Super Basic Beginner Workflow Walkthrough

gSender ❓ Question
1

Hi all, this is my first post on this forum, as I’m completely new to gSender, but I’ve been messing around on the Carbide3d forum since the very beginning. Sadly I am somehow still not an expert. :man_facepalming:

Can someone please help me understand the workflow for running a job in gSender? Up to this point it never occurred to me to try any other CNC control software, so I’m used to Carbide Motion telling me to put the tool number in, measuring the tool length, set the router to a certain speed, etc.

I get the feeling gSender has a lot less hand holding, which is good! But I want to make sure I’m ready to cross the street all by myself. Here is what I think you do:

  1. Set zero on your stock (obviously).
  2. Load the first tool for your job.
  3. Run the measure tool macro I got on this very forum.
  4. Set the router to the correct speed. Turn it on. Also the dust collection.
  5. Start the job.

Ok so that’s very straightforward. Hopefully it’s correct.

But what do you for a tool change? Many of my jobs involve multiple tools. Will gSender tell me when to change, or how does this work? If I want to have tool numbers in the actual messages from the software, can it do that? I often have an employee running the machine, and I’d prefer to provide them onscreen guidance. Should I just have them stick with Carbide Motion?

On a separate subject, is there a list anywhere of the stuff I need to strip out of the g-code I get from Fusion 360 to make gSender accept it?

2

You are basically correct. But if you want to be able to do tool changes within one gcode file, you will need to enable that in the settings. Under Tool Change. Set it to either pause or code. This will allow you to change the endmill and run Neil’s macro for the bitsetter. Enabling this will change your prompting at the start of a job as well. It’s best to create a dummy mini gcode file with a tool change to see what the prompts look like. Just set Z zero up high enough so nothing is cut and see what happens.

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3

Thanks, @SLabuta, I appreciate the advice! Do you know, can gSender handle tool numbers? I wonder if I need to encode this in some way manually.

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@mrhume Right now gSender does not do anything with tool numbers. There is some talk of doing something in a future release, but for now you need to manually remember the tools.

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No need for tool numbers unless you have an automatic tool changer (ATC)

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To add, gSender now pops up a toast with the tool number if it sees it near the same line as the M6 so that you can know what tool to switch to. If you see any issues with this feature let us know :+1:

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