Dear all,
Just completed the construction of my 4Th axis. I am looking for best practices for set up in Mach 3, I have built this because I saw a candle stick that was hollow and twisted and wanted to try and make one but I do not have any idea how to set it up. I could do with the infant version on how to set up the steps for a rotative axis and what tick boxes I need to fill in, I am aware that the radius of the work will determine how the axis moves but I do not know what drives this. I use solidworks to create all of the dwg data that I import into a hobby version of Bobcad to post out to the machine, had allot of fun making my own gears and chassis for the axis but now I am stuck and need to lean on your greater knowledge, I have read some posts on 4Th axis and it seems to be a problem for everyone.
any guidance or advice would be appreciated.
Thanks, Paul

The 4th axis sets up in Degrees per minute.

(;-) TP

Got it going and set up with a little help from reading the manual, cocked the gearing up completely so it has been rebuilt geared down by factor of three, I have drawn a compass with .5 degree increments and I am using the set steps wizard on the settings screen, the Axis is still not moving consistently, I have run the wiz about 10 times and told it to move 90 degrees, each time it returns a different amount.
what am I doing wrong?

any help out there?

what is the gear ratio? are you micro stepping the driver ?

200 X Micro steps X Gear ratio /360

I would set the micro steps to 6 if possible abd then you have an even division into 360 and a resolution of .1 deg.

200 x 6 = 1200 X3 = 3600  /360 = 10 steps per deg or .1 per step

Just a thought, (;-) TP

I have the breakout board dips set at 25%, this gives me 75% power and seems to be the smoothest setting, this drives the micro step to 1/2. I must admit I did not consider the gearing as a factor for accuracy, Thanks for that.
 I will cut some new gears to harmonise the gear ratios to my 200 step motors and try again.
Regards Paul.

YOU need to read up on your drives to SEE what options you have for microstepping.

(;-) TP

The board has 4 settings via dip switches
100%, Decay Mode Fast, micro stepping 1
75%, Decay Mode 25%, micro stepping 1/2
50%, Decay Mode 50%, micro stepping 1/8
25%, Decay Mode Slow, micro stepping 1/16
the drive will not move on 25%

what make and model board? I have no idea what decay mode is.

(;-) TP

No make on it, the only distinguishing feature is the chip Toshiba TB6560AHQ E Bay special probably from the East.
your not alone with decay mode.

There is some information on stepper motor decay mode here ;  http://www.stepperworld.com/Tutorials/pgMicrostepping.htm

Tweakie.