Your Part → Finished
ⓘ⚡ Drop a model → finished toolpaths automatically (top + all sides + finish). No Fusion, no licence.
or quick: load · generate · download
Tutorials & demo parts
ⓘ🎓 Pocket NC DT beginners — full course
First time here? The complete beginner course — every lesson runs the machine twin.
More guided courses
First Part ⓘ
Guided machine setup & run — the official Penta V2 First Part sequence.
📖 Tutorial: official V2 First Part (wiki PDF) · TLO · work-holding
Rook ⓘ
Guided part — CAM → simulate → run a 5-axis chess rook.
📖 Tutorial: work-holding (wiki) · software overview
Spiral ⓘ
Guided 4+1 setup & run — collet, Delrin rod, tool 10, proven Spiral program (no CAM).
📖 Tutorial: software overview (wiki) · edge finding
Bottle Opener Ring ⓘ
V2-50 aluminum 4+1 — ER40 collet, 1"Ø Al rod, tool 3, real Penta program.
G-code
Operations
ⓘNo operations yet. Toolpaths are made in CAM — add operations there and press Generate — or load a program that already has them.
Position
idle- X
- 0.000 mm
- Y
- 0.000 mm
- Z
- 0.000 mm
- A
- 0.000 °
- B
- 0.000 °
- F
- 0 mm/min
Workholding
Real Penta / Lang / Sherline CAD · clamps to the B-table
Drops the part inside the stock; its blue bounding box shows where the part lives in the blank (toggle Bounds).
Tool library
ⓘ T1CAM
ⓘChain operations into a program — each on its own face, with its own tool, feed & size — then Generate. No G-code, no part needed. (Or import a part for the auto path.)
Cutting defaults tool 3.18 mm · auto depth & feed · 8,500 rpm
Pick operations, then Generate. The path draws on the stock and the G-code loads for Check + Run.
Work offset (G54)
ⓘNot set — part zero unknown
Travel envelope
ⓘ- X115.5 mm
- Y128.3 mm
- Z90.1 mm (Z0 = retracted)
- A-25° to 135°
- Bcontinuous
Machine control
ⓘTOOL OFFSETS
| Tool | TLO | Diameter | Flutes | Description | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Connect a machine, then press Refresh. | ||||||
PROGRAMS ON THE MACHINE
- Not connected.
WORK OFFSETS
| Axis | DRO | Absolute | Offset | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Connect a machine. | ||||
What is a work offset? where “zero” is for your part
Your machine has one fixed machine zero, set by homing, and it never moves.
Your part sits wherever you clamped it. A work offset is simply the distance
between the two — it lets a program say X0 Y0 and mean “the corner of
my part” rather than “the corner of the machine”.
That is what the three columns are:
- Absolute — where the tool is, from machine zero. Homing sets this.
- Offset — how far your part zero sits from machine zero.
- DRO — Absolute minus Offset: where the tool is relative to your part. This is what your G-code sees.
There are six independent offsets, G54 to G59, so you can keep several
setups at once. Use makes one active; the program picks one with a
G54 line.
- Home the machine first. Without homing, Absolute is meaningless and every offset you set will be wrong.
- Jog the tool until its tip is exactly at the point you want to call zero — usually a corner or the centre of your stock.
- Press Zero here on the row of the offset you want (G54 normally). The DRO snaps to 0.0000 and the Offset column fills in with the distance.
- Or zero one axis at a time with the small 0 button beside each axis — the usual way to set Z separately after touching off on the top of the stock.
- Check it: the DRO should read zero at that point, and your part's corner is
now
X0 Y0.
Zeroing changes where every subsequent program will cut. If the
DRO looks wrong later, suspect a stray G92 shift — G92.1 in
MDI clears it.
- Not connected.
MDI HISTORY
- Nothing sent yet.
RUN LOG
- No runs recorded yet.
FAULTS
- No faults recorded.
MACHINE HISTORY
- Connect a machine.
INTERLOCKS
- Connect a machine.
UNITS & DISPLAY
SENSORS
Every reading the controller offers, grouped. echo marks a figure that is the command fed back rather than a measurement; not fitted marks a sensor this board does not have (the controller answers −999 or an empty string).
- Connect a machine.
KINETIC CONTROL PARITY
Everything the machine's own control can do. Live controls for what the twin can drive, and an honest list of what is missing or impossible on this board. Keyboard shortcuts are edited in KEYBINDINGS, below.
- Connect a machine.
KEYBINDINGS
Bindings follow the physical key, not the printed letter — the key where Z sits on a US board jogs Z on a German board too. Hold Shift to jog slow, Alt for a single increment; holding a jog key repeats continuously.
CALIBRATION
- Connect a machine, then press Check.
MACHINE CONFIGURATION
- Not connected.
Which direction? M3 for cutting · M4 is the exception
M3 · clockwise — normal cutting. Standard end mills, drills and taps are right-hand helix, right-hand cut: they remove material turning clockwise. Every normal milling operation runs M3.
M4 · counter-clockwise — the exception. Not a mode to cut in. It is for:
- Left-hand-helix / left-hand-cut tooling — specialist, uncommon on a desktop mill
- Tapping — reversing out of the hole
- Back-boring and some thread-milling passes
- Backing a stuck tool out
What can I type here? G-codes, M-codes, and this machine's own
One line, executed the moment you press ↵. The letter is
the address and the number is its value — S is speed,
F is feed, X Y Z A B are axes.
A number on its own means nothing: M3 S500 runs, M3 500 is refused.
| M3 S3000 | clockwise at 3,000 rpm — the cutting direction |
| M4 S3000 | counter-clockwise (see “Which direction?” above) |
| M5 | stop |
Your spindle is rated 2,000–10,000 rpm. Below 2,000 it is out of spec, and above 10,000 the command is clamped.
| G0 X10 Y5 | rapid — fastest move, never use it in material |
| G1 X10 F200 | feed at 200/min — the cutting move |
| G90 / G91 | absolute / incremental. G91 X1 means “1 further” |
| G53 G0 Z0 | MACHINE coordinates, ignoring every offset |
| G0 A0 B0 | the two rotary axes, in degrees |
| G54 … G59 | pick a work offset. G54 is the usual one |
| G10 L20 P1 X0 Y0 Z0 | “here is G54 zero” — sets it to the current position |
| G92.1 | clear any G92 shift, a classic source of mystery offsets |
| M6 T1 | change to tool 1 |
| G43 H1 | apply tool 1's length offset — forget this and Z is wrong |
| G49 | cancel length compensation |
| G20 / G21 | inches / millimetres |
| M0 / M1 | pause / optional stop (M1 only if OPTIONAL STOP is on) |
| M2 | end of program — resets modal state |
| G4 P2 | dwell 2 seconds, e.g. letting the spindle reach speed |
| M162 / M163 | Schunk Mini90 vise open / close |
| M164 / M165 | Solo tool changer close / open |
| M170 / M171 | Solo unclamp / clamp |
| M150 / M154 | spindle warm-up: start / mark complete |
| M111 / M112 | torque monitor: start recording / stop |
| M110 | reset a rotary axis to the nearest multiple of 360° |
| M198 / M199 | wake the probe / record the last tool used |
These exist only on Pocket NC / Penta controllers — they are shell scripts on the machine, not standard G-code. Several drive accessories (Schunk vise, Solo changer) that may not be fitted to your machine.
Not connected. “Demo machine” tries the workflow without hardware.
—