Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: bigbigjimbo on October 23, 2008, 02:07:34 PM
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Hi
I want to have two motors driving on the one axis, I understand these have to be synchronised and this is done in Mach. can someone please step me through it or give me a link to how its done.
Jimbo
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Jimbo, give us more detail please. Is this a gantry router with motors on each side of the gantry?
Brett
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Bret,
Yes it is a Gantry It is going to be Joe's 4x4 Hybrid I am at the planning stage but I have never dealt with the twin motors before.
Jim
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Sorry yes the motors are at each side of the gantry.
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Jimbo, It should be as simple as slaveing the motors for the axis. For example, X master and a slave. This is done in config, ports and pins.
Brett
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Brett,
OK so do you use two controllers?
And lets say the axis is Y then you go to slave and under the Y axis you call the other motor say X and thats it.
(Sorry I am describing the slave thing from memory. ) and then whatever speed etc. settings you have set up for the Y is transferred to the X at the same time ?
Have i got it right.
Jim
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You would slave the a, b, or c axis to the x axis. The slave axis motor would need its own driver. And yes, provided you have the motor tuning correct (most likely you would have identical motors, drivers, and tuning on the x and slave axis).
Joe
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Sounds simple enough, the only confusing pare here is knowing what axis to nominate to the X Axis. Like how do you know what to use as in A,B, or C axis.
This is probibly simpler that I think, i just cant get to grips with the Slave axis. with normal axis it is easy as you set up the tuning etc to the axis and the config to the axis and its easy to know what is what.
Jim
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You can choose whichever axis you want from A, B anc C to slave with X, Y or Z. Obviously you cant slave an axis more than once but any combination of X,Y,Z and A,B,C will be fine
Hood
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Hood
I think I am not explaining this correctly, I know how to identify my XY and Z Axis and set them up, you say I can use A,B and C to slave with A,Y And Z. Lets say its the Y axis and I select A to slave with it. Now how do I set up A in config so that the motor knows what direction to turn etc. I have not seen a config for the A axis in mach. mind you I am working from memory just now at work but if I know where the set up for A is It should clarify all.
Jim
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Ports and Pins then Motor Config will be where you set up the port and pin for the A axis and then obviously Motor Tuning to set the Steps per unit, the acell and Velocity. If you need to reverse you can either change the Dir active state for that motor or you can go to Config menu then Homing and Limits and reverse the axis there.
Hood
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Is this you Alistair
So there is a ports & Pins and motor config for all X,Y,Z and A,B,C etc.axis.
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Nope, not Alistair, if its Ali Grant you are meaning he lives not far from me.
Yes each axis has its own options in Ports and Pins/Motor Config and once you enable one of these axis then you can tune it in motor tuning.
Hood
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Yip I thought it was Ali Grant. how is he getting on with his Emco and what is it you have Re CNC
Right I will have a look later in my room and see if it all ties in I know how to tune in a standard 3 axis machine as I have a Seig X3 it was just this synchronized motors for the Gantry that had me flumoxed
Jim
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Not sure how Ali is getting on with the Emco, not been there for a while although he was at my workshop a few months ago when he kindly gave me a very nice stainless steel keyboard and trackball which I will fit to the lathe.
The CNC machines I have are a Bridgeport, a Churchill Computurn 290 and am presently doing a Beaver Mill.
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Sent you a PM but cant find the photos just now
Jim