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Mach4 General Discussion / Thinking of doing a lathe build and need some basic questions answered.

« on: December 09, 2022, 12:17:20 AM »

It's a bit confusing trying to figure out what Mach4 will and won't do. My goal is to control the new lathe well enough that it can thread accurately granting any physical stability will play into accuracy but if the control system is accurate then I can work on the physical. My thoughts on threading is that Mach4 would have to know where the spindle is as well as where the X and Z axis are. I have searched the forum and find conflicting information so here I am. The forum seems to indicate Mach4 will perform threading and second Mach4 can use my Yaskawa Sigma V servo drives but for the life of me how? The servo drives can be controlled three ways from what I read. Via Mechatrolink, Analog voltage and pulse train reference, and via USB connection (I have played with this a tad using Yaskawa's SigmaWinPlus). So how do I get Mach4 to perform one of these protocols? Next, one would think an optical encoder would be needed on the spindle. How to get Mach4 to read the encoder?