Another rebuild

[erniehatt]

OK Bertus, you answered a couple of questions on the V 2.58 page.
I mentioned that the new machine would be 1 meter X 900.
For ease of construction, the X axis rises and lowers with the Z axis, so this is an added weight, so I have a motor on each side, they are run on individual drivers,
so Z is cloned with A, this now causes problems with the Y axis as it will have to drive the the whole caboodle.
In my previous build it only moved the bed, with a single motor, now with all this extra weight one motor is not going to be enough, so either the Z or Y will have to run on just one driver for the two motors, yes this will be at half current, but what overall effect will that have.
The only other option I can see is to buy a 5 axis board, but that is another expense.
It has external drivers

[Bertus Kruger]

OK Bertus, you answered a couple of questions on the V 2.58 page.
I mentioned that the new machine would be 1 meter X 900.
For ease of construction, the X axis rises and lowers with the Z axis, so this is an added weight, so I have a motor on each side, they are run on individual drivers,
so Z is cloned with A, this now causes problems with the Y axis as it will have to drive the the whole caboodle.
In my previous build it only moved the bed, with a single motor, now with all this extra weight one motor is not going to be enough, so either the Z or Y will have to run on just one driver for the two motors, yes this will be at half current, but what overall effect will that have.
The only other option I can see is to buy a 5 axis board, but that is another expense.
It has external drivers

You are definitely scaling up...

Even if you can run two steppers per axis, you are also going to get into troubles keeping the doubled up steppers aligned.

If you do go for a 5-axis board you will have to make sure the new board can home two steppers on the same axis.

I am looking at releasing an updated board in the second half of this year. But all are still in the prototyping stage.

[erniehatt]

OK Bertus,
Of course I would like to stay with your system, if you are planning an update, and of course it is not to far away, I will not be in any hurry to get this up and running, I need to make sure that everything is spot on. I did have the two motors running the Z axis on the last model, didn't have any problems with that.
I have been looking at a 6 axis board by Novesun, and I am told the Mach3 can slave two axis.
Let me know how you are going with the update, and I will give it a go.

[Bertus Kruger]

OK Bertus,
Of course I would like to stay with your system, if you are planning an update, and of course it is not to far away, I will not be in any hurry to get this up and running, I need to make sure that everything is spot on. I did have the two motors running the Z axis on the last model, didn't have any problems with that.
I have been looking at a 6 axis board by Novesun, and I am told the Mach3 can slave two axis.
Let me know how you are going with the update, and I will give it a go.

I assembled some prototype boards last night and I am pleased with the testing results up to now. Still need to validate a few more things on the board and will have to do a few more revisions of the board before its available.

[DerFarm]

Just a thought, and quite possibly bullshit, but have you considered slaving by splicing?

I used lever splicers (https://cdn.aws.toolstation.com/images/ ... /45879.jpg) instead of soldering the back of the PI. Seems to work well. Since both motors receive exactly the same pulses, they are going to do the same things ... at least in theory.

[erniehatt]

Hi Derfarm that sounds interesting, could you explain it a little more, the link only showed an image, will this work with more than one set of motors ie. the Y and the Z, or will only work like the present system Z+A.
I just looked back on one of your other posts, It seems that you ran the wires from the hat via the splicer to two external drivers and there motors, did this have any effect on the running, did halve the current as predicted.

Bertus, that sounds encouraging, please keep me inform of your progress with it.

[DerFarm]

I have no idea how to measure the difference.

I did measure the current from my power source (49.8) and at the end of each of the 4 lines to the drivers (49.7) ... if that's any help.

You can get the lever connectors on Amazon.