hey guys I'll be completely honest I have little to no programming knowledge or skills. I have been successful with basic projects by reading through tutorials and looking at others code and adapting it to fit mine. But I am completely lost, Ive spent a few hours looking online and just cant seem to find what I need. The help I need is for configuring GRBL, and I know this is the arduino forum but I cant seem to find the right place to ask this question, and I think its pretty simple for someone who knows arduino but not for me.
The problem I have is I bought a cheap chinese laser etching machine and I need to convert it to a newer version of grbl so I can control the laser via PWM. The chinese one is setup for just off and on, and I need to be able to change to power to burn grayscale images. I saw a youtube video that it can be done but the shield on mine is not a standard shield, the pins are different. I was reading that I can change the pin map in the grbl file which I found but Im confused on what to do here. all of the stepper motors work with the updated GRBL but the laser stays on and has no control on turning it off so I assume the pins are different.
The code that I believe needs changing is this
// Define spindle enable and spindle direction output pins.
#define SPINDLE_ENABLE_DDR DDRB
#define SPINDLE_ENABLE_PORT PORTB
// Z Limit pin and spindle PWM/enable pin swapped to access hardware PWM on Pin 11.
#ifdef VARIABLE_SPINDLE
#ifdef USE_SPINDLE_DIR_AS_ENABLE_PIN
// If enabled, spindle direction pin now used as spindle enable, while PWM remains on D11.
#define SPINDLE_ENABLE_BIT 5 // Uno Digital Pin 13 (NOTE: D13 can't be pulled-high input due to LED.)
#else
#define SPINDLE_ENABLE_BIT 3 // Uno Digital Pin 11
#endif
#else
#define SPINDLE_ENABLE_BIT 4 // Uno Digital Pin 12
#endif
#ifndef USE_SPINDLE_DIR_AS_ENABLE_PIN
#define SPINDLE_DIRECTION_DDR DDRB
#define SPINDLE_DIRECTION_PORT PORTB
#define SPINDLE_DIRECTION_BIT 5 // Uno Digital Pin 13 (NOTE: D13 can't be pulled-high input due to LED.)
#endif
Since this is a chinese board I decided to Ohm out the shield to figure out what pin goes where - I have a three wire laser - which has confused me a bit more because im getting strange readings. (Im and automotive technician so I understand automotive electrical principles) for the red wire on my laser im getting a good ohm reading for pin D12 (ardunio nano board) then for the white and black wire (I assume its a transistor?) I get continuity to ground pin for both and also negative resistance on pin 8 for white wire and positive resistance for black wire pin 8.
So I think I have the pins figured out but in the code "#define SPINDLE_ENABLE_BIT 3 // Uno Digital Pin 11" Im confused because it says pin 3 but the notes say uno pin 11? This is were I become completely lost.
thanks in advance for any help I totally need it