Hello,
I bought a 5-axis Bladerunner/MP3000 servo system recently to control a gantry system with a rotary feature on the head. Unfortunately their 5-axis system is not really a 5-axis system, it's a 4 axis system with a 5th motor driver that is connected to the same pulse output as the y-axis, so only 4 axis can be independently controlled by Mach3, the problem is that the Y and A(the slaved gantry axis) axis cannot be controlled independently so squaring up the gantry is my problem, they can't be homed(referenced) independently so any squaring has to be done manually, like by manually trying to loosen the pulley or power down the motors and move into place, then power it back up and hope it stays, each time the machine is turned on.
The people and CandCnc said that if I "used my head" I wouldn't have to square the gantry, or do it twice anyway, so the manual process shouldn't be a big deal, and none of their other customers have needed to square their systems, so that's their answer. Their manual points out the reasons why it's a good idea to have independent home switches on the gantry axis(to square the system), but when you buy their 5-axis system apparently the reasoning for having independent homing goes away and smart people don't need it, but I need it.
Does anyone have a workaround for this? Tom at CandCnc said that if I wanted a system that was a true 5 axis system I needed to buy a system from someone else, I will certainly accept his advice for the next machine but I'm hoping to use their system for this machine, I'm hoping someone smarter than me or Tom has figured out an easy way to address this less than 5 axis homing problem.
Thanks!