Been using GSender on my Millright Mega V2 with a spindle, large table, and 4th axis. Running the GRBL controller. GSender has been great in every way. But I want to actually run jobs with the 4th axis as a true 4th, not just a rotary setup (meaning that I can still move in X, Y, and Z, while changing A as required). The Millright machine’s controller is setup this way (having the 4th motor A with its own cable). Using UGS, my jobs work great. But I really want to be running those jobs in GSender, as it is a much better UI. I am using a 6 axis GRBL post processor that works great with Fusion / Inventor CAM.
Anyone accomplished this? I have made a 4th axis Trunnion style table and want to expand into this work a lot more.
Sorry to drop a like without an answer, but I’m tagging along because I want exactly the same thing, and I’m totally unfamiliar with the super long board. (my Altmill ships in December)
Using gSender and the Super Long Board, along with the closed loop stepper option for the Sienci Vortex, it is now possible to have a true 4-axis machine. I appreciate that you have neither a Sienci CNC or a Super Long Board, but you may want to look at the documents and videos that Sienci has created on configuring their new setup. You may be able to port it to your setup.
@plasuser I’m going to follow this to further my education. I believed - wrongly, it seems - that grbl could only handle 3 axes. That’s why the Vortex swaps the Y axes driver to the A motor, I thought. I didn’t know that the limitation was not grbl itself, but the grbl mm post processor I am using in VCarvePro. Interesting.
I have the Super Long Board running grblHal now, so this is not an issue for me, but it may help others here who are still using the Long Board and grbl.
I haven’t “yet” opened up my controller / driver box to see how Millright did it, but when I ordered the router with their 4th axis, it has a separate input and cable to power the 4th motor. Even when not in use, that motor holds. And if I run the job in UGS, it does act as a real 4th axis. I made a few parts where I needed to face flats on opposite sides of a round stock and it worked perfectly. But I really prefer the GSender UI and honestly I run enough different CAD/CAM software already, and don’t want to have to switch a program just to run those jobs. Too easy to forget something that way.
It could perhaps be running a branch of grbl (a couple of these were made) that took the core grbl code and extended it out to 4, 5, and I think some were even 6-axis control. If that’s the case, then gSender isn’t currently set up to handle that sort of hardware so we’d have to get a unit on hand and do lots of testing. Otherwise since gSender is open source we’re always open to other contributing to the project