Machsupport Forum

General CNC Chat => Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) => Topic started by: cnctom on February 23, 2015, 03:13:37 PM

Title: Controlling five diffrent steppers off of one axis
Post by: cnctom on February 23, 2015, 03:13:37 PM
Hello
I'm wanting to install five different 3d printer heads on my cnc each to have a different color, I want to use my gecko g540 A axis witch is no problem but i need to have a switch to switch between the five different steppers all controlled by axis A. So can anyone point me in the right direction. I should be able to figure out the Mach4 side of it but the actual switch is stumping me. Thanks for your time
Title: Re: Controlling five diffrent steppers off of one axis
Post by: JimDawson on August 12, 2015, 09:34:31 PM
I know this is an old thread but I'll answer anyway.

To do what you want would require five 4 pole (one pole for each wire) relays that could be switched on to power up the individual motors.  This could be controlled with a simple 5 position (SP5T) rotary switch.

Now the problem...You don't want to disconnect or reconnect the motor when under power, it would likely fry the drive.  When switching between motors you would have to power the drive down, switch to another motor, then power the drive back up.