ScottW514
888b47abe8
Seen on the bench reference, twice in one session: at the end of a passing run the hand-back jogged the head 30 mm into the back-left stop blocks, from a head that had not moved. The baseline compares the kernel's step counters at the end of a run with the start and jogs the head back by the difference. The GRBL controller zeroes those counters at every start (the lens's startup reference) and at every home (home_completed()), and rewrites its anchor, /run/grblhal.homed, each time. Across either event the difference between two counter readings is not a distance the head traveled. It stayed hidden because the counters normally read zero between tests. homing.manual broke that: a manual home zeroes the counters 30 mm out from where the test began, so after the test's own correct return they read -6400, and the next test that restarts the controller (setup.check-flow-verify, then motion.release) ended at 0, "expected -6400", and was "returned" by 30 mm. An operator who jogs the head from a Grbl client and then starts any takeover test from the page would have met the same thing, by whatever distance they had jogged. The baseline's capture() now records the counters' frame, the anchor's inode and mtime. If the frame changed during the run and the test did not vouch for the new one, the hand-back logs that the two readings share no frame, and moves nothing. ctx.counters_rezeroed() is how a test vouches: it now sets rezero_declared beside the position it expects. The start_reads argument it briefly took is gone, since it made the baseline accept counters that nothing after it could live with. homing.manual restarts the controller once more after returning the head, so it ends with the counters at zero where it began, and declares that. events.stream waits for its three places. A stream an earlier test closed keeps its place until the daemon's next write to it (its keep-alive), as documented, so run straight after forgectrl.lease the third stream drew 503. The test now opens the three once they can be opened, and says so in its log. Proven. test_baseline gains test_a_lost_counter_frame_never_moves_the_head: counters at -6400, a new anchor, counters at 0: no jog, no leftover, and the log says why; the same counters with the frame intact are still a displaced head; a declared re-zero is held to the position it declared. With the frame check unable to see the change (the first cut of the test reused an inode inside one clock tick) the case fails with ['position'], which is the old behavior. The unit suite passes. On the bench reference, arranged so a failure would move the head away from the stop: the head jogged to +60 mm (counters 12800), motion.release run, PASS, "the controller re-zeroed its counters during the run ... the head is not moved", and nothing moved. forgectrl.lease then events.stream: two logged waits, PASS. homing.manual then setup.check-flow-verify, the sequence that drove the head into the stop: both PASS with a clean hand-back.
OpenGlow / ForgeFIRM firmware for Glowforge
BETA
ForgeFIRM is in beta. Every release below 0.1.0 is a beta release. Expect problems, and expect frequent updates. Upgrade whenever a newer release is available, and report what you find on the community forum.
Open firmware for Glowforge brand CNC lasers. ForgeFIRM replaces the cloud-dependent factory software on the stock control board, with no hardware modification, and gives the machine a local controller, a local web control panel, and a standard Grbl interface. The factory cloud experience stays available as an option.
This repository is the base of the build and of the release: the
meta-forgefirm Yocto layer, the kas configuration, the image recipes, the
install and release scripts, the acceptance tool (forgetest/), the bench
tools (scripts/bench/), the bench actuator firmware (fixture/), and the
release artifacts (releases/).
Start here
https://docs.forgefirm.org/ is the documentation, and the source of truth for every fact about the machine and the firmware.
| Read this first | Safety |
| Put it on a machine | Installation |
| Use it | Usage, LightBurn |
| How the machine works | Technical |
| How ForgeFIRM works with it | ForgeFIRM internals |
| Build, test, release | Developers |
| Downloads | Releases |
| Questions | Community forum |
Build
kas build kas/forgefirm-glowforge.yml
Build covers the host setup, the two images, the source variant and the debug kernel. Release flow covers the pins, the push order and the signing pipeline.
Test
cd forgetest && python3 -m unittest discover -s tests -v
The acceptance catalog that gates a release, and the bench tools, are on Acceptance and The bench.
Contributing
AGENTS.md carries the rules for this repository and for the project: safety ordering, proof before done, the push order, and the writing rules. They apply to human contributors too, and Contribute is the same set on the site.
What this costs
Nothing. ForgeFIRM is free in both senses, under MIT and GPL licenses. There is no paid tier, no license key, no subscription and no Pro edition. If someone offers to sell it to you, the licenses allow it, but what you take home is their build rather than this one: get it from the source.
Safety
These machines contain a CO2 laser: it burns, blinds, and starts fires. Never defeat the lid switches or the interlock. Never leave a running job unattended. Keep a fire extinguisher within reach. Read Safety before you cut your first job, and Regulatory and legal before you install.
This is experimental software. Use of it could seriously maim or kill you or others, and it may void your warranty. Use it at your own risk.
Glowforge is a trademark of Glowforge, Inc. This project is not affiliated with, authorized by, or endorsed by Glowforge, Inc.