A collection of scripts and services for working with a cnc poster printer, including:
- printing from sms messages
- converting text into svg and gcode files
- fixing gcode output from various programs to meet the printer's somewhat unusual expectations
The sms portion of this leans heavily on work from the Hacking the Library course's
bear-as-a-service project.
.
├── gcodepatcher.py - patch printer-specific quirks in gcode
├── mqtt_json - wrapper library from @osteele for interfacing with the mqtt broker
│ ├── __init__.py
│ ├── mqtt_config.py
│ ├── receive_mqtt_messages.py
│ └── send_mqtt_messages.py
├── print_worker.py - read from print-text queue and convert to gcode
├── print_queue.py - print files (text or gcode) from a folder
├── send_sms_message.py - tool to send an sms message through twilio
├── simple_stream.py - GRBL example script to stream gcode
├── sms_print_gateway.py - process sms queue and send to print-text queue
├── str2gcode.py - tool to convert text into gcode
├── str2svg.py - tool to convert text into svgs
└── stream.py - modified GRBL script to stream gcode
Make sure you have a running Python 3.5. Earlier versions of Python 3.x might work too, but haven't been tested. Python 2.x is Right Out.
Install python dependencies with pipenv.
pipenv installstr2gcode.py requires a copy of gcodeFont.
sms_print_gateway.py depends on the
twilio-mqtt-gateway.
Copy env.template to .env. On Linux/macOS: cp env.template .env.
Replace the strings in .env with your Twilio and MQTT credentials and phone number.
Execute: source .env (pipenv will also do this automatically whenever you
use pipenv run or pipenv shell).
Note: most of these scripts support more command-line options. You can learn more about them with
python3 <scriptname> -h(and, of course, by reading the source code)
Note: by marking the scripts as executable with
chmod +x <scriptname>, you can call them with./<scriptname>instead ofpython3 <scriptname>
Generate an svg from text:
echo -e "Hello\nWorld" | python3 str2svg.py - out.svg
Generate gcode from text:
echo -e "Hello\nWorld" | python3 str2gcode.py - out.gcode
Patch the gcode (printer-specific):
python3 gcodepatcher.py out.gcode out-patched.gcode
Send a test sms message (replace the number below by your own phone number):
python3 send_sms_message.py +16175551010
Send a test message directly to the print_worker.py queue:
python3 mqtt_json/send_mqtt_messages.py "forget about your worries"
Provision a RabbitMQ server. Or, use the same server as the twilio-mqtt-gateway.
To process incoming sms messages:
python3 sms_print_gateway.py
To convert processed sms messages into gcode:
python3 print_worker.py
-
PyCAM (I have yet to get this working)
-
cam.py- script from an MIT prof, Neil Gershenfeld this is the latest version I found on the Wayback Machine -
Fab Modules, a similar project from the same person. -
more options on the GRBL wiki
MIT