GRBL CNC Pendant with Bluetooth

myminifactory

Desktop CNC machines are now readily affordable and often utilize GRBL controller boards. Although they typically lack certain premium features found in their more expensive counterparts, one of the primary items I felt my budget-friendly Chinese 1610 CNC was missing was a pendant: a handheld control device connected to the machine via a cable. Since there appeared to be limited open-source options for GRBL pendants available, I decided to design my own using a 3D printed case, an ESP32 microcontroller, and various electronic components. It requires some considerable soldering effort, but this is well worth the time invested in order to be able to control the cutting head (jog mode), set the cutter origin (zeroing mode), and turn on or off a LASER (focusing mode). The pendant also features a pass-through Bluetooth mode that allows you to wirelessly connect your machine to your CNC software running on a PC, tablet, or smartphone. I find this capability extremely valuable for setting up my CNC machine and remotely cutting if you're interested in building one too, the build details and firmware source code are all open-source and can be found at the link below: https://github.com/drandrewthomas/ESP32_GRBL_CNC_Wireless_Pendant