homing with home swtiches and mach3

[TMaster]

I have my home swtiches hookup in NC mode, THe limit light comes on as normal when i get to the home spots, in the diagnostics screen. But Mach3 wont let me reference these positions, it keeps saying home switches are active, please fix.
Well my question is how do you refrence these points as home? lol is there something im missing? Yeah I could back it up like .001 and have the lights go off then reference, but that takes extra time and i dont want to be doing that. I want to jog it over and have the home switches cutoff the motors. Then press the refrence homes.
Also the motors are not being stopped when the switches trigger, and the home lights come on in the diagnositcs screen! I thought they were sopposed to stop! lol IS there anther setting that I have to turn on?

Active lows are not on, I have a closed circuit for normal opperation with 5vdc going through. WHen the switches trip, The circuit opens.

[TMaster]

OK i figured out part of the problem was I needed to turn on the (Home Neg) selection in the homing/limits window. The motors still arnt stopping when running the jog over, when they trigger the limit switch. bang!

[GlenBA]

Originally Posted by TMaster Well my question is how do you refrence these points as home?

The tall vertical button next to the Zero X, Zero Y, Zero Z, and Zero A buttons, on the "Program Run Alt-1" screen will move the Z axis up till it triggers the switch, then the Y will do the same, then the X.

But first check a few things. When you move the table to the right the X DRO should be moving in the negative direction. When you move the table toward the column, the Y DRO should be moving in the negative direction, and finally when you move the Z axis down, the Z DRO should be moving in the negative direction. This may seem counter intuitive at first, but when you are moving, you must picture the spindle moving in space, therefore when the table is moving to the right the spindle is moving to the left or in the negative direction on the plane.

Now, I have my switches installed as follows

X on the left end of the table, Y on the back of the table, and Z at the top of the column. I have set up my "Motor Home/Soft Limits" this way;

"Auto Zero" is checked for each axis
"Home Neg" is set for X and Y, but not Z
"Reversed" is set for Y and Z, but not X

If you set it this way and any of the axis's move in the wrong direction
when homing, reverse the "Reversed" setting for that axis.

I'm including the xml configuration file I use with my mill. Just copy it into your Mach3 directory, start up Mach3 (not Mach3Mill), and use the Mach3MillTaig profile.

[TMaster]

Thanks, I'm having trouble with my Xylotex board. I think it was damaged from a static shock when i was vacuuming G10 dust. So i wont be doing anything with mysetup till i send the board in and get it back or another.

I did notice, that I had both the DIR LowActive and Step Lowactives checked on my motor outputs. I had these checked beacuase they were in the Mach3 pdf instructions. When I unchecked them the motors reversed. Kinda weird. I see your running 45khz!! wow.

[GlenBA]

Originally Posted by TMaster I did notice, that I had both the DIR LowActive and Step Lowactives checked on my motor outputs. I had these checked beacuase they were in the Mach3 pdf instructions. When I unchecked them the motors reversed. Kinda weird. I see your running 45khz!! wow.

Just read this on the Xylotex Yahoo group

Originally Posted by xylotex The STEP pin is active HIGH. The DIR pins do not have a polarity. High for one direction, low for the other. The DIR pin must be stabel 200nS before and after the rising edge of the STEP line.

[spotlite]

Originally Posted by TMaster I have my home swtiches hookup in NC mode, THe limit light comes on as normal when i get to the home spots, in the diagnostics screen. But Mach3 wont let me reference these positions, it keeps saying home switches are active, please fix.

I have the same problem! Please anyone give reasonable explanation!

thanks.

[dukes57@295.ca]

What location does you reference point say in settings tab in mach, maybe your home postion is out of wack. I found this problem was fixed by setting fixture origin to 0. bettween reference and origin things get wacky I set everthing to 0 and start over with all axis to 0 as well. Then I reference a point were limits are located and make sure origin is the same. Then move to table location other then 0 and refence all home. ? hope it helps as I know not much.

[dukes57@295.ca]

If even only 1 limit is active then this problem may persist make sure all limits are open, then reference all home>?