Hello,

I have a 3-axis mill machine, build by myself and for now it is controlled by a Gecko G540 and Mach3.
My X axis use 2 steppers (X and A as slave) and homing switches for all 4 steppers (X, Y, Z, A)

Right now I intend to make some major upgrades at my machine and I want to have 2 steppers for Z-axis (Z and B as slave)
The Y axis will remain with a single stepper. I also want to have homing switches for all steppers
So, after this upgrade, my machine will use 5 drivers for X, Y, Z, A(slave for X), B(slave for Z).

I want to ask if is possible to use a Smoothstepper in combination with 2x G540.
If yes, I suppose an additional rotational axis could be controlled through the C-axis and I'll have a 4-axis milling machine. Is this correct?

Or, there are any better alternatives for this config? For a reasonable price, of course.

And for the next level, how can I add the 5th axis having all 6 axis (in Mach3) already allocated? Will have 7 steppers driving a 5-axis machine!?!

Unfortunately I cannot afford servos, at least for the moment. But I need this upgrade (4-axis) asap...

Any advice will be very useful,
Thank you for your time.

Regards,
Seb

nobody??

You can only have 6 axis and a spindle controlled from Mach and that 6 includes any slaves, Mach4 will likely be different but thats a while away.

As for running two G540 from a Smoothstepper then it shouldnt be a problem, only thing may be the slaved homing but I think any problems with that have been sorted.

Hood

thanks Hood, really appreciate it your fast answer
could you also tell me if I can use a second LPT adapter for the second G540? without smoothstepper...

regards

Yes you could use a second port instead.
Hood

I'm curious, what are the slaves doing/for?

When you have two steppers/ballscrews for one axis and do homing, the homing procedure is separate for each stepper

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