Marlin as Scara Robot Arm Firmware

Hello,

I've seen someone post marlin as firmware for a scara arm robot. I know how this works with a 3d print but I was curious if someone can point me to some resources that would help me modify the firmware so I could integrate robot arm specific commands. For example, open and close robot claw via a servo, turn on or off a vacuum gripper.

Would I most likely be modifying current gcode commands or could I add new ones?


I'm not looking for someone to give me the answer simply for someone to point me in the right direction if this is possible since it seem like modify marlin might be easier than me trying to learn the robot operating system since it appear that it will take longer to learn.

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

Marlin knows how to move and home Scara arms. You would just add a tool type for each weird tool you have. And then what ever extra support you need for the particular operations the tool would do. But all of the positioning of the tool is already in the code base for Scara's.

Roxy,

Thanks for letting me know Marlin will be able to handle the movement just fine. But what about those tools? That is going to be the challenge for me to integrate into the firmware.

Do you have a suggestion about how to intergrate those tools?
Would you say adding custom M command to get it to control a vacuum via a relay or a servo related to a claw is the best approach?
Do you know if there are any guides out there to help me create a custom M command? or add a tool type or if there is another way I should be looking at this?

Thanks for any help

Not a 'Guide' per say. But if you look at the Sticky threads here... They all add GCodes and MCodes to Marlin.

Marlin Hacks

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/19/2017 10:58PM by Roxy.