Originally Posted by ger21  The Hobby CNC board is a much better choice than the FET, and has been used by many members here with very good results. Very hard to beat for the price. However, if you want better performance, look at the Gecko G540.
Yes, most steppers are 200 steps per inch. However, most good drives use some form of microstepping, usually 1/8 or 1/10, which will give you 8 or 10 times as many steps per revolution.
G-code is basically just a set of coordinates for the machine to follow. In the control software that you use (Mach3?), you input how many steps it takes to move one inch. The control software will read the g-code, and send the appropriate number of steps to move to the commanded position. |
Gerry,
This is the kind of information I am searching for here. Experience is priceless. The control part that I was mentally missing was the setting in the software that tells the controler how many steps to take to resolve a particular distance. (Post Processor??)
I design in both Solidworks and BobCAD/CAM but have never used BobCAM to control anything. I use DeskNC for my laser and that portion was already set for the machine. It sounds like Mach 3 is popular piece of the control puzzle from what I am reading here.
I will definitely look into the Gecko because I really only want to build these systems once.
Thanks,
Bud