CSMIO/IP-M vs Ethernet SmoothStepper (Begone foul parallel port!)

**EddyCurrent** · 12-11-2013

Right this is how I have it set up.
ESS, Mach3, 4 inputs for home limits X Y Z A, I have A slaved off X because I'm using 2 ballscrews with one stepper motor each. I used the settings in Mach3 to slave A from X.
I pressed the 'Ref All Home' button on Mach3 screen and the Z axis moved first, hit the home limit, reversed slightly then stopped and moved onto the Y limit with same result. It then moved both X and A motors until one of them hit it's own home limit, reversed slightly then ran the other motor until it also hit it's home limit and stopped.
I tried it both ways round i.e. letting it hit A limit before X and X before A and it worked perfectly both times.

The reason I used 4 inputs for the home limits is because having worked with PLC's for many years that is the method of choice, anyway I rewired X Y Z in series so they used the same input while A used another input. It worked fine just as previous and it didn't mind if the A limit operated before the X or vice versa.

My conclusion is, there is no problem with the Smooth Stepper and Mach3 with regards to slaved motors using two home limits (one per motor) provided at least one of the slaved axis home limits has it's own input.

**firetrappe** · 12-11-2013

Eddy, Thanks for going to the trouble of testing that and posting your findings, much appreciated. Having read your post and also the most recent posts on Warp9's forum i'm confident the old issues have now been fixed.

As a matter of interest, could you post which version of Mach and the ESS plugin you are using. I believe 'ES_v10o1d1h' is the most recent ESS plugin.

Si.

**EddyCurrent** · 12-11-2013

ESS_v10h2d1a
Mach3Version3.043.066

**firetrappe** · 14-11-2013

Eddy, If you haven't already seen it, i'd recommend having a look at the 'Auto Squaring' ESS thread on Warp9 (registration req'd as m_c mentioned above): Forum

The new beta plugin for the ESS on that thread apparently fixes the slaving issues mentioned in the 'zone thread in my earlier post.

Si

**EddyCurrent** · 14-11-2013

These are the dates of the files I have, I've got the latest one and I'll try it tomorrow, it would be better if they used a more logical naming method such as 10.1.1, 10.2.1, etc.

ESS_v10h2d1a.m3p - dated 28/12/2012
ESS_v10o1d1h.m3p - dated 19/10/2013