Calibrating stepper motors for inches

[Deon]

Hello, I'm very new to this but I have a sherline with a Gecko 540,the uc100 and software I purchase almost a year ago and a nice fast windows 10 laptop. . I had to take a break from playing with it for one reason or another but I have sometime now and would like to get the software up and running the mill. The motors are 300inchers I don't really know what to do. I also have a 4th axis and probe. I did use mach to make some parts(?) but has probing issues. and found the same issue someone(3people) else had on another forum that got no fix for it. And mach 3 is no longer supported. I know nothing about programing script/macros or anything. But i would like to calibrate the motor for inch units and any help would be appreciated.

Deon

[ger21]

Sherlines, have 20 turns/inch, x 200 steps per rev, x 10 microsteps.
Should be 40,000 steps/inch.

Or, use the Calibrate buttons.

[Deon]

Ok, I will give that a shot. Thank You

[Deon]

Hey Gerry,

That worked, thanks. What do I fill in the rest of the blanks? For some reason It would not calibrate. So I typed G0 X1 and X went 1 inch. Also, when I home the X axis it goes in the opposite direction of where the switch is. Had to mount it Where I put it, not a lot of options on a sherline. Homing sequence is Z,Y,X. No limit switches just Homing and soft limits. Anyones help is appreciated.

Deon

[ger21]

Also, when I home the X axis it goes in the opposite direction of where the switch is.

Check the Direction Positive box next to the Home Pin.

What do I fill in the rest of the blanks?

Which ones?

[Deon]

homing speed up: ?
homing speed down: ?
write offset on homing: ?
steps per unit is: 40,000
velocity: ?
Acceleration: ?
soft limit-: 9 or -9 ?
softlimit+: is 0
Comp acceleration: ?
Backlash distance: ?
Again thanks

Deon

[ger21]

Those settings are unique to your machine, and typically are set by using trial and error testing to see what works best for your machine.

[Deon]

Would you have a suggestion for a starting point? I don't think it would be up to doing 20in a min. with metal. But, I don't really have a clue. Blanks had info in it but for metric?

homing speed up: ?
homing speed down: ?
write offset on homing: ?
steps per unit is: 40,000
velocity: ?
Acceleration: ?
soft limit-: 9 or -9 ?
softlimit+: is 0
Comp acceleration: ?
Backlash distance: ?

Thanks, Deon

[ger21]

No, not really. The Velocity is the rapid speed, which is the maximum speed your machine can reliably do.
I've never used a Sherline, so I have no idea what it's settings might be.

For Homing, Try 20 up, 10 down.

Softlimits are basically the size of your machine relative to the home switch.
- = 0
+ = max travel

No idea about backlash compensation. Never used it.

[cncdrive]

Homing speed up and down are the velocities with which the axis will run to the homing switch and then down the homing switch when doing a home routine.
The home coordinate is registered when the axis leaves the home switch, so a lower down moving velocity will give a more precise home point,
because the switch may be not switching very precisely the same point different times, so the slower the moving down speed the possible switching lag/difference will cause a less travel error, means a more precise home coordinate.
And up velocity may be a higher value, because it will not influance the home position precision, so you can do the fastest which will not damage your limit switch, so you can do running to the home point fast to save time on the homing routine.

The write offset on homing is basicly your home point coordinate, the axis will be set to that coordinate at the home switch point when homed.

The steps per unit is how many steps your stepper or servo drive needs to receive to move the axis one Unit (mm or inch or whatever length unit you working in) distance.
Velocity is your rapid (maximum) feedrate on the axis.
Acceleration is the maximum acceleration (change of velocity) of your axis.

Softlimit is the coordinate where the axis can't go further if the softlimit function is enabled.

Comp. acceleration is the acceleration for the backlash compensation routine and rigid tapping and thread cutting routines. The parameter does anything only in these routines.
Backlash is the backlash or cogging of your driving mechanism, for example if the nut is wear on the screw then you can set the backlash value of it, so the controller will compensate the movements when your axis changes directions, it will add this movement distance to the movements on direction changes to defeat the backlash.

As Gerry said, the parameters totally depends on the machine used, what the machine can do.