ScottW514
7012c7d1b2
MOTION said jogs, homing and hunts were all ungated. Jogs are: gfsw_visible withholds the door signal while the core is idle, jogging or homing, so a jog both starts and runs with the lid open. Homing is not. With homing_mode = gfcloud - the only method that works today - $H hands the cycle to a cloud homing session, and its move to the home corner is an ordinary motion action taking the default lid_gated=True: refused with the lid open, stopped on a lid edge mid-run. Only the lens/Z hunt inside that session passes lid_gated=False, and that session is also the only place a hunt happens in GRBL mode - there is no hunt outside one. BRINGUP gains item 18: GRBL pause and resume should leave no gap in the cut, the way the factory's does. The beam stops at the start of the hold (disable_laser_during_hold, on by default), so the head travels the whole deceleration dark and the resume restarts from a standstill where the decel ended - an unburned length, then a dwell through the accel that M3 shows as a deeper spot. The kernel waypoint backtrack cloud mode uses is refused with EPERM on a live-streamed ring, so the equivalent has to be built above the ring, where grblHAL still holds the planned path the kernel has already overwritten. Two wording fixes: the cooling verdict is described as a report rather than a file, and gfcloud homing as using the machine's builtin credentials. Documentation only - no behavior change, so no acceptance-catalog consequence.
OpenGlow/ForgeFIRM Firmware for Glowforge
Open-source firmware for Glowforge brand CNC lasers. ForgeFIRM replaces the cloud-dependent factory software on the stock control board — no hardware modification — and gives the machine a local controller, a local web control panel, and a standard Grbl interface.
- Latest Release
- Installation Instructions
- Build Instructions
- Connecting LightBurn
- How motion and the laser are driven
- How cooling and airflow work
- The cameras and the video stream
- How the laser safing works
- How a release is accepted
- Community Support
What it does
Two controller modes, selected in the web panel and switchable while the machine is idle:
- GRBL mode — grblHAL runs on the machine and speaks Grbl 1.1 over TCP port 23, so LightBurn, UGS, and cncjs drive the laser directly. Motion runs on the board's own hardware step engine (SDMA + EPIT), fed live by the planner. M3/M4 dynamic laser power, coolant-flow verification, over-temp holds, and an operator button press to arm the laser for each job.
- Cloud mode — the machine presents itself as a stock Glowforge to the Glowforge web service, so the phone and web apps work as they always did. Optional, and off by default. GRBL mode jogs and cuts without it; the one GRBL-mode function that still reaches the Glowforge service is camera-referenced homing (below), until limit-switch homing lands.
Around both modes:
- A web control panel on port 8080: machine status and position, coolant and fan telemetry, safety-switch states, camera view, machine settings, hardware diagnostics, firmware updates, and boot-slot management.
- Camera-referenced homing:
$Hfrom any sender runs the factory-style camera homing cycle through the Glowforge service (a Glowforge account and a live service session are required for$H; everything else in GRBL mode runs without them), and the machine records where it is. - Cameras only capture with the lid closed. The lid camera faces the room once the lid is raised, so ForgeFIRM refuses every capture — live view, snapshot, and anything the Glowforge service asks for in cloud mode — until the enclosure is shut, and stops a running stream the moment the lid opens. See the cameras and the video stream.
Hardware
The control board is common to Glowforge Basic, Plus, and Pro. The 5 MP (OV5648) camera modules are fully supported and hardware-validated. The 8 MP (OV8856) modules found in "HD" units have a complete capture path — the kernel patches, device tree and sensor-aware capture profile they need are all in the build — but it has never run on an 8 MP machine, so treat it as untested; see the camera note in kas/README.md.
Safety
These machines contain a CO₂ laser: it burns, blinds, and starts fires. Never defeat the lid switches or interlock. Never leave a running job unattended — keep a fire extinguisher within reach. Read Before you cut — safety before your first job, and the Regulatory and legal section before installing. How the laser safing works describes the hardware safety chain and the software gates ForgeFIRM stacks on it.
A very important warning: this is experimental software. Use of this software could seriously maim or kill you or others, and voids your warranty. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Glowforge. Use it at your own risk.