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SmoothStepper USB / Mach4 or ESS, who is in charge of timing the DIR, STEP and ENA signals?
« on: February 10, 2020, 02:35:44 PM »
WHile waiting for the ESS +BOB to come, I had the chance to check the DIR-STEP-ENA signals coming out from the XHC controller (that I'm about to get rid of) and going into my X-Y servos and Z step motor driver;
To my surprise, I discovered that contrary to what recommended by all servo and step motor drivers, all the signals have the same 0 time, which means that the start at exactly the same time....
DIR signal should instead be given a few microseconds (tipically 5 o 6) before the STEP signal;
In case ENABLE signal is used, it should be given few microsendos before the DIR signal....
I guess that if the signals have the same start time, at least the first step may be missed by servo/driver...
So the quetion is: who is in charge of timing the signals? Mach? or the controller board?
To my surprise, I discovered that contrary to what recommended by all servo and step motor drivers, all the signals have the same 0 time, which means that the start at exactly the same time....
DIR signal should instead be given a few microseconds (tipically 5 o 6) before the STEP signal;
In case ENABLE signal is used, it should be given few microsendos before the DIR signal....
I guess that if the signals have the same start time, at least the first step may be missed by servo/driver...
So the quetion is: who is in charge of timing the signals? Mach? or the controller board?