Yes, the way you set angular axis in Mach 3 is:
Go to the Config drop down menu then,
Go and click on Logic settings then,
On that page look over and you will see a box that has the following choices, and cheack the one you want:
1). A axis is angular
2). B axis is Angular
3). C axis is Angular
Which ever one you cheack will make the DRO and the axis read and respond to angular measurements.
G0 A180 will give you 1/2 rotation, etc.
On making your steppers respond faster here is what you need to do, Set your drive to "Micro stepping", when set to micro stepping in can increase the voltage to 2-4X the "rated amount" of the stepper motor, this will give you much more speed, NOTE: Make absolutly sure that you DO NOT exceed the rated amperage max of the motor!!!!! Take the time to calculate the resistor you need for the drive.....Your Gecko literature should have info on doing that, or you can post to Mariss at the Gecko site, and/or Dan.
Relise also that steppers LOSE torque/power as thier speed. So, depending on the Mass of the objects that you will be putting on your A axis, you will want to tune your Acceleration/Deceleration curves, so you don't "overshoot" your mark on deceleration. I would get a "US Digital" 500 count encoder on you A-Axis and run that to the Encoder DRO input in Mach (unless you have another DRO type readout on your machine), to double varify the accuracy of your table.
scott  |