Motor tuning and switches

[glynster]

OK First you need to state what all the dip switches on the drivers are set at. So that the current can be set up correctly etc. Have you set up Mach3 in mm or inches

Like has been sad already before you can tune the motors they need to be on the machine. ..Clive

I set mach3 up in mm during the install wizard. It is not so much that I wish to tune the motors to correct mm measurements along the axis etc, it is rather that I need to set the correct switches on the driver but am confused as to what they do. I see from the spec that when wired in parallel (which is what I assume they are since they are not in series) that the current should be 4.2 amps. There is no exact setting for 4.2 amps on my drivers - the closest is 4.3 which I assume is fine. That is sw1 on, sw2 off, sw3 on - if thats all I need to do and it's correct I am fine with that. I also get that sw4 is an option in that it determines whether the holding torque of the motors is 50% or not - I have sw4 set to "off" since that sounds "sensible" to me.

It is sw5, sw6, sw7 and sw8 that confuse me - I dont know what microsteps are or what effect these settings will have - so I cant make a guess at which setting to choose from the chart above and how this affects the "steps per" value in mach3 "motor and tuning setup screen". The default of steps per was 2000 - I reduced it to 200 as per the advice above but I still dont know why exactly. The following chart shows even more info...



Am I to assume from the above chart that the "step/rev" column of values is what I should be entering in the mach3 "steps per" field? If so, whay am I choosing one lot of settings over another? What's the difference?