Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: Two heads

« on: January 10, 2011, 04:36:10 PM »

I was thinking about switching the step/dir signals at the breakout board. When I want to change head my tool change macro would park headA then switch a logic output. This logic output from the parallel port would control some transistor switch logic that would then divert the step/dir signals to headB. The macro would then move headB to the correct position to resume the job.

Does that sound feesable?

2

General Mach Discussion / Two heads

« on: January 10, 2011, 08:50:33 AM »

Hello all
I'm currently building my first CNC router and am planning on using Mach3 to control it. My design is a moving gantry style, however with abit of a twist.

I'm planning on mounting two 'machining heads' onto the Y Gantry. The first head will have my router, the second will probably have a laser diode for burning/etching. Both heads will have separate Y and Z axis steppers but they will share the same X axis.

When 'head A' is in use, 'head B' is parked at one end of the Y gantry out of the working envelope. When I want to tool change I would like to park 'head A' at the other end of the Y gantry (again out of the working envelope) then bring in 'head B' to continue.

So I would need to control 1 X-axis, 2 Y-axis and 2 Z-axis.

Could such an arrangement be possible to control with Mach 3?

Regards

Peter