folk-cnc

Projector preview on CNC machine bed. Built on top of Folk.

(This was last tested on Folk ca64310a0d6ccdba181dbede469f2f7fe978bedd on September 23, 2024.)

Calibrate your CNC machine + projector + material surface, upload a gcode file, and folk-cnc will display a preview of where your CNC machine will cut.

Calibrating:

Before cut (notice the preview projection on the uncut wood) -> after cut (see how the projection was [roughly] aligned with the cut)

(Accuracy depends on how well you calibrate for now, and you have to recalibrate for each material/session -- we want to improve this process over time so we can reuse more and more calibration information.)

TODO: use 3d calibration, make gcode driver so you can have Folk plugged into the machine

Usage

1. Set up a Folk system.

2. Clone this repo into a folk-cnc subfolder in the writable partition FOLK-LIVE of the USB stick (if you are using a USB stick), or into ~/folk-live/folk-cnc (if you are using your own Linux; you may need to create ~/folk-live first).

3. Start up Folk. Go to http://folk-WHATEVER.local:4273/cnc/ and follow the instructions.

License

Apache 2.0

Credits

Owen Trueblood wrote a Web-based prototype as part of the original project; folk-cnc inherits Owen's high-level approach (but using an AprilTag instead of checkerboard) and the gcode parser that he implemented.

Supported by Gradient Retreat.