Grbl_ESP32 CNC Development Board V4.1

Name: Grbl_ESP32 CNC Development Board V4.1
SKU: 14232
Price: 29.95 USD
Availability: Discontinued
Rating: 4.73 (14 reviews)

(14 Reviews)

A Board to control your CNC machine with Grbl_ESP32

Designed by Bart Dring in United States of America

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Hardware and Electronics for Motion Control and CNC.

A Board to control your CNC machine with Grbl_ESP32

What is it? This is a Grbl_ESP32 CNC Development board. This is a quick and easy way to use and test CNC on the ESP32 controller. Note: If you are looking for more axes and advanced features, check o…

What is it?

This is a Grbl_ESP32 CNC Development board. This is a quick and easy way to use and test CNC on the ESP32 controller. Note: If you are looking for more axes and advanced features, check out this 6 axis capable controller.

Grbl is a great CNC firmware that has been around for nearly a decade. It was originally designed for the Arduino UNO and basic 3 axis CNC routers, but it has been ported to other CPUs and was the basis for many other CNC and 3D printer firmwares.

The firmware was written using the Arduino IDE to make it as user friendly as possible. If you have experience with Arduinos, this will not be much different.

I/O - The ESP32 is very flexible allowing you to remap the the I/O features to alternate pins. Grbl_ESP32 is also far more flexible than Arduino Grbl for assigning pins to features. But, when you make a PCB, you force specific pins to specific features. To give some flexibility there are some shared pins. The SD Card shares pins with Mist coolant, Spindle Direction and Spindle Enable. These pins were chosen because they are very rarely used in DIY CNC. Full control of a variable speed spindle is still on a dedicated pin. If you really need the SD Card and some of those features, contact me. There are many alternative ways to do that. See this wiki page for additional info on I/O.

ESP32 brings the following features to small scale CNC.

Powerful dual core processor running at 240MHz per core.
4MB of flash RAM
Floating point coprocessor.
On board Wifi.
On Board Bluetooth.

The board has the following features.

A very modular design - If any of the major circuits get damaged, you can plug in a new one.
Socket for an ESP32 Dev board also known as NodeMCU 32S. Most 19 pin per side dev boards should work, just check the pins or ask me. Extra connector holes are positioned next to the NodeMCU 32S for test probing and to accommodate wider 19 pin modules. An extra, 19 position connector is provided.
(3) Sockets for stepper motor drivers. These fit many types of drivers. The TI DRV8825 type is my favorite driver for this type of application. Micro-step selection jumpers are included.
Home/Limit switch connections for XY and Z axes. These also have R/C filters to eliminate high frequency noise from false triggering the switches.
Control switch input connections for Feed Hold, Cycle Start, Reset and Door. These have filters as well as pullup resistors, because they are on inputs that do not have internal pullups.
Spindle output for PWM (Speed).
A micro SD Socket Note: Grbl senders do not support SD cards yet, but most have a manual console where the command is easily typed. The WebUI fully supports the SD Card.
DC-DC power supply. There is a strong 3A DC-DC power supply to run the ESP32 if it is not connected to USB.

Why did you make it?

I ported Grbl_ESP32 and made this CNC controller to simplify and lower to cost of small-scale CNC. I chose to use the Arduino IDE to develop the firmware, so a beginner can configure and compile this firmware. Grbl_ESP32 will eventually allow the first sub $10 CNC controllers with native Wifi and Bluetooth.

What makes it special?

I am the lead developer of Grbl_ESP32. All purchases will help me fund future development of this exciting project.

Everything is Open Source with all files on Github

What do you get with your order.

A fully assembled and tested base PCB.

Revisions

Version 4.1. This changes keeps the same features as Ver 3.5. It rearranges some GPIO to compensate for for some ESP32 that have an on board LED.
Version 3.5. The Spindle PWM is now level shifted to 5V, from the 3.3V ESP32 voltage. This was done to make it more compatible with command spindle speed controllers and laser power supplies. The spindle enable features is also required to turn on the spindle.
Version 3.1. The SD card and 5V power supply are now built in and not modules.

Optional Items

Microcontroller - This is an ESP32 module programmed for use with this controller. It will be setup as a Wifi access point. All configuration and future firmware uploads can be done via WiFi. If you are new to ESP32, this can save you some time.
Motor Drivers - This is (3) TI DRV8825 stepper driver modules.

Questions? (for this product or Grbl_ESP32 in general)

Ask them via Tindie.
Ask them on GitHub
Join our Discord server for support and discussion

Review Breakdown

Average Ratings

Product: (4.86)

Documentation: (4.36)

Shipping: (5.00)

Communication: (4.71)

Nathan | Jan. 20, 2021

Good deal

I'm in the process of using this for more of a robot than a traditional cnc machine. So far, everything is coming together fairly well albeit slow as I'm modifying the webui for my robot's functions. Bart and luc (esp3d web ui dev) have been very helpful in answering questions.

Daniel | Oct. 23, 2020

glad I chose to use this board as I move away from Arduino

I added one of my ESP32's, loaded grbl_esp32 added some a4988 drivers, connected three steppers and that was it, worked first try! tweaking the grbl config and adding end stops next but my experience so far has been really good.
I'm very glad to have found this board as I start learning more about using ESP32's for different applications. The effort Bart Dring put into creating this shows and for me is well worth the price. Saving my pennies to buy the MPCNC CNC Controller to upgrade my mpcnc.
Update: ended up using the first board to fix my goofy little 3018 it actually works now without having to mess around with it for longer than the work takes :)
Bought two more for my original project and a spare....thanks for your effort Bart!

Kirk | July 26, 2020

Works Great!

I ordered this board with the ESP32 module and 3 DRV8825s to replace a Gecko G540/LinuxCNC PC on a 2008 vintage Zenbot Mini that's been sitting idle for many years. The biggest installation issue was converting the bare wire stepper connections to dupont connectors, configuration was straightforward, and it's worked fine through it's first few projects. One of the included DRV8825 boards (set at 0.75V Vref, 1.5A for the 2A motors) erupted in the usual flames and cloud of smoke after a day of use (I've had several fail on other CNC devices, seems to be a common problem) but a generic Amazon replacement hasn't had any issues. I'm controlling a Paul Jones ER11 spindle through a DC to AC SSR, had to use the 3.3V spindle output since the 5V (no USB connected at the time) didn't work. No attempt to try PWM since it's an AC spindle, with the speed set to 1 as stated the spindle turns off and on as it should.

The onboard web server made testing and tinkering with the config easy, gcode uploads and runs from an SD although I use USB for actual routing jobs via a laptop. Grbl works as expected, no glitches.

Overall I'm favorably impressed, and would use Bart's Boards on future projects.

Andy | Feb. 18, 2020

Very impressed! Will definitely be ordering again!

Bought this to remove the mandatory PC component of an old SharkCNC. Mr. Dring has been extremely available and helpful along the whole adventure. Highly recommend this (when it becomes available again)!

Mike | Jan. 26, 2020

Great board and well thought out

I was able to get the board up and running very quickly. Very will designed. I would recommend having the schematic available on this website as it is necessary to understand how it is wired. I did finally find it on www.buildlog.net

(I did have a soldering issue on the boards I bought, but they were obvious and quickly resolved)

Great product!

George | Nov. 6, 2019

Nice Quality Board!

I have had no problems with this board. My time was spent studying the firmware code from GitHub......but for me it was a fun challenge. I have limited and outdated programming skills but I was determined to crack that code!

I did have one question for Bart and he responded right away. It was regarding the proper memory allocation used uploading to the esp32. The information is online if you do the research. He pointed me right to it. (Thanks Bart)....It is here: https://github.com/bdring/Grbl_Esp32/wiki/Compiling-the-firmware

If you are unsure about your project and just want to get GRBL running on an esp32, I would suggest spending a week or two and get GRBL uploading in Demo Mode (which is default to insure that no shorts will fry any components). After you reach that point, you are only a few minutes away from enabling GRBL to run your machine.

I tested it with four G-Code senders and they all work. Universal G-Code sender 2.0 is fine. If you want more features, the board will also run with GrblGru using Grbl-Mega-5x mode.

The extra grounds provided on the inputs are very handy and make it easier to keep your wiring organised.

I wired my board for external drivers to use larger motors. That part is easy. Only 3 wires per axis will get your motors moving.

I am looking forward to watching and learning as Bart's project continues to grow.

Doug | Oct. 8, 2019

All-around fantastic

I had a minor issue with my board, and it was very quickly resolved after contacting Bart.

Assembly was a breeze. The firmware building process is very well documented and was likewise very easy.

By default, the code can be built in "test drive mode" so you can quickly take one variable out of the equation before testing on your hardware.

And on top of that, you get an open source code base that is being actively developed against a nice road map.

No complaints!

Damian | Feb. 6, 2019

Great CNC Board - ESP32 is a perfect fit for GRBL

This is a great board - being able to use Bluetooth/Telnet instead of having to have a PC tethered to an Arduino is fantastic. I made some changes to the GRBL_ESP32 code in order to support XY wall plotters that deal in Polar co-ordinates and everything is working perfectly. Grab one yourself, you won't be disappointed.

Owen | Dec. 15, 2018

Fantastic CNC controller,

Well made and good looking board; exactly as described. Arrived fast and well packed.

I have installed an AliExpress ESP32S and LV7829 stepper drivers, they simply plugged in and worked; initial software load went horribly awry due to me shortcutting stuff and corrupting the index file I uploaded then fighting that instead of going to sleep. Following morning I started by erasing the flash on the ESP32 using esptool; and then following the instructions linked above from scratch I arrived at a working box with a local access point half an hr later.. :-)

Software is still evolving, plenty usable right now, with more to come of course. Only thing I miss is 'Go To Zero' buttons for the axes; but these are normally done via macros so it's not an issue. Connectivity via the serial/USB works as normal for GRBL, and I even telnetted to it successfully. I have not tried the bluetooth features; I left them disabled in source since it's not in my roadmap.

Youtube video review and demo of it in action is here:
https://youtu.be/jcl5qk3Hnro

Matthew | Oct. 2, 2018

Best thing since sliced bread

Fantastic quality board and soldering. It includes all the headers for any future 3 axis CNC routing application, including door switch, start and hold, probe, and both flood and mist cooling in the same setup.

The future support for uSD cards on a grbl board is awesome, no more tether needed, and the development pace on adding features such as control over WiFi and Bluetooth is pretty incredible.

Support for 24v steppers is appreciated, and so is the included barrel jack for power. The buck converter was included with the board though it isn't listed as an included item, an appreciated addition.

Even if this was a finished product with no more software updates, it is a awesome deal for such a good quality grbl board. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone in the market for a desktop CNC controller.

Dave | Sept. 24, 2018

An excellent board , that's now being used full time.

An excellent board for prototyping , that has made it as a permanent resident for my DIY CNC Router.
I bought this board as I was keen to tryout an alternative hardware platform to the mega, as I felt I was reaching the "speed limit" of the Mega2560.
Having purchased an ESP32 , which isn't very breadboard friendly, I was pleased to find this board , It even came with PCB standoffs which is a good idea to prevent shorts. I quickly cobbled up some fairly long leads to run my CNC Router to try it out , I've also added a RS485 link to control VFD Spindle and It seems to work very well.( it took a little time to add the software to control the VFD )
The patch leads were shortened and It is now resident at the heart of my CNC router.

The board has been well thought out , it contains additional pads, which I ended up using as my ESP32 board was 0.1" wider than the vendor's.
Its nice that all of the pins have an associated ground with them , making it easier to connect up. I've also asked for a power supply for each of the limit switch pins, as I use opto switches for these, though it was quite easy to add.
I'm also using off board stepper drivers , but these were quite easy to connect to with a few pin headers.

Many thanks for an excellent product and great support.

James | Sept. 23, 2018

Perfect for testing!

This board works perfect and is great for testing out the features of GRBL_ESP32. It is a good jumping off point to learn from before I design and make a custom PCB for my laser cutter. My custom board will certainly be influenced by what I learn from this one. Thanks for all the work you've done, Bart, and I'm glad I was able to support this awesome project!

Response from Bart Dring | Sept. 23, 2018

Thanks James,

God luck with your design. We have a Slack channel where we collaborate on designs. Let me know if you want an invite.

Douglas | Sept. 20, 2018

ESP32 is being used solely as an alternative MCU

The expectation was that there would be built in wifi support. It might be there with alternate software but there appears to be no example of using it. The SD card use requires the sacrifice of CNC features. It looks WiFi feature rich but offers little over the dirt cheap Arduino UNO approach.

Response from Bart Dring | Sept. 20, 2018

Douglas, I am sorry you are disappointed. This is the first I am hearing about that.

- The wifi support is currently available as a branch of the master version. It is downloadable at Github. You can also see the WiFi features in action on this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vtWNn9jyDs&t=4s

- The state of the SD features were explained in the description of this product. With that said, SD features are now fully functional and in the master branch of the code. As stated in the product description, you do need to sacrifice some features to use it, but those are very seldomly used features on DIY CNC of spindle reverse and spindle enable.

I am happy to refund your purchase if you like.

Mukunda | Sept. 18, 2018

Really well designed board, works flawlessly.

This board is exactly what I have been looking for. grbl on the esp32 is the ultimate low-cost cnc controller. I hope to get it working with the wrover module to take advantage of 4MB psram.

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