ScottW514
c2c627d9b6
Four new sessions in the stream harness cover the model (grblHAL-glowforge 2bca017, pinned here). Density renders the commanded level exactly - levels 2, 3, 7, 15, 25 and 38 came back as 0.0158, 0.0237, 0.0551, 0.1182, 0.1969 and 0.2993 against level/127 of 0.01575, 0.02362, 0.05512, 0.11811, 0.19685 and 0.29921 - S1000 renders 1.0000 and still ends dark, every power byte carries full duty, and a level change inside a run costs no stream byte where analog ships one per level. Rule 13 is the one worth having: the same job run under both models produces an identical motion grid tick for tick, and all 20051 density FIRE ticks fall inside the 169776 the analog run fired. The model masks the core's fire state and never sources one, measured rather than argued. Rule 14 covers the idle-gap fix: a standalone S between moves, from a sender slow enough to drain the planner, now fires each move at its own level (28338 ticks each at duties 30, 52 and 84). Before the fix duty 30 held all 85014 and the other two levels never appeared. That closes "Next work" item 18, which this work opened earlier today. The harness now derives its expectations from the board's floor and chains two launches over one settings file, because the core precomputes the S to duty mapping once when the spindle is enabled: $35 written at runtime persists and reports immediately but only enters force at the next controller start. That is recorded in BRINGUP beside the existing defaults note, and laser.power-floor's failure message now says so. Acceptance: the density path shipping off by default is inert until laser_power_model is set, and the laser tests' covers already name grblhal-glowforge src/**; the model's own acceptance test waits on the bench drill that picks the base period.
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.