mirror of
https://github.com/openglow-org/forgefirm.git
synced 2026-09-27 16:51:12 -07:00
ScottW514
dd6f459d7b
kas/README.md keeps the build, lockfile, pin and release procedure and a
short build-time facts list; its push/release checklist and Scarthgap
migration backlog are archived verbatim in CAMPAIGN-LOG ("Superseded
status notes"). The real-time argument (PREEMPT, why PREEMPT_RT is not
selectable or needed) joins the BRINGUP hardware facts bank next to the
ring measurements it rests on; the camera pointers go to the 0011-0013
patch headers; the image recipe's gfui-client comment drops its README
pointer.
Docs and a recipe comment only; no catalog consequence.
116 lines
6.3 KiB
Markdown
116 lines
6.3 KiB
Markdown
# OpenGlow/ForgeFIRM Firmware for Glowforge
|
|
|
|
> # ⚠️ IN DEVELOPMENT — NOT YET RELEASED
|
|
>
|
|
> **ForgeFIRM has no public release yet.** No images are published, nothing here
|
|
> is installable, and there is no supported way to put this on a machine. The
|
|
> documentation describes the firmware as it is being built and validated on the
|
|
> bench — it is here to be read, not followed.
|
|
>
|
|
> If you come across a file claiming to be a ForgeFIRM image, it did not come
|
|
> from this project.
|
|
|
|
> # What this costs
|
|
>
|
|
> Nothing. It cost nothing yesterday, it costs nothing today, and if anyone
|
|
> ever charges you for it, it wasn't this project.
|
|
>
|
|
> ForgeFIRM is free in both senses: free as in beer, free as in speech. All of
|
|
> it is public. The image, the build layers, the kernel module, the control
|
|
> daemon, the grblHAL driver, the cloud client, down to the brackets you print.
|
|
> The licenses (MIT and GPL) are the standard ones, and any lawyer will tell
|
|
> you they're not a trap. Read it, build it, change it, pass it on.
|
|
>
|
|
> No paid tier. No license key, no subscription, no activation, no Pro edition,
|
|
> no feature parked behind a paywall. Nothing is held back for a rainy day,
|
|
> mostly because there's no plan for a rainy day.
|
|
>
|
|
> The work happens in public, including the parts that don't work yet, which
|
|
> are written up with more candor than flatters anyone. There's no product
|
|
> page. No waitlist, no pre-order, no backer, no launch, nothing to buy. Anyone
|
|
> who spends their evenings deleting sales pitches has earned the reflex to
|
|
> suspect one more, so don't take a stranger's word for it. Ten minutes with
|
|
> the licenses and the commit log settles it, which beats trust on both cost
|
|
> and accuracy. Questions are welcome at
|
|
> [the community forum](https://community.openglow.org).
|
|
>
|
|
> If someone offers to sell you this firmware, the licenses allow it and
|
|
> nobody's calling it theft. Just note that you'd be paying for something
|
|
> that's given away, and that what you take home is their build, not this one:
|
|
> a stranger's code, running a laser that has no opinion about what it burns.
|
|
> Get it from the source. Same price everywhere, and here you get to read what
|
|
> you're running.
|
|
|
|
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](https://github.com/ScottW514/forgefirm/releases)
|
|
* [Installation Instructions](https://github.com/ScottW514/forgefirm/blob/master/INSTALL.md)
|
|
* [Build Instructions](https://github.com/ScottW514/forgefirm/blob/master/BUILD.md)
|
|
* [Connecting LightBurn](https://github.com/ScottW514/forgefirm/blob/master/docs/LIGHTBURN.md)
|
|
* [How motion and the laser are driven](https://github.com/ScottW514/forgefirm/blob/master/docs/MOTION.md)
|
|
* [How cooling and airflow work](https://github.com/ScottW514/forgefirm/blob/master/docs/COOLING.md)
|
|
* [The cameras and the video stream](https://github.com/ScottW514/forgefirm/blob/master/docs/VIDEO.md)
|
|
* [How the laser safing works](https://github.com/ScottW514/forgefirm/blob/master/docs/SAFETY.md)
|
|
* [How a release is accepted](https://github.com/ScottW514/forgefirm/blob/master/docs/ACCEPTANCE.md)
|
|
* [Community Support](https://community.openglow.org)
|
|
|
|
## What it does
|
|
|
|
**Two controller modes, selected in the web panel and switchable while the
|
|
machine is idle:**
|
|
|
|
* **GRBL mode** — [grblHAL](https://github.com/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**: `$H` from any sender runs the factory-style
|
|
camera homing cycle through the Glowforge service (a Glowforge account and a
|
|
live service session are required for `$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](https://github.com/ScottW514/forgefirm/blob/master/docs/VIDEO.md).
|
|
|
|
## 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
|
|
`docs/BRINGUP.md` (Next work, cameras) and the headers of kernel patches
|
|
0011-0013 in `meta-glowforge-bsp`.
|
|
|
|
## 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](docs/LIGHTBURN.md#before-you-cut--safety-read-this-first)
|
|
before your first job, and the
|
|
[Regulatory and legal](INSTALL.md#regulatory-and-legal) section before
|
|
installing. [How the laser safing works](docs/SAFETY.md) 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.**
|