRBL, we’re shifting over to Carbide Motion 4 which will only work with GRBL 1.1 .

Just to be extra clear, GRBL 1.1 will be a free upgrade for all Carbide 3D machines.

GRBL Updater

Reflashing your machine to change GRBL is not incredibly difficult but the current method to do so is not something we want to inflict on our users. To simplify the process we’ve got a “GRBL Updater” being completed right now. Just download the program and click a few buttons to change it over.

Carbide Motion

Carbide Motion will be shifting to V4 with the release of our GRBL 1.1 . In V4, we’re changing to an entirely new architecture that will form the basis of some big changes to come later this year.

A new architecture means we’ve had to redo the code for the user interface so it’s taken longer than we’d like. The good news is that we were able to simplify the code a lot and it will be more maintainable moving forward.

We’re trying to get this tested and completed ASAP.

Carbide Connect

“Carbide Connect” is that big change I mentioned above. Carbide Connect is our way to embed Carbide Motion into the machines themselves so that a Nomad or Shapeoko can be controlled by any computer on the network (even Linux). Carbide Connect will not require that a computer be connected while the machine is running.

Right now, we’ve got the software running since the core application code will be shared between Carbide Motion and Carbide Connect. Once we get the new Carbide Motion released, we’ll jump on the hardware.

Carbide Connect will be available as an add on for all Carbide 3D machines.

Carbide Motion Electronics

We shipped our 2.3 and 2.4 Carbide Motion PCB’s for most of 2016 and they’ve been flawless as long as you don’t use a poor-quality, very long USB cable. (The one case we’ve had was from a guy that got disconnects with his Shapeoko, PC, Shopvac, and air compressor all connected to a single outlet.)

We’re ready to call the Shapeoko “disconnect problem” completely soved.

Jorge has been testing a 3.0 version of the electronics with a couple of customers that refines the PCB but it’s more of an aesthetic improvement since the 2.3 and 2.4 boards don’t have any known problems.

Funding

We’re proud to announce that Carbide 3D still hasn’t taken any funding, it remains completely owned by the founders and is profitable.

This is the best way to ensure that the company is sustainable and will remain here to support present and future customers.

What would you like?

As we start the new year, we have a lot of things that we’d like to do this year. We’d also like to get your input. If you’d like a little input on what we work on this year, click on this link to share your preferences.

Thanks

We’re coming up on 4 years of working on Carbide 3D and it’s been the most difficult thing we’ve ever done but also the most rewarding. We could never have gotten this far without your support.

A quick update of all that we’ve got going on at Carbide 3d…

We Need Help

First and foremost, we’re looking for a technical writer. We have all kinds of docs and tutorials that are half-done because we all wear so many hats around here. We need someone to work part time and help us get some of this writing done.

If you think you’d be a good fit, shoot us an email and show us what you’ve done before. We don’t care where you live, we only care that you’re a clear communicator and that you get stuff done.

GRBL 1.1

As we were testing the final GRBL 1.1 and our latest Carbide Create, we ran into a small problem. The new parking code, which stops the spindle and retracts from a cut when the machine is paused, does exactly the wrong thing for jogging. If you open the door on a machine with a safety switch the cutter will retract away from the workpiece, making it impossible to touch off with a piece of shim stock or paper.

We discussed it with Sonny, the GRBL developer, and he had a fix in record time, a new M code that will enable/disable the parking motion. We just got that build integrated into our builds yesterday and we’re testing it here.

Carbide Motion V4

The latest Carbide Motion is working well in all of our testing. There are still little things to improve but, along with GRBL 1.1, it’s a huge improvement over the current version.

We’re planning on a release to the forum for advanced users next week.

There is going to be one big change in requirements for Carbide Motion 4, we will require homing for all machines. This is no problem for Nomads, Shapeoko XL and XXL’s, since they all came with homing switches from the very start. If you have a Shapeoko 3 without homing switches, you’ll have to add them to run Carbide Motion 4.

If you don’t have limit switches for your Shapeoko 3, you can pickup a set at:

https://shop.carbide3d.com/products/shapeoko-3-limit-switch-kit

We just dropped the price to $50 to make this upgrade a little easier. If you choose to make your own then those will work too.

Shapeoko Maintenance Kits

A number of users have tried to get replacement parts for their Shapeoko from overseas vendors because they’re under the impression that we don’t supply them. We want to make it very clear that if you need a replacement part for your machine, just shoot us an email and we’ll get it taken care of.

For customers that prefer to have spare parts ready to go, or their machines are out of warranty, we’ve put together a kit that includes all of the wear items on the machine.

https://shop.carbide3d.com/products/shapeoko-maintenance-kit

This kit also provides 9mm belting and pulleys for the X and Y axis. If you have a machine that shipped before limit switches were included with the kit, and want to upgrade to 9mm width belting, the maintenance kit is right up your alley.

Carbide Connect

Finally, we’ve continued work on Carbide Connect, our standalone machine controller. We now have the same Carbide Motion 4 code running on our embedded platform and we’ve been able to walk around the office and run the machine via Wi-Fi, and even on an iPad.

Hopefully we’re be able to show some photos of this system (probably just a bunch of PCB’s hot-glued to a piece of acrylic) in the next couple of weeks.

As always, thanks for your ongoing support.

We been tsting GRBL 1.1 and Carbide Motion 4 with a number of people in the forum for the last week and we’re feeling good enough about it to open the beta up to a larger group. If you’re interested in checking out the latest software/firmware, read on.

First, a warning:

DON’T UPGRADE IF YOU ARE USING YOUR MACHINE FOR PRODUCTION OR CANNOT RISK HAVING YOUR MACHINE DOWN WHILE WE WORK THROUGH THIS EARLY RELEASE

What CM4 and GRBL 1.1 adds:

• Feedrate overrides
• Better jogging
• Retract on pause for cleaning

Who’s it for

All Nomads, Shapeoko XL and XXL machines and Shapeoko 3’s with homing switches

While it should work going back to even the Kickstarter Nomads (what we call the non-Pro Nomads), there have been reports of errors being thrown by GRBL on those boards. If you have one of the original Nomads, you might want to wait a few days for us to continue working through those problems.

Compatibility

Carbide Motion 4 only works with GRBL 1.1, and Carbide Motion 3 only works with GRBL 0.9- you cannot mix and match

Where do I get support and report bugs:

beta@carbide3d.com

Where do I get it from:

http://carbide3d.com/carbideupdater/

FAQ

I’m getting “Limit Switch Hit” Errors Did you change your GRBL settings manually to enable soft limits? Don’t do that. Reload the default settings in Carbide Motion.

Will custom settings be saved? No. All settings are deleted when the machine is upgraded so if you’ve modified anything, like the steps per mm on a Shapeoko, be sure to record those values before reflashing the unit.

Is an Internet connection required for the new CM4? No. The docs do mention a browser window but the browser is only communicating with a server embedded in Carbide Motion itself. Carbide Motion runs totally locally on your PC or Mac.

Are there going to be more firmware updates for GRBL? We sure hope not. We’ve held off on releasing this until we could be sure that there would not be a need to reflash the unit again. There will be more CM releases, but these will not require reflashing GRBL.

When I try to run the updater I get: “The program can’t start because MSVCP120.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.” Go to https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=407843 and install the Microsoft Windows Redistributable package. We didn’t want to create an installer for a one-time program like the updater so we didn’t include this. In most cases, it’ll already be installed on your machine.

We’ve had Carbide Motion 4 and GRBL 1.1 out for about two weeks now and the feedback has been positive enough that we’re recomending it for everyone except those running their machine 24/7 for production.

Details of the upgrade benefits and process is at:

http://carbide3d.com/blog/2017/carbide-motion-4-beta/

Let us know what you think at:

beta@carbide3d.com

if it works fine for you with no problems, let us know that too.

We just uploaded build 407 of the new V4 of Carbide Motion.

These are the main changes:

• Fixed Nomad Classic settings
• Added new tools
• Fixed Error 13 for machines with an interlock
• Changed jog stop to add a short dwell. Hope this eliminates potential race conditions

If you’re already on V4, it should be a good update. If you’ve been holding off, this might be a good opportunity to upgrade to GRBL 1.1 and CM4.

Check it out at:

Carbide Updater

I went from idea to finished part in about 30 minutes when I made a desk stand for my 7” iPad Pro.

A few few months ago I picked up an iPad Pro and since have been slowly integrated the tablet into my everyday routine and now use it to keep a live eye on instagram.

Until yesterday, the iPad had just been leaning onto the front of my iMac - but it has the tendency to slip and most of the time ends up laying flat in the desk.

When this happened yesterday, I had enough. With a shop full of CNC machines at my disposal, surely I could fix this problem!

I started by getting an idea of proportions and scale. I wanted something that would both elevate the tablet and tilt it back for easy viewing.

I settled on a height of about 6” from the desk and an angle of around 10 degrees.

The tablet is usually in landscape orientation but I wanted portrait to be an option if the need presented itself. So a width of 5” seemed appropriate, with a gap to allow for the charging cable if necessary.

With all of those dimensioned decided, I drew everything in Carbide Create.

Having used the software for some time now, I’ve picked up a couple of tricks I used in this design that I’d like to share with you.

Inside Corners

Everyone who has ever designed something for CNC has ran into this problem. Inside corners have a radius because the cutter is round. If you’re trying to make a joint, this radius creates a problem. Leaving it as is is literally trying to put a square peg into a round hole.

Look at the photo above and imagine trying to put the top piece into the bottom piece. The rounded inside corners on the top piece wouldn’t allow it to sit all the way onto the bottom piece.

The rounded inside corners on the bottom piece, would not let top piece fit into the opening.

To to overcome this - you can simply “over cut” the inside corners. That is: cut past the actually corner to create enough space for the mating piece to slide through

An an easy way to do this is as follows:

1. Create a box that is .089” wide by .089” tall.
2. Snap one corner of that box to your inside corner.
3. Now make a circle with a 1/8” radius (1/4” diameter) - this is the same size as our cutter.
4. Snap the center of that circle to the opposite corner of the box.
5. Now cut that circle into your feature using the boolean feature in CC.

The squares we are using to position the circles are called reference geometry. This is a concept that will come in handy for future projects. You can always delete the reference geometry after you have positioned your intended feature.

Material Selection

I have a couple leftover pieces of 3/4” edge glued birch from a previous project. The drop I wanted to use was 16” wide by 11.125” tall.

The design needed to fit on that one piece of drop, so I moved everything around in Carbide Create until there was enough room for all of the pieces, and enough material to clamp down on the outside corners.

With the design done, and the layout complete it was time to get to cutting!

The order of events here mattered! I did all of the inside cuts first, then moved to the outside cuts. Doing the outside cuts (also called profile cuts) last ensures all of the pieces stay where they need to be until they are fully cut out from the stock material.

Finishing

After the job finished (took about 10 minutes), I started finishing. This consisted of sanding everything with 220 grit sandpaper to knock down any edges or burrs. Then I applied a liberal amount of glue to all the joints and clamped the assembly together.

Once the glue dried, I scraped off the glue squeeze out and hit everything with the sander again, then wiped the entire assembly down with denatured alcohol to remove the remaining dust.

Then I applied a coat of minwax stain, and let that dry before applying a coat of polyurethane.

Summary

Having a CNC machine at your disposal allows you to make what you want to make, when you want to make it. We’d love to see what you are making, or hear stories about how you’ve used your machine to ‘fix’ a problem or fill a void.

If you want to make one of these, or take a look at the design files, you can download them here.

A lot of our customers are engineers, and their overwhelming feedback has been that they want to make PCBs on the Nomad. This was always possible but we didn’t have a recommended workflow or the tooling to support it.

We’ve fixed that now.

We’d like to invite you to try our new PCB machining software, Carbide Copper. It’s currently in beta but it’s the easiest way to machine PCBs and it’ll only get better in the coming weeks and months.

While we designed it for the Nomad, you’re free to use it for any CNC machine. (Including the Shapeoko)

Go to Carbide Copper

In addition to Carbide Copper, we’ve released a number of products to make PCB machining easier:

#501 PCB Engraver

Our 501 PCB engraver is a US-made tapered ball cutter that can cut small details without sacrificing durability.

See the 501 Engraver

PCB Drills

We’ve got two options for PCB drills, a 10 piece assortment that lets you find the perfect size for your projects, from .3mm to 1.2mm.

We also have a 10 pack with only the sizes we find to be most useful, .5mm, .7mm, and .9mm

See our PCB drills

Copper Clad Board

We’ve added 2x3” and 4x6” single-sided and double-sided copper clad circuit boards. This is all FR1 material instead of the more common FR4, so it’s ideal for machining.

See our Copper Clad

Double Sided Tape

We’ve added a new, US-made, high-quality double side tape that’s perfect for holding down your boards.

See our Double-side Tape

PCB Pack

Not sure what you need, or just don’t want to click all of the links above? We put together a PCB pack that includes everything you need with one click, for one price.

See our PCB Pack

In Conclusion…

Back in our corporate days, Jorge and I worked at a company that had a T-Tech PCB engraver that cost $15,000 (at that time). It was a great addition to the electronics lab and we made a lot of PCBs on it. In the past few weeks, we’ve been amazed at how to well the Nomad Pro with Carbide Copper compares to that purpose-built machine, at a fraction of the cost.

We hope you find Carbide Copper as useful as we do. Let us know what you think.

Go to Carbide Copper

We just uploaded Carbide Create Build 289.

It includes the following:

New Features

• Mirroring/flipping.
• Rounded, tee, and dogbone corners for rectangles.
• Changed Save to separate Save / Save As.
• Added filename to title bar.

Bug fixes

• Don’t reset toolpath parameter when editing a tool.
• Fixed slow plunge. The toolpath now rapids down to retract plane, then plunges from there.

You can download this version from the Carbide Create download page

We just uploaded Carbide Create Build 290 to fix a single bug, the zero depth of cut for acrylic.

You can download this version from the Carbide Create download page

We could use a little help for the summer here at Carbide 3D in Torrance, CA. We need someone who’s good with their hands to help assemble Nomad frames and other accessories.

If you know a high school or college student looking to earn some money this summer, have them send us an email.

Today is a big day here at Carbide 3D, we’ve got a huge update to Carbide Create, our 2D CAD/CAM software and a big announcement about it’s future.

First, a little background.

The Start

Two years ago we started Carbide Create from nothing. We wanted to make sure our customers had a way to complete a project from start to finish when they bought a machine from us without having to buy extra software.

Trying to compete with competitors that make machines overseas, we couldn’t afford to license an exsiting package. We had to keep our costs low so writing our own software was the only approach. It was a massive amount of work but it was what we needed to do to compete.

Users of other machines immediately got in touch to see if they could use Carbide Create. We thanked them for their interest but we wanted to keep it for our customers only. We thought of it as our competitive advantage.

Carbide Create grew slowly over the last two years until it became a fairly capable program and along the way we realized another thing:

Our machines are the best in their respective classes. They come with everything you need and they have a great workflow. We make them here in the US and we provide excellent customer service. We don’t compete on CAD/CAM software alone.

So we made another decision.

Carbide Create is Now Free for Everyone

As of today’s release, Carbide Create is free for everyone to use, not just our customers. We’ve removed our proprietary gcode format so it outputs “normal” gcode now.

It’s not cloud-based and it doesn’t require activation, registration or license codes. This is not a trick to lock you in or control you. Once you download it, we cannot take it back. (Can you tell that we’re not a fan of “The Cloud” for CAD/CAM?)

We also added a bunch of features

New Features:

• Vector offsets
• Added Help link to header
• Removed gcode encryption
• Support for open vectors in contour toolpaths
• Object grouping
• “Starting Depth” option for contour and pocket toolpaths
• Corner options for rectangles (fillet, inverted fillet, dogbone and tee)

Improvements:

• Join command now can close a spline
• Better pocket linking behavior
• Better V-Carving linking
• Improved dragging logic
• Hide toolpaths in design mode
• Better zoom/pan behavior

What’s next?

Where we go next depends on you. We assume that we’ll get a lot of feedback in the next few days and weeks so we’ll take a look at that feedback and update our todo list. If you have any thoughts, email us. If you love or hate some part of the program, let us know.

Go see more about Carbide Create CAD/CAM here.

We just posted a minor update to Carbide Create:

• Better zoom/pan behavior with the scroll wheel.
• You can pan only by holding down the right mouse button and dragging. Note that you cannot begin a pan if the mouse cursor is on top of any item.

Grab your copy here.

We just uploaded Carbide Create 302 with a couple of fixes and a great new feature.

Here’s what we did:

• (NEW) Import DXF and SVG files into an existing deisgn.
• (NEW) Hitting “enter” in a text box will now apply the new value in most cases.
• (FIX) Added scroll bar in toolpath edit window.

Grab the latest here.

We just uploaded a new Carbide Create, build 303, that contains mostly bug fixes based on user feedback.

Here’s what we did:

• (FIX) Engraving open contours is fixed.
• (FIX) Tool editing cleaned up (easier to add V bits).
• (FIX) Update tool text in Edit Toolpath pane after tool is changed.
• (FIX) Hide tool path in 2D view when it’s disabled.
• (INTERNAL) Refactored a lot of the tool path code. Hopefully nothing is broken.

Grab it here