12. Running the machine#

The Machine tab drives a FluidNC controller directly from FreazyKam, over your WiFi: see where the machine is, home it, zero it, jog it, send the job to its SD card, run it, and stop it. Nothing to install on your computer — it all happens in the browser.

While the Machine tab is open the sidebar shows the SD card instead of the drawing tools; switch back to 2D View to keep designing.

One-time setup: the relay file#

Before FreazyKam can talk to a controller, one small file — the relay — has to be copied onto that controller. You do this once per controller.

Why it's needed. FreazyKam is a secure (https://) website and the controller is a plain (http://) device on your network. Browsers do not let a secure page talk to a plain one directly. The relay is a tiny page that lives on the controller: FreazyKam opens it in a small window and passes messages through it, and since the relay talks to its own controller, the browser allows it.

1. Download the relay#

The file's name depends on your FluidNC version. The WebUI's About box shows it.

How to install also walks through these steps. Keep the name exactly as it downloads: not freazykam.html, 404.html or relay.html.

Why the two names. FluidNC v4 shows any file on its flash as a page at http://<your controller>/flash/<name>, so the relay can have its own name. FluidNC v3 hands any file you ask for by name to the browser as a download instead. The one exception is its "page not found" page, 404.htm, so on v3 the relay goes in under that name. FreazyKam opens the same address either way, http://<your controller>/flash/freazyKam.html. On v3 that address isn't a real file, so FluidNC answers with its not-found page, which is the relay.

2. Copy it onto the controller's flash#

1. Open the controller's own web page — the FluidNC WebUI — in your browser, at http://fluidnc.local or its IP address.
2. Open the Files panel and switch its drop-down from SD to Flash. It must go on the flash, not the SD card.
3. Upload the relay (freazyKam.html, or 404.htm on v3) into the top folder, next to index.html.gz and your config.yaml.

Do not rename, replace or delete index.html.gz — that is the WebUI itself, and the relay leaves it alone.

3. Check it#

Open http://fluidnc.local/flash/freazyKam.html (or http://<IP address>/flash/freazyKam.html). A small page titled FreazyKam link means the relay is in place. Close that tab.

Updating from an older FreazyKam? Earlier versions always installed the relay as 404.htm, and that copy keeps working. On v3 nothing changes. On v4, if /flash/freazyKam.html isn't there, Connect tries http://<your controller>/freazykam next. That makes every Connect about 2 seconds slower. Upload freazyKam.html and delete the old 404.htm to skip the extra step.

Good to know#

• On v3, the controller must be on your WiFi network (FluidNC's station mode). If it is running its own WiFi network (access point mode), v3 answers every unknown address with a sign-in page, and the relay can't load.
• Connect before you start a job. While the machine is moving, FluidNC won't serve pages from its flash, so the relay can't open mid-cut. A job that is already running keeps running if FreazyKam disconnects.
• On v3, a mistyped address on the controller now shows the relay page instead of "not found". That's harmless — the relay only takes instructions from FreazyKam.
• If connecting starts failing after a FreazyKam update, the relay may have changed: download it again and replace the copy on the flash.

Connecting#

1. Type the controller's address into the Connection section — fluidnc.local, or its IP address if .local names don't work on your network. Just the address: leave off /flash/freazyKam.html — FreazyKam adds that itself, and tries the older /freazykam if that fails. (That longer address is only for checking the relay by hand, in step 3 above.)
2. Press Connect. A small FreazyKam link window opens: that is the relay. If the browser blocks it, allow pop-ups for FreazyKam and press Connect again.
3. Leave that window open — it can sit behind FreazyKam. Closing it disconnects.

The relay window's title shows the machine state (Idle, Run…), so you can read it even when the window is shrunk into a corner.

Once connected, the Connection section shows:

• The machine state — Idle, Run, Jog, Hold, Home, Alarm. An Unlock button appears beside it in Alarm.
• The firmware the controller reports.
• The WiFi signal at the controller, as FluidNC reports it. Hover for the network, channel and signal in dBm.

The Machine tab shows a green dot while connected, so you can see the link is up from any other tab.

If the link drops, FreazyKam reconnects by itself — up to four tries, two seconds apart — and the console says how long the connection had been up. The loaded job and your settings survive a reconnect, and so do your zeros as long as the machine reports itself exactly where it was when the link dropped; if it moved (other than a job carrying on) or restarted, the ✓ marks clear and the console says so. See When the link misbehaves if it happens often.

STOP#

The red STOP button at the top of the left column is always there while connected, and stops whatever is moving:

A feed hold stops quickly but under control: at a typical 1200 mm/min cutting feed the tool travels about 1 mm while slowing, more from a fast rapid.

STOP needs the WiFi link. It is not a substitute for a way to kill the power to the machine and the router — keep one within reach. FreazyKam has no control over the router's own switch, so none of the software stops turn the router off.

Position, home and zero#

Position shows the Work position — measured from the zero you set on the stock — large, and the Machine position beside it. Units follow the toolbar's mm/in toggle.

Home & Zero#

• No limit switches? Untick Limit switches in the section header and the Home row disappears. Jog to the stock and zero there instead.
• A ✓ beside an axis means it has been zeroed on the stock, with its Zero button, on this connection. Homing alone doesn't tick anything: it fixes where the machine is, not where the stock is. So home first, then jog to the stock and zero.
• Disconnect, motor Disable and any Alarm clear the ✓ marks: the machine may have been moved by hand, switched off or lost steps. To get a zero back, home that axis again. If you zeroed it after homing earlier in the session, and nothing has changed the offset since, the ✓ comes back (the console says so). Otherwise zero it again. This assumes the same bit is in the spindle; after a bit change, always re-zero Z.
• No limit switches (box unticked)? A machine that can't home would lose every zero to a disconnect, so instead: when you reconnect, if the controller reports exactly the position and offsets it had when the connection ended, the ✓ marks come back and the console says so. A restarted controller wakes at machine 0, 0, 0, which is how a restart is caught — so a disconnect with the machine at exactly 0, 0, 0 isn't restored. A reload of FreazyKam forgets them.
• The line under the buttons says where to zero: the stock's origin corner from Setup, and whether Z0 is the top surface or the bottom of the stock. Zero where it says — that is where the toolpaths are measured from.
• Disable releases the motors (and clears the ✓ marks), but any jog, go-to or job turns them straight back on — it is not a lock.
• Safe Z, then X0 Y0 needs all three axes zeroed, since the safe height is measured from Z zero.

Jogging#

The XY pad reads as you face the machine: up moves away from you (+Y), right moves +X. Z+ and Z− are beside it. The centre ⊗ cancels a jog in progress.

• Step — the XY row under the pad (0.1, 1, 10, 50 mm, or 0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 1 inch), and the Z step between Z+ and Z−: − and + either side of it choose 0.1, 0.5, 1 or 5 mm (0.005, 0.02, 0.05, 0.2 inch). Each is kept between sessions, so a big XY step for crossing the stock never becomes a big plunge on Z−.
• Orange outlines — once Z is zeroed, the XY arrows turn orange while the tool is below the stock surface (an XY jog there cuts), and Z− turns orange whenever its next step would end below the surface. Nothing is blocked; it's a reminder.
• Feeds — separate jog feeds for XY and Z, kept between sessions.

Jogs work before anything is zeroed — that's how you get the tool to the stock to zero it.

The go-to map#

The Go to map shows the stock as set up in Setup, in its material's colour, the tool's position (a blue crosshair, once X and Y are zeroed), work zero (red and green axis lines), and one of two things on the stock, depending on what is picked in the sidebar:

• Current design — the toolpaths of the design open in FreazyKam.
• A file from the SD card — that file's toolpath, with its name and extent in the corner, and a Runs off the stock warning if it goes past the stock's edges.

Only cutting moves are drawn — rapids are left out — so the design and a file posted from it look the same.

Click anywhere on the map to send the tool there. This needs X and Y zeroed and the machine Idle; until then the map says what it's waiting for. If Z has been zeroed and the tool is below the safe height, Z rises first, so the bit isn't dragged across the stock. A blue circle marks where you clicked, with a dashed line from the tool, until the move finishes. STOP or the jog pad's ⊗ cancels it.

The Z bar#

The bar to the left of the map is the same stock seen from the side, lined up with the map: its bottom is level with the stock's bottom edge, and its top stands for twice the safe height. On it:

• the stock, in its material colour, from its bottom to its top surface;
• Safe (dashed green) — the safe height: the job's own, from its rapids, when a file from the card is picked, otherwise the one in Setup;
• Max (dashed blue) — the deepest the toolpaths cut;
• the tool, blue, its tip at the current Z, with the Z value beside it.

The tool appears once Z is zeroed — before that there is no telling where it is against the stock. Raised higher than the top of the bar (after homing, say), it stops at the top with an arrow, and the number still gives the real height.

The SD card#

The sidebar lists the files on the controller's SD card. Click a folder to open it, and ↰ to go up.

• Loading only reads the file. Nothing happens on the machine until you press Run.
• Uploading and deleting are switched off while a job is running, so the card isn't busy with two things at once.
• If a file has a line longer than 80 characters, loading it shows a warning. Recent FluidNC stops a job at a line over 127 characters with "Line too long". Files FreazyKam writes never have such lines; files from elsewhere might.

Running a job#

The job box at the bottom of the sidebar names the loaded file.

Run starts it from the SD card. It is enabled only when:

• X, Y and Z are all zeroed — the job's coordinates mean nothing until they are.
• The job is what the map is showing — not the Current design — so what you see is what you cut.
• The card is not busy loading or uploading — otherwise Run could start the file you were moving away from.

While it runs, a progress bar shows how far through the file the controller has read. (It reads a few moves ahead of the cut, so the bar leads the tool slightly.)

To end a job early, Pause then Cancel. Stopping… shows while the machine slows down; Cancel unlocks when it has come to rest. Stopping a moving machine with a reset can lose position — the gantry's momentum makes the motors skip — which is why FluidNC alarms and you would need to re-zero.

After a Stop or any alarm, press Unlock beside the state, then check the machine before carrying on.

Overrides#

Change the feed and speed of a running job without stopping it.

The percentages shown are what the controller reports, so its limits (10–200 %) read true. Anything other than 100 % shows in blue.

The console#

Everything the controller says, plus the commands FreazyKam sends (lines starting > — you could type any of those into the box yourself). Lines starting ◆, in italics, are button actions — STOP, jog cancel, reset, overrides — which go to the controller as single control bytes rather than text; the byte is shown at the end, but there's nothing there to type. Type G-code or a $ command into the box at the bottom and press Enter. Clear empties it.

Useful commands:

When the link misbehaves#

Choosing which network the controller joins. If your extender broadcasts the same name as your router, the controller may join the farther one. Give the extender's 2.4 GHz network its own name (the controller only uses 2.4 GHz), then in the console:

$Sta/SSID=Your_Extender_Name
$Bye

$Bye restarts the controller onto the new network. Add $Sta/Password=… before it if the extender's password is different. If the name or password is wrong, the controller starts its own WiFi network (usually called FluidNC) instead — join that from your phone and fix the settings in its WebUI.

On a busy 2.4 GHz channel, changing your router's 2.4 GHz channel to 1 or 11 can make a large difference — the extender follows the router's channel by itself. Pick a fixed channel rather than Auto, so the router doesn't switch mid-job.

Next#

• 11. When something goes wrong — problems with the design and its toolpaths
• Back to the guide