I have been playing around with an idea to attach a laser to the shopbot head for etching and cutting. In order to make controlling the laser (on/off/pulse width modulation) a little easier and more flexible, I am using an Arduino board set to receive commands from a serial port. So for example, if I send an "L100" command over the serial port to the Arduino (echo L100>com5) the laser turns on at 100%. That part is fine.

Now, being a newb at the whole shopbot control except for using the usual part files, here is the problem. How can I create a custom command and incorporate it into the G-code? How do I map that command to windows command/DOS command?

I read a bit on virtual tools.The programing guide says something about "TC, 1500, small, 2 " as a custom command but the virtual file looks more like "'VT = [&T]oolName, PathFile, autostart(1=yes), persist(1=yes)"

Is this the route I have to go or are there other ways to create custom commands? So if anyone can give me some guidance, it would be greatly appreciated. I`m running version 3.6.46.

I think if we get this working it will open up a whole bunch of other possibilities!