Soft Stops and 0 changing

[CanAm1]

Hello all,
I have been machining for years on my Logan, Unimat and other manual machines, but am completely new to CNC. I am in the last stages of tweaking in my router and experimenting with Mach3 and have noticed a couple of issues I would like to throw out there.
Currently things are setup with the soft stops and I have 0 set on each axis at the mid-point of travel. I have been running small G code scripts and as long as I reference my 0 points all’s fine. If however I move an axis somewhere and then hit one of the screen zero buttons I lose my reference 0 and now the soft stops are off. I then started using offsets and the same thing will happen.
I probably have something or a multitude of things not set correctly. I have been over the Mach3 manual several times and of course pick things up each time, but I have a long way to go to be even half way proficient. There must be a way have multiple setups that one can turn on and off and still have your 0 points and soft stops intact.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Mark

[ger21]

You need to have home switches, so you can reference the machine and have consistent machine coordinates.

You're talking about SoftLimits, right? And you're re-referencing the machine wherever you set your 0 position?

[CanAm1]

Gerry,

Please bear with me as all this is new to me. I'm just as confused as a baby in a topless bar. Lots to learn. Anyway, yes I have my soft limits set and if I re-reference my zero then the limits goof up. It would be nice to have one machine zero point that is locked in no matter what one does. One could move the machine point any where, do a zero at that point, do ones machining and then be able to go back to your machine zero point.
Thanks

Mark

[ger21]

In order to use Soft Limits correctly, you must have home switches on your machine to reference to. When clicking the Ref All button, the machine must always reference to the exact same place, every time. If not, then Soft Limits will not work.

[CanAm1]

Thanks Gerry.
I was contemplating putting some home switches on. What would be the most practicle place to put them? Off to the side? In the middle?

Mark