Monster Router. Components arrived!

[ewest]

Yep - home to index is available on the automation direct servos. This is done with incremental encoders because there is a third channel, aside from the regular A and B - It's called the Index pulse, and it happens exactly ONCE for every revolution of the servo. That way the system will home to the switch, then proceed to the index pulse. Also, Mach is mostly not a part of the homing process. It's all handled by the amp. You send a pulse to the "start homing" pin on the amp (there are many, they're all programmable with their free software) and the amp handles all the homing. Once homing is complete, the amp will switch the "homing complete" pin either to high or low, so all Mach has to do is send a pulse out, and wait for the "home complete" signal, and poof, you're done. Re-homing is easy enough, just send the "start homing" pulse again. The "home complete" will go back to it's un-homed state, and will return when the sequence is complete. It's probably a good idea to give a small delay between when you send the home command to when you start watching for the home complete signal. The delay will depend on the latency of whatever IO system you're using, and could be as short as 0.1 seconds, all the way up to seconds. It doesn't hurt anything to have it long, it just will take longer for Mach to get the message that the home is complete.

Also, all homing speeds and directions are controlled by the amp, so homing can be quite rapid on the approach to the switch. It only slows down when it's looking for the index pulse at the end of the cycle. Thankfully though, it only has to go a maximum of one revolution of the servo to finish.

Completely off topic - I'm going to nag you about remembering your E-stops!!! and wire them right in to the main power!

and Beers to your finally being off the waiting list. I got mine from CNC4PC because they had them in stock, and the price was only a little higher.

Andy

[cadcamdave]

Good to see someone using good quality industrial components. I love the Automation Direct products, and have used SmoothStepper and SureServo drives and motors with success. I prefer the SureServo motors and drives, good power, good speed, ziplink breakouts and tuff enuff to survive real world industrial applications.
A good way to avoid "noise" issues is to step up your home/limit switches to 24 volt through an opt-isolation breakout board or power switching relays between the switch and the control board, you could also utilize a small PLC for this.
There was a company that made a breakout board with a homing circuit like you mentioned you were doing, but they have gone out of business...
Anyway, glad you have had success, sounds like you have a great machine.