Gear_Num setting clarification

[kregan]

Hi Guys,

This is my second build using the DMM setup and I am still a bit confused about the Gear_Num setting in the Driver setup software.

I understand that Gear_num = 500 means that it takes 2000 steps to turn the motor 1 revolution.

What I don't quite get it how that relates to mach3 and if it is better to have a higher or lower gear_num setting.

As an example I will use the current machine I am building:
With a Gear_Num setting of 500 and a belt reduction of 3:1 on the machine
with .5 mm screws I get a steps per inch setting of approx 30,000 in Mach3 with approx 120 IPM.

As the Steps per inch increase in Mach3 my IPM capability goes down. So would is be better for me to go back to and reduce the Gear_Num down to say 200 or 300?

What is the trade off? Does more steps per inch put more load on MAch3 possessing power? Is that why the available IPM goes down as the Steps per go up?

Thank you for the help

Video of the testing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnSOV_bvKtU&context=C3fd6d75ADOEgsToPDskKjId5-T5dhBsaHYv5VVAOx]Testing new CNC under Mach3 - YouTube

[mactec54]

kregan

Set it to the lowest number which is 500, You dont need to worry about it at all, if you were using the smoothstepper or a board like it that was putting out millions of pulses, then you can use this for the Electronic gearing

[kregan]

Great, Thank you!

I always scratched my head about that setting!