Denford Software & Machines

Hello

Can anyone help me out? I am getting my 1985 era Starturn4 working with Mach3 using the original drivers and motors as per David Murrays excellent posts. Can anyone who has got a similar setup let me know the steps per unit settings in Mach3 for the X and Z axes plus the max motor speeds you have been able to get?

After I have it all working I will do a post with as much detail as I can about the conversion.

Andy

there are two types of drive boards in the orac, cd20 or sd2. The cd20 will give you up to 3m/min, the sd2 will be around 1.5m.min.
Set the x axis to diameter mode and if I remember correctly set the steps per to 200, velocity to 1500 or 3000 (cd20), acceleration to 150 or 300(cd20)
z axis should be the same.
Check the movement distance on the z axis, and on the x it will move half the commanded distance. If the x moves the distance commanded double the steps per.

Thanks very much - I have the SD2 drivers, I believe these can be figured to run in half step mode too, not sure if that would be an advantage in this case. I will give it a go later

they're already in half step mode

Wouldn't half step be 400 steps per?

if you work out the pitch of the screw and the reduction on the pulleys you get 200 steps per.

Thanks very much - i will try it tonight and report back

Thanks - that all works. Steppers aren't that smooth at very low feed rates but I guess that is to be expected.