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IndustryArena Forum > CNC Electronics > Gecko Drives > 4th axis setup G540 and Mach3
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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    64

    4th axis setup G540 and Mach3

    Hello,

    I'm in the process of building a CNC table for my plasma cutter. I am using a Gecko G540 along with Mach3. This will be a 3 axis machine however the Y axis will use two steppers; one on each side of the table.

    I hooked everything up last night for testing. Mach3 was configured so that pressing the arrow keys moves the x/y axis and page up/down moves the z axis. However when pressing these keys only 3 of the steppers turn. I know that something is just not setup correctly because if I assign hotkeys to each motor I can get them all to turn.

    Can anyone tell me how to setup the Y axis for multiple motors? Also how I could get one motor to turn in the opposite direction for a table like this?

    Thank you!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Posts
    2141
    I don't have Mach3 running right now, so this is just from memory.

    There is a configuration option to "slave" two motors together. Make sure that both motors are configured identically, then slave them. There is a separate "reverse" option that needs to be selected from the homing screen.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    64
    Thank you! Exactly what I needed to know.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Posts
    2

    Slaving axis

    U will have to slave the y axis to one of the other axis in the mach 3 settings. I had the same thing happen until i found it on a forum. download the manual http://www.machsupport.com/docs/Mach3Mill_1.84.pdf and look at section 5.6.4 . Thats will show u what needs to be done..

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