Re: EMC and 4th axis

Dan Mauch wrote:

> From: "Dan Mauch" <dmauch@...>
>
> I looked all over and I can't find any info on adding a 4th and possibly
> fifth axis.

Most of the support for additional axes (up to 6) is in EMC. The interpreter,
motion planning, interpolation and motion control will handle up to 6 axes.
The only piece of code that does not currently support additional axes is
the user interface. Fred Proctor definitely has this near the top of his
priority list. It actually isn't very hard, because the hard parts are already
there. But, it will take a good deal of tweaking to get the X, Y and Z
sections squeezed down to the left half of the screen, to make room on
the right side for the new ones. Also, parameterizing the axis names
seems to be the right way to go. One guy will want XYZAB, and another
will want XYZAW. Most of the axis parameters are already in the
.ini file, such as linear/rotary, so adding the letter name is logical, but
it may affect quite a few places. Also, the interpreter needs to know
the names of the extra axes, to route movements to the right axis.
Another related item is to allow a mixing of stepper and servo
axes in the same system. I believe Fred is working on this now, or
will be very soon.

Jon