Pairing Gantry Motors with the C86

[bbkengineering]

Hi everyone,

I am at the final stages of my CNC Router. I do not have the Pro version of the software and I am trying to get away without it due to budget being tight.

I noticed that I can use hardware pairing if I use the appropriate terminals on the C86. I have read the pairing manual and from what I understand, the best option for me would be auto homing and manual squaring with hardware pairing. I just wanted to double-check that I have everything correct so I can proceed.

From what I understand:

1. I first must manually square my machine meaning that the gantry and the long axis is perfectly perpendicular. Does that involve taking precise measurements to ensure the gantry is sitting equally from the ends on both sides?

2. I jog the machine to near the home switches after ensuring square grantry

3. Press Cycle Start to run the auto homing cycle. I have 4 Inductive NPN NC proximity sensors and I believe I need to wire them in series into 1 input and use HomeAll. Do the wires need to be shielded? I also watched Clough42’s YouTube video and he said he had to wire them in parallel into 1 homeAll input.

Sorry for the all the questions, I really appreciate the help.

[Gary Campbell]

1) You should either build your machine square or setup stop blocks to eliminate an out of square condition. I prefer the former to the latter
2) If you wish to decrease the time it takes to travel to the homing switches. If you used the stop blocks in 1) above the gantry would already be there
3) NC sensors need to be placed in series and you will only use three: one each for X, Y and Z.

[cnckeith]

Hi everyone,

I am at the final stages of my CNC Router. I do not have the Pro version of the software and I am trying to get away without it due to budget being tight.

I noticed that I can use hardware pairing if I use the appropriate terminals on the C86. I have read the pairing manual and from what I understand, the best option for me would be auto homing and manual squaring with hardware pairing. I just wanted to double-check that I have everything correct so I can proceed.

From what I understand:

1. I first must manually square my machine meaning that the gantry and the long axis is perfectly perpendicular. Does that involve taking precise measurements to ensure the gantry is sitting equally from the ends on both sides? < yes i use a granite block to get the gantry square and then make permanent "marks" or 'stops' on each side so the gantry can easily be returned/reset to this known good square position.>

2. I jog the machine to near the home switches after ensuring square grantry

3. Press Cycle Start to run the auto homing cycle. I have 4 Inductive NPN NC proximity sensors and I believe I need to wire them in series into 1 input and use HomeAll. Do the wires need to be shielded? I also watched Clough42’s YouTube video and he said he had to wire them in parallel into 1 homeAll input. < if you are doing manual squaring the machine only needs three home switches, the 4th is not used as a home switch>

Sorry for the all the questions, I really appreciate the help.

[CNCMaryland]

3 switches need to be wired to home all, the 4th is wired to slave home.

[Gary Campbell]

You dont need a homing sensor on the slaved axis when using hardware pairing. You only need to use one on the slaved motor when using software pairing and independent autosquare

[CNCMaryland]

Sorry, I misread what he wrote, I was thinking auto-squaring.

[cnckeith]

related reading
https://www.centroidcnc.com/dealersuppo ... ds/319.pdf