HI,
I just ordered and have yet to receive my Metal Maslow kit and like most of you, I am eagerly reading instructions and trying to learn as much as I can to prepare myself.
I ran into an interesting note when the instructions sent me via a link to the GroundControl installation. A note says that GC has been replaced by WebControl and explains all the benefits of WC over GC. Fine. Got it. The problem is, there is no link to WC. Everything that follows seems to pertain to GC. What am I missing?
I had the same issue when I started and after answering this question a few times, I tried to document all of it here
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Thanks Orob, that looks like a great tutorial, I’ll be sure to use it, once I get WebControl. I really appreciate the help.
I’m still wondering however where you find WebControl to download? Do I have to first download GroundControl and then upgrade to WebControl or do I bypass GroundControl and just download WC? If so, where is it located to download or purchase? Thank you very much for your help.
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@ACME please see below:
This information was pulled from Chapter 3 of the Maslow Manual found here. It will also have some other information on how to install it, and how to get it up and running with your Maslow.
Also, you “can” bypass Ground control and just start with WebControl. That is simply up to you.
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Its probably a good idea to quickly review all of the control software options available to the community. Feel fee to provide corrections or additions as needed
Ground Control Original Version - Community Suported
This was the original control software created by @bar and used by Maslow. It is no longer being maintained and should be considered depreciated. Although it is still being used by many as it does work. It just doesn’t have many of the newer features.
Web Control - Community Supported
This was/is a community supported effort to move Ground Control to a web based architecture.
Makerverse - Vendor Supported
This is a control solution developed and maintained by MakerMade CNC.
Ground Control 2022? - Vendor Supported
This is a control solution developed and maintained by East Bay Source. I’ve only recently become aware of it’s existance and don’t know much about it except that it is a port of the original Ground Control.
Notes:
You will find many references to Ground Control depreciation in the forums. For some time the community has generaly understood that the original Ground Control software was out of date and that if you wanted to have the current options and features, the only two options were either Web Control or Makerverse. The introduciton of a ported Ground Control by EBS adds a third option. Therefore, going forward we should be cautious not to generalize the depreciation of Ground Control when in fact there may be a newer and maintained version available again through one of the vendors.
I classified something as Community Supported vs. Vendor Supported to denote the sources behind the origination of the particular platform. I in no way wish to insinuate that one form is better than the other.
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either will work. to “get webcontrol”, from the github page, you click releases and then select the one for your operating system.
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At this point, there is no advantage to setting up ground control first.
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WOW!! You people are AWESOME!
I’m not a computer genius by any means, I sincerely hope this thread helps many more as they get into this. Moreover, I hope I can pay it forward (I’m more of a mechanical person) in the future.
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for what it is worth, I updated chapter 3 of the manual attempting to merge what was there with what @jonatpridesleap provided in the writeup above. I like the GC22 designation, though the changes could probably be pushed back to the master repo and it could live on. I wonder if the name will stick… rebranding is good every so often.
I only cut once with groundcontrol before I moved the ini to webcontrol because I bumped the usb cable and my laptop fell asleep in not long of a time span. both events stop the cut and require a chain reset. A dedicated sender at the maslow is ideal and a raspberry pi works very well for that. I’m a fan of webcontrol because the raspberry pi doesn’t go to sleep in the middle of your cuts and I don’t bump the USB cable in my laptop waiting for the cut to finish. It can run it from my phone as I climb around moving chains and things.
I like makerverse for messing with settings. that terminal widget is really cool along with the list of settings that are easily changed, but I don’t like cutting with it as much as webcontrol because of the line by line and the working pause function, the workpiece home position set, and skip to z function in webcontrol is better in my opinion along with the board feature where you can track board usage. I do have them both installed on the same raspberry pi and can load either depending on what is of interest, so they are both very good. Since position and calibration are stored on the controller, switching back and forth is no problem as long as they aren’t trying to connect to the same device at the same time. Lots of options and lots of capability.
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