Greetings, Thank you for adding me. I have been lurking a little and planning for a R7 build. I have many of my drawings running in Fusion 360 and the software and tool path generation has been short learning curve. My computer is a long ways from my shop environment. I see most people are using a windows laptop to feed the tool paths to the TinyG. I am really looking for something small and cheap to perform this task. I really don’t have room for a computer in the shop. In fact I have been squeezing existing machines for every inch to make room for the R7.
Is it possible to make a Raspberry Pi based interface with a small monitor or will I need Windows to run chillipeppr? What is the cheapest/smallest way to get chillipeppr in the shop? While I am new to home built CNC I have lots of old school assembly language programming experience from the '80s and am very comfortable with hardware.
I would need someone with more experience to chime in but I do believe it is entirely possible for Cp to run on a rPi. You would most likely need a network cable running out there though.
I use linux exclusively. I don’t send to s tiny g. I have an Arduino with a cnc shield. I believe they are pretty similar as far as sending G-code. I use a software package called bCnc to send the G-code. Been working great for me for over a year.
Could get a cheap (or old) laptop or netbook to use with the R7. This is what I’m looking into doing. Chilipeppr, being web-based, should run on Windows, Linux, Rasp. Pi, or Mac.
I’m using small factor desktop and external wall mounted 24’’ monitor to run Chilipeppr. My TinyG is connected to a SJPS server running on rPi. Both rPi and PC desktop are connected to my home LAN with Ethernet cables.
EDIT:
Wireless mouse and keyboard to make cabling minimal and I am able to use the keyboard freely within the workshop.
Some time ago I tried to run Chilipeppr from rPi (I have rPi v. 2), but it was slow and non responsive. Leaving SJPS on the rPi works fine and I use this setup for quite a long time without issues.
I an running a TinyG on R7, from. Network connected Rpi3. Have a local monitor on it, but not really needed once setup to auto start the json server. I use a laptop with wireless to run files. I would love to use just the Rpi, but I have not been able to get a good display view of chillipepper on it. I did add a usb camera server on the Rpi so I can monitor for problems from the house. But I still have to lug the laptop out for setup and start, then can take it back in side. The Rpi3 works great, so far.
A pi is fine for the Serial Port Json Server. But running the webUI of chilipeppr from it is not recommended due to the resources required to render the page on the pi itself. Others have done it, but response is slow.
It would be recommended to have just SPJS on the PI, then another computer to render the chilipeppr UI and jog out at the machine.
Thank you for the information. I have an old PC that has been sitting outside by the trash for a few years. I spent the day cleaning it up and testing it. After reseating the cards and RAM I have it running but the CPU fan is not sending a signal to the board. I’ll try a little longer to fix it but if I can’t get it to work I am going to build a raspberry Pi 3 and see what I can make work. I’ll update as I progress. The BCNC looks like a reasonable solution.