C10 break out board

[jalessi]

br1,

Normally closed switches are preferred.

There are several reasons why.

1: A normally closed switch will not allow noise to be introduced 99.999% of the time since the the switch is open only for a fraction of a second.

2: If the a home or limit switch wiring is broken, Mach3 will sense a switch fault.

In the normally open switch scenario Mach3 would never sense a broken wire and a very dangerous over travel condition could occur.

Jeff...

[br1]

Hum, That makes good sense to me thanks I will do just that.

[wildwestpat]

Hi Br 1

I think there may be some confusion about the use of the Tolomatic switch that you have. These switches are magnetic sensors and require a reasonably strong magnet to operate them. The Hall Effect is an electronic circuit that can sense the magnetism and would be unlikely to react to a chunk of steel waved across its front face. Think of the Hall Effect switches as a reed switch that has better switching charateristics. There are switches in a similar type of case that are proximity snsors that use either capacitance ir inductance to sense the presence of a metal vane that can be any type of metal. I use these as I don't want the risk of a magnet fouling up with bits of steel. The inductive proximity type sensors are available from China via Ebay for around £6 GBP including postage. Another advantage is that the inductive sensor has is that it is more sensitive than most microswitches and can operate under flood coolant conditions with no problems. You could use your Hall Effect switch with a magnet or continue to exchange the switches for mechanical microswitches and use either the expensive metal cased variety or dream up some covers of your own. If you decide to use microswitches don't forget to alow for a bit of over travel to avoid crushing the switch. I won't labour this point as there are loads of pictures of microswitches used as limit switches in other threads on this site and in the Mach3 documentation.

Hope this helps determine if your Hall Effects switches are dead and trash can fodder or worthy of living to fight another cause.

Regards

Pat

[br1]

That, Wildwestpat is the one of the answers I have been looking for THANK YOU, that explains a lot for me. I have about 20 of them. I was going to use for another project several years ago and that project went bye bye, thank God it wasn't me who purchased them, but I thought I would find a spot for them in my home project. I believe I will find a stronger magnet, and try to kill my "I wonder if these will work" thinking. If not I will no doubt be able to make the mechanical switches work Thanks to you and others for your advice.