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  #31  
Old Tue 05 January 2010, 12:54
aniljangra
Just call me: Anil #44
 
Delhi
India
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On my mm I am using the same thing, sharing same step/dir for 2 drives.

Banging on stopper blocks is a quick and easy way to square the Gantry
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  #32  
Old Wed 06 January 2010, 06:29
J.R. Hatcher
Just call me: J.R. #4
 
Wilmington, North Carolina
United States of America
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Mine shares 1 signal ..... like yours .... as per our conversation Mon 07 January 2008, 16:20

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showt...37&postcount=4
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  #33  
Old Wed 06 January 2010, 17:24
smreish
Just call me: Sean - #5, 28, 58 and others
 
Orlando, Florida
United States of America
...and then finally JR finds the thread where we discussed this and the "ubersmart" Mike explaining the details. I love this place in MM land.

Sean
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  #34  
Old Wed 06 January 2010, 18:09
Greolt
Just call me: Greg
 
Victoria
Australia
Yes the forum works well and Mikes technical help is very valuable.

Both X axis drives sharing an output is certainly a valid way to have things set up.

However this thread is called "Using limit/home switches to autosquare the gantry" ( at least it is now, maybe it did not start with that title)

It needs to be clear for those new members reading this thread that "Auto squaring the gantry" in the Mach sense can not be done with a cloned axis.

It can only be done with slaved drives, separate home switches on each side of the X axis and separate inputs for each of those switches.

And of course there are alternative manual methods to square the gantry, other than using Mach's auto squaring feature.

Greg
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  #35  
Old Thu 07 January 2010, 04:10
smreish
Just call me: Sean - #5, 28, 58 and others
 
Orlando, Florida
United States of America
Thanks Greg,
I think I should tag this thread now for some significant editing.

...thanks for keeping me focused on the point. (little kids and too much coffee will make me loose focus

Sean
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  #36  
Old Thu 07 January 2010, 11:41
Belli
Just call me: Greg
 
Johannesburg
South Africa
If you are homing two axes at the same time, remember to check 'Home slave with master' under 'General config'. This will stop the little dance that the A axis does afterwards.

Greg
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  #37  
Old Thu 07 January 2010, 11:57
Kobus_Joubert
Just call me: Kobus #6
 
Riversdale Western Cape
South Africa
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Hi Greg, glad to see you are still following the forum. Everything of the best there in Edenvale.
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  #38  
Old Thu 07 January 2010, 13:58
Greolt
Just call me: Greg
 
Victoria
Australia
Quote:
Originally Posted by Belli View Post
If you are homing two axes at the same time, remember to check 'Home slave with master' under 'General config'. This will stop the little dance that the A axis does afterwards.
If you do check "Home slave with master" then that means "Auto squaring the Gantry" will be disabled.

Greg
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  #39  
Old Fri 08 January 2010, 13:40
Belli
Just call me: Greg
 
Johannesburg
South Africa
Um, no.
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  #40  
Old Fri 08 January 2010, 15:40
Greolt
Just call me: Greg
 
Victoria
Australia
Um yes.

I did what I always do when someone says I have it wrong. I went and did some tests.

And testing confirms,

"If you do check "Home slave with master" then that means "Auto squaring the Gantry" will be disabled."

Greg
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  #41  
Old Sat 09 January 2010, 15:01
Alan_c
Just call me: Alan (#11)
 
Cape Town (Western Cape)
South Africa
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If its not doing the dance, its not auto squaring...
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  #42  
Old Sat 09 January 2010, 23:55
Belli
Just call me: Greg
 
Johannesburg
South Africa
If its not doing the dance it means the axes are homed simultaneously as opposed to sequentially. Look at the machine coordinates for X and A and see if they are zero after homing.
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  #43  
Old Mon 11 January 2010, 16:19
Greolt
Just call me: Greg
 
Victoria
Australia
Quote:
Originally Posted by Belli View Post
If its not doing the dance it means the axes are homed simultaneously as opposed to sequentially. Look at the machine coordinates for X and A and see if they are zero after homing.
I'm sorry Greg but this assumption is wrong.

I have only responded to this post because new readers looking for info on Mach's "Auto Gantry Squaring" may be misled.

Personally I don't care, as I know how it works and do not feel the need to convince anyone who disagrees, so I will not be entering in to a debate about it.


"If you do check "Home slave with master" then that means "Auto squaring the Gantry" will be disabled."

Greg
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  #44  
Old Mon 11 January 2010, 17:43
Greolt
Just call me: Greg
 
Victoria
Australia
I re-read my post and can see that it may be taken as rude or arrogant.

Please believe that is not my intention. In light of some recent experience, I am just feeling a bit jaded with debates over technical issues at the moment.

That is my problem and no one else's and I apologise.

Greg
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  #45  
Old Mon 11 January 2010, 18:38
Robert M
Just call me: Robert
 
Lac-Brome, Qc
Canada
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Greg ( Greolt),
Well said….Very humble & noble of you
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  #46  
Old Mon 11 January 2010, 20:08
bradm
Just call me: Brad #10
 
Somerville(MA)
United States of America
(quietly applauding Greg)
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  #47  
Old Mon 11 January 2010, 22:34
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
Okay, here we have two Gregs respectfully disagreeing with each other. There is no point in pursuing this debate unless somebody goes out to the workshop, knocks the gantry out of square for a start, and then runs Mach to see what happens under different settings. If someone comes back with a report, we need to know the Mach version as well as maybe some other factors which could muddy the waters.
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  #48  
Old Mon 11 January 2010, 22:50
Greolt
Just call me: Greg
 
Victoria
Australia
Already done those tests Gerald. See post #40.

Here is a section of the Mach3 change log,

May 14 2007 Version 2.00.073

New selection in Config/general for "Home slave with Master. " , this selection turns off autosquaring
of a gantry and keeps the slave engaged during homing. Config/Toolpath "Use Origin sphere" also controls
display of the bounding box.

http://www.machsupport.com/downloads/Changelist90.txt

Greg
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  #49  
Old Wed 13 January 2010, 12:07
ger21
Just call me: Ger
 
Detroit, MI
United States of America
I'll back Greg (Greolt) up on this. The "Home Slave with Master" was added for users wanting to home both the slave and master to a single home switch.


Gerry

Last edited by ger21; Wed 13 January 2010 at 12:09..
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  #50  
Old Thu 14 January 2010, 23:56
Belli
Just call me: Greg
 
Johannesburg
South Africa
OK, I'm with Greg on this one. ;-)

This is what I did:
Hook up breakout board, connect two switches on individual inputs. Slave X -> A, enable X and A home switches.

'Home slave with Master' - unchecked. Press Ref X and then press and release A home switch, I get the green light on A (axis homed), press and release X, normal behavior observed on X axis, get the 'X' (axis homed) green light.

'Home slave with Master' - checked. Press Ref X and then press and release A home switch and I don't get no green light on A (axis not homed), press and release X, normal behavior observed on X axis, get the 'X' (axis homed) green light.

While I don't have motors connected and so can't determine at what point the motors stop, this behaviour I think is just as Greg (the other one) described it. It does of course beg the question, 'How do we use home switches to square the gantry without twisting the gantry up each time?'.

Cheers,
Greg

Last edited by Belli; Thu 14 January 2010 at 23:58..
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  #51  
Old Fri 15 January 2010, 02:16
Greolt
Just call me: Greg
 
Victoria
Australia
G'day Belli

I will use our user names to avoid confusion. Our Mothers are both clever people to give us both such a fine name.

"How do we use home switches to square the gantry without twisting the gantry up each time?"

I assume you are concerned about the "little dance" twisting the gantry.

What happens with the standard homing sequence on a slaved gantry is this,

First the master motor travels to it's home switch and backs off. All the while the slaved motor moves along with the master in unison.

Then after that has completed, the slaved motor goes to its home switch and backs off. This time the slaved motor does it on its own. Master motor stays still.

This second movement is what you call the "little dance"

However in practice this second movement is only about 1 or 2mm. No problem there for a MM gantry.

Then there is another option.

Replace this part of the homing macro,

DoButton( 22 )
DoButton( 25 )


With this ,

RefCombination (9)

With this command the master and slave will home simultaneously. I am told by Brian (owner of Artsoft) that this also "auto squares" the gantry.

I use the first option on my router, which has less tolerance to the "little dance" than does a MM.

I just find it reassuring to actually see the "little dance" happen and know that all is square.

Greolt

Last edited by Greolt; Fri 15 January 2010 at 02:19..
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  #52  
Old Fri 15 January 2010, 06:47
ger21
Just call me: Ger
 
Detroit, MI
United States of America
Note that refcombination(9) is for the X and A axis. For X and B, it's refcombination(17). For X and C, it's refcombination(33).
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  #53  
Old Fri 15 January 2010, 06:52
sailfl
Just call me: Nils #12
 
Winter Park, FL
United States of America
Greolt

You talk about replacing the homing macro. You are talking about that macro used with the screen to do refCombination? So what is the name of that macro?

Thanks
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  #54  
Old Fri 15 January 2010, 13:33
Greolt
Just call me: Greg
 
Victoria
Australia
Quote:
Originally Posted by sailfl View Post
So what is the name of that macro?
I don't know that it has a name.

Access it by going to menu/operator/edit button script, then the refall button will start to wink.

Click on it and the homing macro will open in the VB editor.

Button scripts are not in the macro folder like a lot of others are. They are stored in the screenset file.

Info on using the RefCombination command can be found here,

http://www.machsupport.com/MachCusto...ped_by_purpose

Greg
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  #55  
Old Sat 16 January 2010, 03:50
sailfl
Just call me: Nils #12
 
Winter Park, FL
United States of America
Greg,

Thanks for the information.
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  #56  
Old Sun 17 January 2010, 05:34
Robert M
Just call me: Robert
 
Lac-Brome, Qc
Canada
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The beauty of a well organized WIKI !
I fell it’s Unfortunate the MechMate community abandon it/ never pursuit it !
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  #57  
Old Sun 17 January 2010, 14:40
cab. guy
Just call me: Ron
 
Boise,Id.
United States of America
Been doing the dance for 8 months,drawback? It cost the whole price of one extra proxy switch and one extra Bob input.Value = priceless.

Last edited by cab. guy; Sun 17 January 2010 at 14:44..
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  #58  
Old Wed 09 June 2010, 03:06
rotorzoomer
Just call me: Account - DISABLED
 
Account - DISABLED
Australia
Ideas?

I am up to that awkward part of the planning stages where there is much debate on which method of homing / referencing is best to use and as you know the parts you buy changes with each design.

What is the latest accepted method that is on average the most reliable, robust and dependable.

BTW - I have configured and tested on the test bench every mode possible under Mach3 (Slaved, Independent, Soft Limits, Ref All with Limit Switches e.t.c.) but what is the reality in a production environment?

A show of hands of what people are using for homing / referencing these days?
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  #59  
Old Wed 09 June 2010, 03:44
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
Here's 5 votes (have 5 running machines) - No electronics used for squaring
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  #60  
Old Wed 09 June 2010, 05:30
bradm
Just call me: Brad #10
 
Somerville(MA)
United States of America
Mark, what part changes are you considering?

The proximity sensors are used for detecting limit excursions and bit crashes as well as their (optional) use for homing and squaring. So there's more than one reason to have at least a Y-Car proxy.

It's hard to argue with the simple reliability of running/pulling the axes against the stops, but even if you choose this method, you might want proxies.
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