Laser Engraver 1st build

Community
1

Let me start off by introducing myself. I am a 54-year-old retired Marine with 35 years of automotive repair behind me. I worked for Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep and a couple of older Nascar teams. I love building anything mechanical. My knowledge folder doesn’t hold much but I do have a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. I want to be very clear…I am not the brightest bulb in the batch. (lol)

I have built several 3D printers using Marlin and most recently Klipper firmware. I am familiar with 32-bit boards like skr 1.4 and the octopus pro but I am very new to the older boards. GRBL seems to be easy enough but like I said I am a bit slow.

My problem-
I am currently building a laser engraver based around the Elekslaser style. I want to use a dual Y axis and a single X axis. I purchased the woodpecker CNC board with GRBL 1.1f preinstalled. I am trying to figure out how to power the 2nd Y-axis stepper motor from this board. Can I use the empty Z-axis driver for my 2nd Y-axis motor? I don’t see anything in GRBL about cloning an axis but I may not be understanding it correctly.

Thanks for any help and I hope you all have a GREAT new year.

John

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You have to rebuild grbl from source to use its dual axis support. Take a look at ENABLE_DUAL_AXIS and DUAL_AXIS_SELECT in the grbl source.

Alternatively, you can wire the motors together. If you do that, wiring them in series is recommended. If you have the option of running 24V it’s strongly recommended when running stepper motors in series, though.

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Thanks for your help.
I am having issues with the motors not wanting to move correctly also.
I will take a look at the dual motors in grbl.