KS0288 Keyestudio CNC GRBL

Introduction

Keyestudio CNC GRBL V1.0 is a motherboard developed for various robots such as laser engraving, CNC, writing robot and so on. It has complete interfaces with cheap price, and can connect external drive, very suitable for DIY or factory use.

The driver chip of this board is CH340, which is not compatible with mac system computer.

Specification

Microprocessor：MEGA328p
Input voltage: DC 12V
File supporting format：Gcode
Supporting machine structure：CNC，laser engraving，writing robot.

Pin Explanation

Install Driver and Development Environment Software IDE

（1）Install Driver Software

For different operating system, there may be slight difference in installation method. Below is an example in WIN 7.
a.When you connect Keyestudio CNC GRBL V1.0 to your computer at the first time, right click “Computer” —>“Properties”—> “Device manager”, you can see “USB2.0-Serial”. Shown below.

b.Click “USB2.0-Serial”, select “Update Driver software”.

c.Then, click “Browse my computer for driver software”.

d.Find the “usb_ch341_3.1.2009.06” file.

e.Click “Next”,Installation completed; click “Close”.

f.After driver is installed, go to “Device manager” again. right click “Computer” —> “Properties”—> “Device manager”, you can see the Board and Com port as below figure shown.

(2) Install Development Environment Software IDE

When getting this control board, we need to install Arduino IDE Enter the website https://www.arduino.cc/， click and

Select the version you want to download, the latest version could be downloaded.

Alternatively, you could select previous release. In this project, we use 1.8.7 version.

Click to view the below page

Click to download an installer of Arduino 1.8.7version，which needs to be installed manually. When you tap ，a zip file of Arduino 1.8.7 version will be directly downloaded, and you only need to unzip it to finish installation.

Use OpenBuildsCONTROL to control the engraving machine

First, we need to install the grbl-1.1f.20170801 program on the control board. Note that the Arduino IDE version is above 1.8.5 when installed.

Then install the OpenBuildsCONTROL software.

After the installation, open the software and select the correct COM port.

Connecting successfully, we can make various settings on the interface, such as

setting the laser interface power voltage on Tool on and Tool off.

If the black DC head connects to DC 12V voltage. According to the figure below, when 100% is selected, the blue terminal or Laser interface power supply on the control panel is 12V. When 50% is selected, the voltage of the two interfaces is 6V.
Click on icon below, the blue terminal or the laser interface power supply on the control panel is 0V.

At the same time, we can input/send control commands on the following interface to control the status of the control panel. The control command settings can be found at the following URL.

https://github.com/gnea/grbl/wiki/Grbl-v1.1-Commands

When we are working, there are two modes, one for the laser mode and another one for spindle mode. The default mode is the spindle mode,when the control panel starts. We need to change to the laser mode when we start engraving. The change method is: input/send $32=1 in the following interface, and input/send $32=0 in the spindle mode.