# Controller software
**URL:** https://community.inventables.com/t/controller-software/10645
**Category:** X-Carve
**Created:** [July 14, 2015, 4:41am UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/controller-software/10645 "2015-07-14T04:41:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@AlanDavis](https://community.inventables.com/u/AlanDavis)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2015, 5:17pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/controller-software/10645/21 "2015-07-15T17:17:54Z")
Yes I figured. Jogging very smooth.
Touch probe working as well, I don’t know if it is setting 0 point for the Z position after.
Here is what commands I’m sending.
for sensing probe; G38.2 Z-.5 F1 (Stops as soon as touch the plate)
Setting z 0 ; G92 Z.7805
Is this sounds ok. to you.
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### Author:  [@picengravertoo](https://community.inventables.com/u/picengravertoo)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2015, 5:33pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/controller-software/10645/22 "2015-07-15T17:33:57Z")
We never tested any touch probe commands with PicSender, but it will execute any of the commands that your grbl is capable of. Click the $# button and see if the G92 changed for your offset. Thanks for testing this for us.
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### Author:  [@BillArnold](https://community.inventables.com/u/BillArnold)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2015, 9:21pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/controller-software/10645/23 "2015-07-15T21:21:27Z")
> [@AllenMassey](#):
>
> I was running a very large (over 200,000 lines of gocde) carve last night and about half way through UGS decided it was tired and just stopped sending command. The program was not locked up, it did not crash, it simply stopped sending commands.
I ran into a similar problem with UGS yesterday on a gcode file of about 278,000 lines. In my case, I kept getting a null file message as soon as it started sending code. I shut it down, opened the file in GRBL Controller 3.6.1 and ran the entire job without incident.
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### Author:  [@AllenMassey](https://community.inventables.com/u/AllenMassey)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2015, 9:31pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/controller-software/10645/24 "2015-07-15T21:31:02Z")
I have not heard of Grbl controller. I will need to find it. After yesterday ugs is dead to me.
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### Author:  [@BadWolf](https://community.inventables.com/u/BadWolf)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2015, 9:49pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/controller-software/10645/25 "2015-07-15T21:49:01Z")
i couldnt figure out how to use grbl controller lol every time id send a job the machine would just take off in a diagonal direction across the wasteboard
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### Author:  [@BillArnold](https://community.inventables.com/u/BillArnold)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2015, 9:50pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/controller-software/10645/26 "2015-07-15T21:50:12Z")
> [@AllenMassey](#):
>
> I have not heard of Grbl controller. …
I don’t think I’ll give up on UGS, but I will be using GC 3.6.1 for large jobs.
Here’s a link to GC:
[http://zapmaker.grblcontroller.s3-website-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/](http://zapmaker.grblcontroller.s3-website-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/)
---
### Author:  [@SungeunJeon](https://community.inventables.com/u/SungeunJeon)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2015, 10:27pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/controller-software/10645/27 "2015-07-15T22:27:15Z")
Grbl controller has some known issues as well, namely streaming can get corrupted in certain cases. In my experience, Chilipeppr has high computer performance requirements and a complex chain of dependencies, which means a lot of things that can wrong. It’s great for simple jobs, but not 100% dependable yet.
UGS so far has had the best track record to date (and is the most mature), but using the nightly or beta version you can run into problems still. But often problems with really long jobs are caused by something external, like a USB communication error or some system update that triggers in the background.
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### Author:  [@SungeunJeon](https://community.inventables.com/u/SungeunJeon)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2015, 10:31pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/controller-software/10645/28 "2015-07-15T22:31:28Z")
It’s best to notify Will Winder(UGS developer) about this issue. He may have a solution or can issue a patch. Remember that this software is created and maintained by the community, so things may not run as you expect if you run jobs that are not common. Always report these types of problems so everyone can benefit from your experience.
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### Author:  [@KirkWasham](https://community.inventables.com/u/KirkWasham)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2015, 10:49pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/controller-software/10645/29 "2015-07-15T22:49:16Z")
It seems to me, that a much more stable approach to this is to use something like WinCnC. Although it is not free or open source, the cost of the software is worth it to me if I don’t have to worry about $800 quilted maple getting messed up by the gcode sending software. Just my two cents. By the way, I support the idea of free and open source as long as it is stable enough to feel confident putting expensive materials in the cnc
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### Author:  [@TonyNo](https://community.inventables.com/u/TonyNo)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2015, 11:14pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/controller-software/10645/30 "2015-07-15T23:14:56Z")
Wow, that’s big-time. ~$1,300 to start, but I get your point. 😉
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### Author:  [@KirkWasham](https://community.inventables.com/u/KirkWasham)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2015, 11:16pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/controller-software/10645/31 "2015-07-15T23:16:41Z")
Yeah, it’s not cheap, but how much is peace of mind worth?
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### Author:  [@TonyNo](https://community.inventables.com/u/TonyNo)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2015, 11:17pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/controller-software/10645/32 "2015-07-15T23:17:50Z")
Depends on sales numbers… 😉
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### Author:  [@KirkWasham](https://community.inventables.com/u/KirkWasham)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2015, 11:19pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/controller-software/10645/33 "2015-07-15T23:19:15Z")
And cost of materials. 🕶🕶
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### Author:  [@DavidSohlstrom](https://community.inventables.com/u/DavidSohlstrom)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2015, 11:24pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/controller-software/10645/34 "2015-07-15T23:24:28Z")
One other option is to go from a arduino, grbl based system to one that runs high quality stepper drivers and is controlled with a Linux computer running LinuxCNC. Linux and Linuxcnc are open source and well supported with thousands of machines running it.
Dave
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### Author:  [@KirkWasham](https://community.inventables.com/u/KirkWasham)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2015, 11:28pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/controller-software/10645/35 "2015-07-15T23:28:05Z")
That’s an interesting option as well
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### Author:  [@DavidYerkes](https://community.inventables.com/u/DavidYerkes)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2015, 11:33pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/controller-software/10645/36 "2015-07-15T23:33:51Z")
Picengravertoo: I downloaded your trial version and get the following error message. I’m installing on Win XP Pro with 2 gig of ram.
“The application failed to initialize properly (0Xc000135) Click Ok to terminate the application”
Any ideas?
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### Author:  [@DavidSohlstrom](https://community.inventables.com/u/DavidSohlstrom)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2015, 11:36pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/controller-software/10645/37 "2015-07-15T23:36:21Z")
This is the way I am going. I have a linux box and LinuxCNC installed on it. I have Gecko drivers and 280 oz steppers. All I need now is the time to make my mods to the machine and put it together.
Dave
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### Author:  [@BillArnold](https://community.inventables.com/u/BillArnold)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2015, 11:48pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/controller-software/10645/38 "2015-07-15T23:48:54Z")
> [@SungeunJeon](#):
>
> UGS so far has had the best track record to date (and is the most mature), but using the nightly or beta version you can run into problems still. But often problems with really long jobs are caused by something external, like a USB communication error or some system update that triggers in the background.
I’m using UGS 1.0.8 that gave me the null message immediately after starting to stream code. A friend had a similar issue a week or so ago with a file of about 280k lines. His solution was to change his toolpath parameters to get a file under 100k lines and it ran fine. When I had the issue with UGS, all I did was shut it down, start GC3.6.1 and it ran the job (which took over four hours) with no blips.
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### Author:  [@KirkWasham](https://community.inventables.com/u/KirkWasham)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2015, 12:08am UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/controller-software/10645/39 "2015-07-16T00:08:51Z")
By the way, the little minion in my avatar pic is Lemmy from Motörhead. 🕶🕶😜😜
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### Author:  [@picengravertoo](https://community.inventables.com/u/picengravertoo)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2015, 12:10am UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/controller-software/10645/40 "2015-07-16T00:10:52Z")
You need to update your XP PC with all the latest Net framework updates. Is it updated to SP3?
This was laser engraved using an Acer Aspire One laptop with 1gb ram, XP Home SP3 with PicSender streaming the gcode.
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