Setting up X and Y G540/Mach3

[ssutton]

Hi Group,
I am sitting here setting up my machine for the first time, I have a 4' X 4' rack and pinion machine. Please follow my logic here and see if I and right or wrong.

My X axis has 2 motors on it, one on the right of the table and the other on the left, these motors must be slaved to each other. The Y and Z just have one motor each.

The G540 has 4 motor drivers X Y Z and A. The X and A must be set up in Mach3 with the same step and direction pins from the port to drive both the X axis motors???

Does it matter what I call X and what I call Y? I want to call the front/back motion of the table the X, the left/right motion of the table the Y. Will this effect G code?

[ger21]

The X and A must be set up in Mach3 with the same step and direction pins from the port to drive both the X axis motors???

No, each axis uses it's own step and direction pins. When you enable slaving in Mach3, Mach3 handles the syncing of the motors. Make sure all settings in motor tuning (and homing if using two home switches) are exactly the same for the slaved motors.

Does it matter what I call X and what I call Y? I want to call the front/back motion of the table the X, the left/right motion of the table the Y. Will this effect G code?

No, call them whatever you want.

[Vern48]

ssutton.
You could as ger21 says call them anything you want, but why.
In drafting or Cad convention puts the x-axis across the bottom.
The y-axis at the left and up and down.
I believe that with Mach 3 the up and down arrows for positioning are the
y-axis, and the left/right arrows are the x-axis.
So unless you're willing to compensate for these things stay with convention.
The same would hold true for a lathe.
When conversing with others you will also have to point out that you have changed the axis names.
As an electrician I is on O is off. Why change?

Just an opinion.

[ger21]

Imo, the conventional method is that the slaves axis should be called X, but as Vern says, how you stand at the machine should dictate how it's setup.

My X axis is slaved, but I stand on the side, so my X moves left to right.

If your X moves away from you, then what you're cutting will be 90° from what you see on Mach3's toolpath screen. And the arrow keys will move the machine 90° from where they are pointing.

[Al_The_Man]

With a 4x4 machine, you do not have a 'Long' side, but as mentioned, you can make them what you want, the convention is to view them as you would standard Cartesian coordinates, X left to right as viewed from the operating position.
Al.