Machsupport Forum

Third party software and hardware support forums. => Galil => Topic started by: tfmullins on April 03, 2012, 02:17:06 PM

Title: Adding an A axis
Post by: tfmullins on April 03, 2012, 02:17:06 PM

Hi,
I am new and if this topic has been beat to death I apologise ahead of time but i haven't been able to find an answer yet. I am in the process of building a 3 axis router using a Galil DMC-1830. My goal is to be able to convert this to a 3d printer as well as conventional router mill. To do so i am going to need an A axis to control the feed of the plastic into the extruder. does anyone know of a work around to add a 4th axis while using a detected 3 axis controller? Will Mach 3 let me talk to 2 galil controllers lets say if i was to purchase a 1 axis galil to control the feeder? or talk through the parallel port for this axis?

Thanks
Tom

Title: Re: Adding an A axis
Post by: battwell on April 07, 2012, 04:21:37 AM

using the galil plugin the parallel port cannot be used i believe.
for a 4 axis machine you ideally require a 5 axis galil (extra axis for variable spindle speed)

Title: Re: Adding an A axis
Post by: jastein on April 08, 2012, 09:49:12 PM

I have a similar situation. I have a Galil 4 axis control to be used on a 4 axis mill and am looking for a solution to control the spindle and a tool changer turret. The 6 axis Galil boards are a bit pricy.  Any chance the Galil could be used with the new Pokeys Ethernet board? http://www.poscope.com/pokeys56e
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,21247.0.htm

It said something about 25 khz to drive axis motors.  What do you think?

Jim

Title: Re: Adding an A axis
Post by: battwell on April 09, 2012, 03:23:14 AM

i dont know, the pokeys motor release is new and i dont have a board here to try,
it may be worth installing the pokeys plugin and see if there are any conflicts.

i think smurph would be able to answer this.

Title: Re: Adding an A axis
Post by: smurph on June 04, 2012, 03:21:10 PM

Ok...  Mach will only use one motion device.  You cannot spread coordinated motion axes across two or more plugins.  For spindles, you can use any modbus device (Galil RIO) or any plugin that controls an analog output (Maybe PoKeys does this?).  The deal is that a spindle is not a coordinated motion axis in most instances.  Threading and rigid tapping excluded, of course.  So if you just want RPM control of your spindle, you have other options. 

For a feed type axis, you could also implement a motor with a VFD speed control.  Instead of using a Mach axis, you could do a special script M code that moves the feed motor at a certain speed. 

Steve