Need Help!- Mechatronics and limit switches

[keick]

I've gotten the mechatronics board to replace my twice failed xylotex board. But it doesn't have a 5V reference on the board. How am I supposed to wire in home and limit switches without a 5V source?

Has anyone done so with this controller?

[vger]

Which board? Is it the 3 axis, 4 axis, or 3 axis 10 amp??

If it is the basic 3 axis board, take a look at page 8 of this manual.

http://www.easy-cnc.com/web/download...3Axis(NEW).pdf

Steve

[keick]

Those are for hardware disables, they turn the chips off which would be ok for some uses. They aren't something that the Mach3 can use for home switches.

The manufacturer did send me an email with a possible solution. If it works I'll post it up here. If someone else has done this I'd appreciate a response here as well since it isn't obvious.

[keick]

The unfortunate quick answer is tough-luck . You can wire the limit switches like any other board, since the voltage of the pins naturally floats high. But as anyone knows, that only works for very short wiring not running anywhere near your motor wires. They are also NOT optoisolated like the other pins .

So, what I did is buy a $5 worth of radioshack parts (5V regulator IC, and 2 capacitors). This let me get my 5V from the 24V power-supply and ran my own optoisolator board ($14 at futurelec).

The output side of the isolator I'm running the reference voltage off of pin 1 of the parallel port with Mach3 forcing it to high. The input side I'm running off of my regulator with the switches attached.

Result, $20 in hardware, and zero noise on my 20ft runs of switch wire running in parallel with the motors.