Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: saurabhsaurc on October 24, 2018, 07:49:34 AM
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Hi there,
I have a Mach 3 USB breakout board. When I connect it up with stepper and driver to the x-axis (XP and XD) and give x-axis jog commands/GCODE commands, it works fine. I have set the ports and pins setting at 2&3.
Now here's the thing. If I disable X axis and instead put the Y-axis port/pin setting at 2&3, then give y-axis commands, then the same stepper should move, right? But it doesn't! Worse, the x-jog command still works as before ( even though it is disabled in ports and pins ). Though g-code command doesn't work.
Is there something I am missing about the setting of ports and pins?
What I really want to do is use 2 translational and 2 rotational axes, eg. X,Z,A,B, rather than X,Y,Z,A
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The board you have may be hardwired or programmed so that the ports and pins are fixed, and can't be changed.
You may need a different controller to do what you want.
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Yup, I think you are right. I messed around a lot and no matter what I set the pin numbers to they work only for x-axis.
One more question, what is the difference between a 'port' and a 'pin' .
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Ports and pins usually refer to a PC's parallel port, each with 25 pins. Many motion controllers use the same terminology, and often the same connectors. But in reality, there are no actual "ports" on a motion controller. They are just a method to assign pins to input and output functions. Pins are really just inputs or outputs.