juank23 / candle-lathe

grbl cnc lathe controller

Candle-lathe

GRBL lathe controller, modified from https://github.com/Denvi/Candle

simple UI, works well with both small touch screen and large computer scren

To compile on Ubuntu (20.04)

install Qt5

sudo apt-get install build-essential 
sudo apt-get install qt5-default 
sudo apt-get install qtcreator
sudo apt-get install libqt5serialport5-dev libqt5serialport5

build and run

git clone https://github.com/hjliaw/Candle-lathe.git
cd Candle-lathe/src
qmake candle.pro 
make
./Candle

Cross compile on Ubuntu for Raspberry Pi

Runs very well on Raspberry Pi 3B with 7" touchscreen. Will slow down dramatically if RPi is connected to an external 4K display, hence not recommended. If you want a large display (larger than my Sherline lathe), use a faster computer.

It's a bit slow to compile Qt even on RPi 4. Fortunately, with a little bit more work, one can cross-compile on a faster computer.

• see this excellent instructoins https://github.com/UvinduW/Cross-Compiling-Qt-for-Raspberry-Pi-4
• to eliminate the endless error message "raspberry qt could not queue drm page flip on screen hdmi1 (permission denied)", add the following to your .bashrc

  export QT_QPA_EGLFS_ALWAYS_SET_MODE="1"

• I run my RPi CNC controller without keyboard and mouse. Hence no X11, but with the following added to /rc/local to auto start on power up.

  (
    export QT_QPA_EGLFS_ALWAYS_SET_MODE="1"
    cd /home/pi/candle 
    ./Candle 2> /home/pi/cndl_err.log >> /home/pi/cndl_out.log &
  )

main screen