GRBL with MKS Gen 1.4

Firstly… what an elegant design for CNC the lowrider is!.. thank you Ryan

I’m Getting close to completion of parts construction and hope to document on here for others to se but for now I am testing wirin etc.

I have a question that I am having trouble finding the answer to.

I have MKS Gen 1.4 board that I believe is considered as a Ramps all-in-one solution. I am using GRBL as I have that on my chinese "CC 3010 with a “woodpecker” board and I understand it, I like the co-ords system and it all fits in with my established workflow from design in Fusion360 to G code output to cutting. The whole thing is run by an old DELL computer through USB and has an old touchscreen for control of the machine.

I cannot get GRBL-Mega-5X to operate with multiple X and Z axis I found as a link from this forum and I suspect that is because I m using a MKS instead of an actual RAMBO or RAMPS.

  1. Is there anything I am missing and should do to get it to drive these double axes on X and Z on my MKS Get 1.4?

or

  1. Is it OK for me to run those motors in parallel without blowing anything up?

all help gratefully received especially if pitched at a 5 year old’s knowledge level of arduino coding… and when I figure out how to load pictures I’ll do so to document my build.

Actually, you run the motors in series, and they run just fine. That’s how they run on the mini-Rambos. Don’t run them in parallel. Series is fine, parallel is bad. Series maintains current, but divides voltage. Parallel divides current, but maintains voltage. Guess which is more important for steppers? And no, you don’t have to crank up the driver voltage to over-compensate for two motors in series. At least, you certainly don’t want to start by doing that. If you find you’re skipping steps, maybe start giving it a little more juice.

Thanks for the info… I’ve found some diagrams etc for series wiring so I’ll give it a go. I will be using din rail terminals for the stepper connections so should easy enough to switch some wires.

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