Hi,
I’m upgrading my mpcnc and have some unanswered questions about the drivers.
I ran my mpcnc with 3 stepper drivers, x any y wired in series, because that’s what I read in the tutorial. I have now 2 more drivers and I’m asking myself why not use them? Am I missing something? So far i figured the only advantage is the dual endstop feature and maybe a better distribution of power to the steppers.
Can someone point me in the right direction? Should i go with a driver for every stepper, or is there something wrong with it?
Greetings.
In addition to changing over the wiring, you’ll need to make adjustments to your existing firmware and re-flash, or just switch to the dual-endstop firmware.
This is exactly right. There is nothing wrong with either approach. If it’s already working with 3 drivers, it’s probably not worth the effort to change wiring and firmware unless you really, really want dual endstops.
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Dual endstops give you auto squaring and easier repeatability.
Well, since my machine is completely dissembled and I’m rewiring everything, I don’t see any reason not to install all 5 drivers.
Edit:
Or is there any reason not to install all 5 drivers? Besides the rewiring and firmware reflashing?
And by the way thanks for your input guys, this is really a great community. I wouldn’t have gotten in to the CNC game without the mpcnc and V1!
I’m a little confused on which firmware applies to my build. I got the RAMPS 1.4 shield on a MEGA and try to run dual endstop firmware. Could you point me to the right direction?
For dual end stops, you want V1CNC_Ramps_Dual. This version requires 5 drivers, though end stops don’t need to be installed to use it. It is setup for DRV8825 stepper drivers, so if you have something else, like A4988 drivers, you will need to make changes in the firmware and recompile.