Erik's dotG

I, Erik de Bruijn, have written a simple interactive controller in PHP (Linux only, sorry!). It behaves like a command line interface, but for your machine.

It will run your G-Code line by line and allow you to make decisions. It will run with interruptions (hence 'interactive controller'), so it is mostly meant for milling/engraving, not for extruding / 3D printing (which is time-critical).

After you've decided (e.g. on cardboard) that the path your tool travels is right, you can run the entire piece at once.

It is meant to have more control over your machine while working with G-Code. You can decide which line of G-Code to run and which to skip (by pressing r(un), [enter] or n(ext), [enter], respectively). You can type your own G-Codes in between. There are aliasses that you can use so you don't have to remember G or M codes.

This is version 0.1, so forgive any mistakes or lack of functionality. It will only run under Linux and needs PHP5 (Debian/Ubuntu: apt-get install php5-cli).

Future versions include a 'WRITE/ENGRAVE text' feature. You only need to type a sentence and it will be engraved into an object. These will remain separate scripts, but will be offered as a dotG package. Currently there is only the machine controller part. I will support bold and italic typeface and several sizes. Perhaps even 'simple HTML'!

Currently offered commands are:

.G: /help
  Quit          Exit the program.
  Help          Show this help.
  Speed         Change G1 movement speeds
  History       Show the history of commands
  Home          Go to home position (G1X0Y0Z0)
  helpg         Explanation of G codes
  absolute      Absolute positioning (G90)
  relative      Relative positioning (G91)
  newhome       Make this the new home (G92)
  fan_on        Turn on the cooler fan (M106)
  fan_off       Turn on the cooler fan (M107)
  spindle_on    Turn on the spindle (M106)
  spindle_off   Turn on the spindle (M107)
  unit_mm       Make the milimeter the basic unit (G21)
  unit_inch     Make the inch the basic unit (G20)

If, at the .G:-prompt, you type: /he[tab] it will autocomplete to /help. If there are multiple options, it will display them.

[Download the latest version here]

For older versions: [see the directory listing]

Licence: [GPLv3 (or later if available)]