Axes & Channels
A machine’s settings sit in two places in the IDE, and which one you are in decides what you are allowed to say.
An axis is one motor and what it drives. Its settings describe that drive train on its own: how fast it may move, where its travel ends, how it finds home, what its encoder counts.
A channel is the machine those axes make up. Its settings describe them working together: which axes form the kinematics, how the path across them is planned, where the spindle sits, what the machine may not enter.
A setting belongs to the axis if it would still be true with every other axis removed. Everything else belongs to the channel.
Axis settings
Section titled “Axis settings”Grouped on the axis’s Parameter tab, one group per subject:
| Group | Decides |
|---|---|
Dynamic | the axis’s own acceleration, deceleration and jerk ceiling |
Velo | slow and fast manual speeds, and the axis maximum |
Mpg | how the axis responds to the handwheel |
Encoder | the reference system, scale factor, offset and modulo |
Soft End Min / Soft End Max | the software travel limit at each end, armed per side |
Homing | homing and reference mode, the speeds on and off the cam, and the calibration value |
Drive | direction of travel against the drive |
Controller | position loop gain and position difference monitoring |
Target Position Control | the window and time that decide when a move is called finished |
Backlash Compensation | reversal lash: see Backlash Compensation |
Leadscrew Compensation | the measured error table: see Leadscrew Compensation |
TouchProbe / TouchProbe2 | trigger source, edge and delay compensation for each probe input |
Soft End Min and Soft End Max arm each end separately, so disarming one boundary
leaves the number describing it in place. Coming back to it later means checking the
Enable and not re-measuring the travel.
Channel settings
Section titled “Channel settings”On the channel, under Settings:
| Group | Decides |
|---|---|
Machine Architecture | the topology: which kinematic model the channel solves, and how many joints it has |
Axis Configuration | per axis: Geometry (origin, rotation axis or custom vector, and whether the axis is in the tool chain), Position Limit Min and Max, and Dynamic Limits |
Spindle Configuration | maximum speed, acceleration, gear ratio, orient position, and where the spindle sits and points |
Path Control | G64 continuous mode and its tolerances, G64.1 corner rounding, G05.1 machining level |
LookAhead Time Window | how far ahead the path is planned before it is fed to the axes |
IK Solver Settings | position and orientation tolerance for the inverse kinematic solution |
Singularity Avoidance | the angles at which a 5-axis position is treated as singular |
Volumetric Compensation | error maps, squareness and rotary PIGE: see Volumetric Compensation |
Protection Zones | obstacles inside the travel band: see Protection Zones |
Channel Information and Display Units are on the channel’s general page: the channel’s
name and id, and whether linear and angular values are shown in one unit or another.
Limits are set twice, and both are real
Section titled “Limits are set twice, and both are real”Travel and dynamics appear on both sides, and they are not copies of one another.
| Setting | On the axis | On the channel |
|---|---|---|
| Travel | Soft End Min / Max: the drive is not commanded past it | Position Limit Min / Max: the path is not planned past it |
| Dynamics | Dynamic and Velo: what this drive can stand | Dynamic Limits: what the path planner may ask of it |
The channel’s numbers are what the planner works within; the axis’s are the last word before the drive. Set the channel no wider than the axis. Where the channel is allowed more than the axis will do, the path is planned to a machine that does not exist, and the axis refuses at the point the program was counting on it.
What is not set here
Section titled “What is not set here”- Which slave drives which axis. That is the fieldbus mapping, not an axis setting.
- Tuning the drive itself. The
Controllergroup is the position loop the control closes. Current and velocity loops live in the drive. - Tool and work offsets. They belong to the job, not the machine, and are set on the panel: see Tool & Work Offsets.
Where to go next
Section titled “Where to go next”- Backlash Compensation: the first correction to set, per axis.
- Volumetric Compensation: the channel-wide correction, once the axes are right.