Topics

1

Mach4 General Discussion / Mach4 & ESS Dual motor homing

« on: October 05, 2019, 05:56:26 AM »

Hello,

I am looking at purchasing MACH4 and the EES Smooth steeper controller along with one the MB3 breakout boards.
My CNC builds has two motors / drivers for the Y axis.
What I would like to know is, but cannot find an exact answer, can I setup MACh4 / ESS to drive the Y axis using two motors and drivers with separate home sensors?
My plan is to auto square the gantry by homing each Y axis motors automatically.

I am new to CNC so I am not sure if this makes sense, but from what I have read it should be possible, but I just cannot find out 100% before buying the ESS controller and MACH4.

Any help or suggestions on this would be really appropriated.

Thanks

Paul

2

General Mach Discussion / Mach 3 or 4 Controller

« on: September 20, 2019, 11:38:09 AM »

Hello,

I am building a new CNC machine and have purchased all the hardware.
I have 3 phase closed loop steppers and have also purchased a PlanetCNC controller but have now decided to go down the Mach route.

My Y axis has two ball screws and two steppers so I want to some how synchronize both or have separate main and slave outputs and also be able to drive each in turn automatically when homing. Which should also ensure my X axis is square.

The advice I am looking for is what is the best or most suitable controller for Mach4? As a newbie to this and starting out, I think I may as well go down the Mach 4 route over Mach3. I do not want to spend to much on the controller, maybe up to £200 at a push but around 130 - 150 would suit my budget better.

The CNC is a simple 3 axis machine with two drives for the Y axis.
Eventually I would like to also be able to control a VFD spindle and maybe a 4th axis (Rotation / Chuck).

I also like the idea of a controller that does as much motion control on-board as possible (FPGA, ARM etc) so as to offload as much as possible from the PC.

Any ideas or suggestions would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance

Paul