Machsupport Forum

Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: KennyPowers on May 09, 2016, 12:17:20 AM

Title: Mach 3 6 Axis 7 Motor? How to?
Post by: KennyPowers on May 09, 2016, 12:17:20 AM

Is mach only capable of controlling 6 Axis.  I have a 6 Axis machine and I am wanting to slave my X Axis.  Is my only option to daisy chain the signal to my other X axis drive.  Or is there a way to slave it in mach?  Im only seeing XYZABC in ports and Pins

Title: Re: Mach 3 6 Axis 7 Motor? How to?
Post by: Tweakie.CNC on May 09, 2016, 01:33:27 AM

Yes, just 6 axes.

It depends on the quality of accuracy you need - low end machines often daisy-chain stepper drives but steppers assume the nearest whole step position when energized so any microstep positions are lost and it does not always follow that two (daisy-chained) steppers will always rotate in the same direction when assuming the nearest whole step position so they can get out of sync (only by a few steps) quite easily.

This is not something I would want to do on any of my machines but others have done it.

Tweakie.