gSender 1.4.7 is now released, officially supporting grblHAL, rotary cutting and much much more!
The official theme for this update was fundamentals, which means improving and iterating on existing features to address any shortcomings, reliability issues, or add long requested functionalities.
As always, thank you to everyone involved in using, testing and giving feedback on Edge releases over the past 4 months. We’ve been working hard to address your feedback and are excited to bring these new features over to the general userbase!
Without further ado, let’s get into this update!
A New Spin on Carving - Rotary Support
Turning to some positive news, we’re finally bringing support for Rotary axes on both grbl and grblHAL based controllers into gSender! Whether you own the Sienci Vortex or some other rotary solution, gSender has you covered in everything you might want to do.
Once enabled in preferences, the user is able to control, probe, surface and carve using the A axis!
We’ve also updated the visualizer to better show the final result - so you can see your A-axis carving in all it’s glory!
Pushing Your Buttons - Better Gamepad Functionality
We’ve expanded and changed how gamepad works to give the user a whole host of new options for controlling their machine.
Joysticks are now able to jog the machine along any axis with variable speeds based on how far you’re moving the joystick.
We’ve added a new MPG mode which will let the user jog in a specific direction by rotating the joystick similar to physical MPG units.
There is also new alt modifiers for gamepad buttons, letting you map multiple functionalities to a specific button. Users are also able to assign a lockout button, preventing any gamepad buttons from firing until it is unlocked again.
Finally, we’ve altered the workflow for setting up a gamepad, letting the user map an action to a button instead of the opposite. We hope this lets users set up their new controllers quickly and easily and get back to cutting.
What did I just do? In-depth Job Stats and Maintenance Reminders
We’ve greatly expanded the job stats section to give you even more information about past jobs. Not only do we now track time run per com port, there is more in-depth tracking of individual jobs and any problems encountered.
We’ve also added maintenance reminders to keep you on track for keeping your machine in tip-top shape. Reminders are set up with expected run time before needing completion, and once you’ve approached that warning you’ll start to get reminders. Maintenance reminders are entirely customizable - set up your own tasks to keep on top of anything personal to your workflow.
Some Old Favourites and New Favourites
We’ve brought back code blocks for tool change to much fanfare!
Remote mode has received a number of improvements, including workflow controls and unit selection on the remote interface on phone screen size and a QR code in-app for easier navigation on your handheld device.
We’ve also added an easier way to go to a specific location - clicking the Go To button will now let you select a incremental or absolute position to move your machine to.
Touch Wherever You Want - Multi-corner Probing
No longer a one-trick pony, gSender now supports probing off any corner of your workpiece using both standard and auto-zero touchplates!
Selecting which corner you want is as easy as clicking a button - simply press the corner selector and the probe routine will automatically update offsets to both run and set the zero correctly at the selected corner!
Technical Notes - 32 bit no longer supported
We are officially dropping support for 32bit versions of gSender. It was a hard decision but continuing to support 32bit was a security concern for several libraries we use and we can’t be shackled long term to out of date libraries without alternatives. Version 1.2.2 should continue to work fine for the small subset of users (sub 1%) that we show as using 32 bit operating systems.
Firmware options - grblHAL Firmware Support
Our first non-grbl firmware officially supported is grblHAL - an up-and-coming solution that works on a wide variety of hardware.
Firmware flavour is selectable in the connection dropdown - by default most users will continue to use grbl, but swapping controller types is a simple click away.
We’ve updated the UI in a number of places to support all the new functionality available in grblHAL - including single axis probing, ethernet connectivity and more.
USB is no longer the only way to interact with your machine using grblHAL - so we’ve added a way to connect and run jobs using ethernet, which is more reliable overall.
grblHAL is also a bit more fluid when it comes to EEPROM options - so the firmware tool has been rebuilt to dynamically support all options are reported by the firmware itself and rebuild the table so you’ll always be able to easily update your EEPROM configuration no matter which plugins you have installed.
This is just a taste of new updates we’ve added - for all the details and changes, full notes can be found below!
Release Notes
- Added Rotary Mode
- gSender is now able to run 2+1 axis files on grbl and 4 axis files on grblHAL
- Visualizer updated to support 4 axis rotations
- A-axis DRO and jogging
- Rotary probing
- Added grblHAL controller support
- Connect to and run jobs as normal on any grblHAL device
- Connect over ethernet where hardware is supported
- New grblHAL specific firmware tool that is dynamically generated based on reported settings
- New UI elements where appropriate to support new functionality such as single axis homing
- Gamepad improvements
- Restructured logic and mapping of buttons to actions
- Add secondary functionality to buttons
- Added joystick MPG mode
- Added lockout button to deactivate gamepad when needed
- Improved job time estimation
- Significantly improved initial time estimation algorithm based on machine acceleration and max speeds
- Mid-job estimation uses initial estimate per line for more accurate remaining duration
- Multi-corner probing - touch off any corner using both standard and auto-zero touchplates
- Added Go To UI button to quickly go to an absolute or relative workspace coordinate
- Clearer distinction on planned lines vs cut lines - planned lines show up as a (customizable) yellow instead of the default cut gray
- Remote mode improvements
- Added QR code for easier navigation to remote address on phone
- Added workflow controls and unit selection to remote mode UI
- Added preference to prompt on Zero to prevent accidentally resetting zero on any axis
- Code block toolchange again supported
- Firmware active modals now displayed in diagnostic tab
- PRB values available to use in macros
- Files are now parsed once per run time
- Fix for DRO precision in some situations
- Improved job stats area - now tracks jobs per com port, more information about each job run and the number of problems encountered
- Maintenance reminders - set up and customize maintenance reminders to prompt tasks after specific run time totals have occured
- Improved alarm and error recording
1.4.1
- Fix for black screen on application startup in some situations
- Fix for jog buttons on UI not registering click events correctly on some operating systems
- Strip comments sent to controller to prevent buffer overflow and better support Shapeoko
- Fix issue with firmware tool not updating values correctly if settings limited by search bar
- Handle missing file name in recent files
- Updated EEPROM values for travel on multiple Sienci profiles
- Fixed issue with surfacing tool crashing in some situations
- Fixed several bugs with gamepad support
1.4.2
- Added ability to assign macros to gamepad buttons
- Controller type is now annotated in the Errors and Alarms report and diagnostic file
- Go To function on UI now accounts for preferred units
- Added spindle selector to Laser/Spindle tab when using grblHAL firmware
- Unlock button now only shows 100% of the time when using grblHAL controller
- Fixed machine profiles missing in some situations
- Remote mode UI jog controls are once again properly contained within their widget container
- Fix for remote mode settings crashing on Firefox
- Fixed toggling laser offsets with inches enabled
- Various improvements to time estimation
- “Use Last Port” button in firmware tool should now properly connect when the last connection was over Ethernet
- Alterations to outline behaviour - should move in a consistent direction and more accurately outline the toolpath
- Fixed tool change offsets being concatenated as strings instead of added
- Surfacing tool better handles extreme values by warning the user instead of exceeding the call stack
- Various rotary fixes
- Fix for pass-through toolchanging in macros
- Fix for spindle delay being added when the line already had a delay from the post-processor
- Start-From-Line should now better handle starting G2/G3 commands and clear errors on grblHAL controller
- Fix for toolchange wizard not resuming correctly on grblHAL controller
- Verify job should behave more consistently like grbl controller on grblHAL firmware
1.4.3
- Fix for probe migration values not running
- Fix for jog value migration not running
- Spindles on HAL no longer duplicate when running the spindle command multiple times
- Connection widget should no longer zero out selected controller in some situations
- Toolchanger should no longer error out in situations when the user has connected then disconnected
1.4.4
General
- Firmware selection hidden by default to avoid misclicks, and selected firmware reset to GRBL for all users.
- Removed situations where no firmware option was selected on initial update of gSender
- Fixed tabbed widget overlapping on some screen resolutions
- Fixed issue with toolpath Z dimensions calculating incorrectly
- Probe XYZ now goes to XY zero on completion of routine similar to prior behaviour
- Errors from feeder are also now emitted to UI
- Rotary axis toggle and other rotary tools now disabled in alarm state
- Fixed situations where pausing and unpausing repeatedly could overflow firmware buffer
- Fixed jog values reconverting and resetting on UI
- Prevented warning appearing in movement calibration tool erroneously
- Added A-axis limit pin indicator to diagnostics panel
- Some tweaks to diagnostic report layout
- Fixes for AutoZero probing routines with $13 enabled
- Better error reporting on UI in general for macro and console errors
- Renamed Mac build from Intel to Universal for clarification
- Fixed some problematic shortcut behaviours on gamepad
- Fixed issue with final Z on automatic tool change being off by the retract distance
- Visualizer no longer displays miscalculated toolpath when loading the same file twice in a row
grblHAL
- Fixed continuous jogging with soft limits enabled on some EEPROM configurations on HAL
- HAL spindle selector now uses on-board EEPROM values for SLB_LASER option
- HAL flashing should be usable on Electron as of latest version and board should be connectable without power cycling.
- Repeated errors in HAL should be reported to the user less often
- Spindle selector now uses reported current spindle
- Fixed issue where spindle selector could get duplicate entries on ID change
- Fixed toolchange program feedrate variable on HAL
- Setting import in HAL firmware tool now correctly updates radio button options
1.4.5
General
- Fix for jog shortcuts not sending short movement when quick pressed.
- GRBL firmware tool correctly updates values when list shortened with search term
- More rounding in tool changing values.
- Various updates to diagnostic PDF to include more at-a-glance information.
- Behaviour changes to planned lines visualization to make it more accurate.
grblHAL
- HAL firmware categories loaded more consistently on connection
- HAL errors/alarms list populates more consistently on connection
- Renamed some firmware categories for clearer organization
- Better handling of cycle start, pause, and halt macro button functionalities
- Fixed choppiness in visualization in 4-axis mode.
- A-axis continuous jogging works as expected with soft limits enabled in 4-axis mode
- Feeder no longer pauses when setting EEPROM macro code block with a M0/M1 included.
- Rotary mode status correctly set on connection.
- Random errors no longer appear on connection
- Error log cleared on job start to prevent errors from not sending a job aren’t included in the job error report.
- Adjust HAL jogging values
- Added ability to flash SLB already in DFU mode
- Flashing UX improvements for HAL
1.4.6
General
- Values properly convert in surfacing tool when swapping between metric and imperial preferred units
- Fixed default UI value precision when swapping between metric and imperial preferred units
- Handle error silently when checking for updates but no internet connection is available
grblHAL
- Added default profiles for all machines when connected using grblHAL and using the ‘Restore Defaults’ functionality
- No longer emit error 79 when connecting with e-stop enabled on SLB
- Fixed issue with soft limit Z jogging when trying to jog from machine limits
- Fixed status query mask when sending 0x87 complete status report vs ? partial status report to prevent alarm states from being slow to clear on UI
1.4.7
General
- Tweaks to finish time estimation
- Alterations to behaviour of planning line in visualizer
- Fixed issue where error would prevent the file from resuming in some situations
- Go to button default values are now current position if absolute movement and 0 if relative movement
- GRBL controller now will always send $$ command eventually even if no startup message received
grblHAL
- Rapid position buttons work as expected with A-axis invert enabled
- Updated defaults for SLB homing speeds
- Added setting highlight and restore individual defaults to HAL firmware tool
- Fixed issue where SLB flashing could fail silently if connected before flashing
- Firmware flavour for SLB now included in diagnostic file
- Prevented soft reset on exiting check mode on SLB from getting the firmware not leaving check mode
Download gSender 1.4.7
As always, releases can be found on Github!
