Denford CNC GRBL Controller

Description

I was given a Denford CNC machine that is in amazing condition.

It was controlled through a proprietary software that is no longer maintained. Instead of reverse engineering the serial protocol that interfaces to the old controller, I decided to make a new controller.

The new controller is based on GRBL and is a drop in replacement for the old one. It sits on the 93 way header and uses a cheap microcontroller board to run GRBL.

All inputs are protected with clamping diodes to protect against voltage spikes. Additionally there is an RC filter which debounces the switches and a buffer.

Because I don't have a computer near my CNC and I didn't want to make a USB cable to hook it up to my phone, I decided to add the option to use a Bluetooth transceiver with the board. This lets me connect to it using my phone and this works amazingly well. I do all the homing and Gcode streaming through an app called '''GRBL Controller'''. Everything work

You can find the KiCAD files and more documentation on the project website on gitlab. If you want to contact me you can find my email on my website ( www.damped.ca )

Discussions

Aydelott wrote 12/19/2019 at 21:02

I have one of these in my high school class it’s never worked since I started could you help me do this?

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Damped wrote 12/19/2019 at 21:26

Sure! I have found through talking to others that there are a few variants of the stepper board that my board plugs into. If you can email me some pictures of your machine and the main board we can try to make sure that everything will work. There is more information on https://gitlab.com/damped/denfordcnc and you can email me through my website ( www.damped.ca )

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Aydelott wrote 12/21/2019 at 12:36

thanks I ordered your board! Our school is closed till Jan 2nd so I hopefully can get here ASAP I would love to work on it during break

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Dan Maloney wrote 09/17/2019 at 15:44

I checked out those Denford machines and they're pretty cool. Wish someone would give me something like that!

Good job getting one and and getting around that proprietary software.

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Damped wrote 09/19/2019 at 21:41

Thanks Dan!

I was pretty excited to get one I'll be honest. They are super sturdy but I wish the Z axis could go lower. Maybe I can figure out a way around that.

Good luck finding your own!

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Denford CNC GRBL Controller

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