[Dodulation]

I am building a plasma cutter and I’m using a Nema-23 for the Z-axis, a Nema-34 for the Y-axis and two Nema-34 for the X-axis.
Does anyone have any good advice or a good link to what the best tactics are to get this setup to work flawlessly? I thought to connect the second X-axis stepper motor to the A-axis port on the control board and add it as a 'slave' in Mach3 to the X-axis to make it work simultaneously. Also, I have already made the wires for both X-axis Nema-34 exactly the same length to keep any wire losses equal. I have zero experience using multiple stepper motors for the same axis, and it's also my first time working with Mach3.
So, any advice is very much appriciated...

Attachment 489082

[peteeng]

Hi Dodu - I assume you have a separate driver for each motor. The length of the wires do not need to be balanced. The Z axis motor is wired to the Z axis driver. The Y axis motor is wired to the Y axis driver. The X1 motor is wired to the X driver and the X2 motor is wired to its driver. This one is called the A axis. The A axis is slaved in the M3 configuration table to the X axis. If this is done all is good. Now when you start this thing up do not have the X and A axis motors connected or only have one connected. This allows you to check that both are rotating in the same direction and the correct direction. Once you are sure the motors are moving correctly connect them up mechanically. It puts a lot of strain on the structure if the motors are connected and they go in opposite dirns!! Peter

[Dodulation]

Hi Peter,
Thank you for taking that time to respond. Correct, I have a stepper driver for each motor. I did found this guy who has a similar situation in his build and he 'just' parallels the two X-axis stepper drivers over the X-port of the control board. It seems to work fine but I'm nor sure if this is my preferred method. I like the software 'slaving' you described better. The mechanical disconnect you motioned makes perfect sense, but would you happen to have a link or manual that describes the 'slaving' of the A-axis to the X-axis? I haven't been able to find how this should be done in Mach3.

[peteeng]

Hu Dodu - I'm not a M3 user, I'm sure someone here will help with where that is. There are a few ways to parallel two motors. You can drive two motors from one driver but depending on the driver you can get weird harmonics and it will not spin fast, tried that once. You can drive two drivers from the one controller/BOB port, haven't done this yet but people do it like your friend. If your breakout board is only 3 axis this is the only pathway. If the BOB has a slave axis then use it. Here's the M3 manual it has a section on slaving. Peter