Alright, I downloaded and installed the Mach3 demo, and I read about half of the 170+ page tutorial. I understand pretty much everything, until it starts talking about the limit/home switches and setting up the ports/motors for Mach3. If I had an electrical engineering degree, maybe I wouldn't have such a hard time understanding all of it...
Basically, I just want to get this thing up and running some small parts to see if it will do what I want. Do I absolutely
have to add home/limit switches right now? I'll probably add them at a later date, but for now, I'd like to just machine from an origin on the part. With these small parts, the tables won't even come close to their limits of travel.
Also, I just don't understand how to set up the inputs/outputs to get everything working. I don't suppose there's someone here that can tell me exactly what to click? Like a "Complete Retard's Guide to Mach3?" (BTW, sorry if that offends anyone, but it's just a joke...
).
Thanks,
-WRM
ETA: It would probably help to know the specifics of the hardware that I'm trying to use.
I'm using this 4 axis kit from stepperworld:
http://www.stepperworld.com/FET3dynamo.htmI just want to know how to assign (what ports/pins) the motors. I have no limit/home switches at the moment, but I think that I will eventually buy at least homing switches (maybe make the Z axis home switch adjustable for machining different height parts to reduce time in homing that axis?). Eventually, I would also like to add an E-stop switch and a MPG/feed rate override switch/4 axis switch (similar to older FANUC boards). Where is the best place online to find all these goodies? Since I only have one parallel port, I assume that I need to limit my options due to lack of inputs.