How to feed G-Code to Blackbox via Arduino Uno

Jumping in on this older conversation to say I am having a similar issue currently and wanted to see if I could get some additional guidance. I am trying to send GCODE to a Blackbox using an Arduino Mega, through the second additional serial port provided. I apologize for asking easy to answer questions, but I am very new to this and the above wiki was not helpful to me. I was wondering what I need to do differently in my code below? I also included pictures of my connection to the Blackbox.

char grbl_out;
void setup() {
Serial.begin(115200);
Serial2.begin(115200);
delay(2000);
Serial2.println('\r\n\r\n');
delay(2000);
grbl_out = Serial2.read();
Serial.print(grbl_out);
delay(2000);
Serial2.println('G0 X10 Y10 Z0\r\n');
delay(2000);
grbl_out = Serial2.read();
Serial.print(grbl_out);
}
void loop() {
// put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
}

 

The current functionality for what I am trying to do is simply just send the Blackbox simple linear movement commands, to move an end effector to different locations within the scope of the gantry. The end effector is controlled separately from the gantry, but exists on the same codebase. I am really inexperienced with serial communication in general, and have read this wiki already in depth. Is there any more specific resource you could point me to in order to write a super stripped down, basic code that would correctly write GCODE to the serial pins of the Mega and consequently to the Blackbox? I wasn’t even aware that hundreds of lines of code were needed to do such a thing.

 

Additionally, there’s no interface needed for what I am trying to do with this. The endgame for the program is to execute the program in one shot, rather than wait for real time user input.

 

I took a look at all of these files and developed the below code, which unfortunately still generates no response. There is no "error" or "ok" returned. I am trying to understand the Denvi/Candle serial communication code, however like I said I am not super experienced with this. Are there any glaring issues in this code you can see?

bool check_mode;
void shutdown()
{
// optionally do stop motors dim the LED's etc.
// Serial.print("stopped"); // or other warning
while(1);
}
void setup()
{
//Initialize
Serial.begin(9600);
Serial1.begin(115200);
//Wake up grbl
Serial.print("Initializing Grbl...");
Serial1.write("\r\n\r\n");
//Wait for grbl to initialize and flush startup text in serial input
delay(2000);
check_mode = false;
if (check_mode);
Serial.print("Enabling Grbl Check-Mode: SND: [$C]");
Serial1.write("$C\n");
while (1);
if (Serial1.find('error') >= 0)
{
Serial.print("REC: error!");
Serial.print("Failed to set Grbl check-mode. Aborting...");
shutdown();
}
else if (Serial1.find('ok') >= 0);
{
Serial.print('REC: ok');
}
}

 

Unfortunately this is not an option for me at this point. This project is for a Capstone project for my mech engineering degree, and the project is due in just over a month. When we purchased the 1515 and the Blackbox, it had seemed like it was much easier to stream code to the Blackbox via Arduino serial communication. The Arduino is controlling two additional steppers besides the 1515 steppers, plus a robotic arm via serial communication which at present date works just fine.

 

I’ll change the while loop that was a mistake placeholder. I did send the Serial1.write(“$C\n”); right before the while loop, do I need to put this underneath the while loop?

 

OK so there is some progress made! I made those changes and now the program returns the following:

Failed to set Grbl check-mode. Aborting...28523REC: error!

I changed the code to the following, with "check" being a boolean value set to true. Is this number a specific error code? I looked up the GRBL error codes and they seem to only go up to two digits.

check_mode = false;
if (check_mode){
Serial.print("Enabling Grbl Check-Mode: SND: [$C]");
Serial1.write("$C\n");
}
while (check){
if (Serial1.find('error') >= 0)
{
Serial.print("REC: error!");
Serial.print("Failed to set Grbl check-mode. Aborting...");
//shutdown();
}
else if (Serial1.find('ok') >= 0);
{
Serial.print('REC: ok');
}
}

 

Yeah I meant to set it that way for now, “check” is just a boolean i set to true earlier in the program. All I’m looking for currently is for the Blackbox to return “ok” and the rest I can figure out on my own.

 

Peter, this is precisely what I need. Thank you very very much I’ve been searching forever on Google for something like this! I suppose I didn’t put the right search terms in. I’ll give this a shot next week!

 

Peter,

Finally got back in the shop to try this out, and it worked like a charm. Thank you so much for your help and for bearing with my lack of knowledge!