Balena CNC

This repo allows you to install CNC.js on a Balena device with a supported CNC machine connected to either /dev/ttyAMA0 (the build-in serial UART) or /dev/ttyUSB0 for USB-connected controllers.

This repo has been tested with a "3018 Pro" hobby CNC machine and a generic Grbl-based diode laser cutter.

Installation

1. A Balena-supported device (I used an old Raspberry Pi 2B I had sitting around).
2. A free Balena account.
3. Install Balena CLI as per the instructions.
4. Run balena login to give the CLI access to your account (if you haven't already).
5. Run balena devices supported to find the SLUG for the device you are using.
6. Run balena app create CNCMachine --type <device-slug>. In my case I used raspberry-pi2 for the device slug.
7. Download and flash a balenaOS image for your application. The easiest way is to click "add device" in the Balena dashboard (don't forget to set the WiFi credentials if needed) and use Etcher to write the image to your device or an SD card.
8. Run balena env add RESIN_HOST_CONFIG_gpu_mem 128 --application CNCMachine and balena env add RESIN_HOST_CONFIG_start_x 1 --application CNCMachine to enable the Raspbery Pi camera module if you're using one.
9. Power on your device.
10. Clone or download this repo.
11. Run balena push CNCMachine in the downloaded repo folder.

Balena Cloud will now build the configuration and docker images for your device and deploy them to your application. You should be able to connect to your device over HTTP to see CNC.js.

Usage

In the Balena Cloud dashboard (or by running balena devices -a CNCMachine) you should be able to see your device's name. Open your browser and type http://<device-name>.local/ replacing <device-name> with the name of your device. You may want to change the device's name to something easier to identify, like cnc-router or laser-cutter to aid in discoverability.

If you require remote access to your device you can enable the public device URL feature on Balena cloud and access it via a generated HTTPS URL. If you enable public access I strongly encourage you to enable authentication in the CNC.js UI.

Connecting to your CNC machine

In the top-left widget of the CNC.js homepage you are able to connect to your device via serial. You should see /dev/ttyAMA0 and/or /dev/ttyUSB0 in the drop-down list. If your device connects via a different device you will need to edit the docker-compose.yml file in this repository to add it to the list of devices that CNC.js is allowed to access.

Remember to run balena push CNCMachine whenever you make changes so that they can be built and deployed to your devices.

Using a Raspberry Pi camera

I use a Raspberry Pi camera to help monitor my jobs. You will need to configure the camera widget to manually connect to /camera?action=stream.

If you don't have or don't want to use a Raspberry Pi camera (or you're not even using a Raspberry Pi!) then that's fine. This project should detect the lack of a camera and quietly ignore it.

Remember to run balena push CNCMachine whenever you make changes so that they can be built and deployed to your devices.