setting up mach3

[jaredM1980]

My son and I purchased a chinacnczone 6090 router. We converted to inches and we have the motor tuning set. We can not get the homing , nor the soft limits to work. We think we have everything right and machine still crashes into the hard limit switches. We are pulling our hair out trying to get this machine to operate. If there is somebody out there that can help us, I will pay whomever. please take pity on a poor soul.Desperation is setting in fast. thank you.My e-mail address is stmyers49@gmail.com.

[joeavaerage]

Hi,
when you 'Home' the machine travels until it detects a home switch activation. My guess is that you are using three of your limit switches
as home switches as well?

If that's the case then the machine is SUPPOSED to travel to the limit switches.

Can you post a screenshot of your Input Signal Ports&Pins assignments?
Can you post a screenshot of the Homing/Limits page?

Note that Soft Limits make absolutely no sense whatever UNTIL the machine has been homed or referenced.

Craig

[dazp1976]

My son and I purchased a chinacnczone 6090 router. We converted to inches and we have the motor tuning set. We can not get the homing , nor the soft limits to work. We think we have everything right and machine still crashes into the hard limit switches. We are pulling our hair out trying to get this machine to operate. If there is somebody out there that can help us, I will pay whomever. please take pity on a poor soul.Desperation is setting in fast. thank you.My e-mail address is stmyers49@gmail.com.

Have you told Mach3 how big/small the router table is? I don't use limit switches but do use soft limits on a mill.
I only know where I am with mm so You'll have to convert for me.
Loooking at spec can you confirm size is X600mm*Y900mm*Z85mm?
I have soft limits set 1mm short either end so example table size would be X598mm*Y898mm*Z83mm.
I put my home central on the table which would put my soft limits at X-299 & +299, Y-449 & +449, With Z home near the top so Z-73 & Z+10.

Does this make any sense to you? Might get you moving around for now at least while you try to get mechanical limits working. Then change home to near the switches once it's all working ok.
Once you get home sorted what I do is load a gcode with G28 at the end of every day and run machine there before switching off. Then in the morning, turn on, ref all home, and it's ready to go again.

There are loads of videos / info around so you may need some more research.

[jaredM1980]

x = 600 y = 900 x = 150

[jaredM1980]

the screen shots you asked for

[joeavaerage]

Hi jaredM1980,
the pics did not upload.

First click , then , navigate to the image file and select it, then click the button.
Wait for the file to upload, could be seconds or more depending on the size of the file and your upload speed, before .
Thereafter post as normal.

Craig

[jaredM1980]

Hi jaredM1980,
the pics did not upload.

First click , then , navigate to the image file and select it, then click the button.
Wait for the file to upload, could be seconds or more depending on the size of the file and your upload speed, before .
Thereafter post as normal.

Craig

lets try this again I do appreciate you taking time to help us. One will have to remember we know nothing about setting mach3 up. please give us baby steps. do not assume we know anything about this

[ZASto]

As far as I can see, you have not enabled limit and home switches (X++, X--, Y++, Y--, Z++, Z-- (if you have one), and X Hone, Y Home, Z Home)
Home and limits can share same switch, as you have a router, so X Home and X-- can be one switch, Y Home and Y-- also as well as Z Home and Z++

[dazp1976]

lets try this again I do appreciate you taking time to help us. One will have to remember we know nothing about setting mach3 up. please give us baby steps. do not assume we know anything about this

No 'pin' numbers are set for home switches in smaller screen image. You need to assign 'pin' numbers.
If you want to run without for now then set 'port' numbers to 0.

For instance on my parallel port board:
estop= P10
X limit= P12
Y= P13
Z= P15

[joeavaerage]

Hi ZASto,
I see you are from Vanuatu.....I heard the was a cyclone that hit you guys recently....how did you fare?

Craig

[joeavaerage]

Hi jaredM1980,
good work, you got the images uploaded. I always use Paint (or any other image program) to crop the image, it reduces the file size but more importantly
it increases the readability of the data in the critical area.

Anyway ZASto is right, you don't have any home or limit switches set up.

I have attached a pic of an example for you. Note that you must check (Enable) for every switch you wish to use.

Note also that I have put ALL the limits (X++,X--,Y++,Y--,Z++,Z--) one one port and pin, port=1 and input pin 11.
What I am assuming here is that you connect all six normally closed limit switches in series, and if any one switch opens
Mach will know a limit switch has operated and Estop. Note that Mach will not know which switch operated, just that one of them
did.

I have assumed that you have three separate home switches in addition to the six limit switches. I have enabled XHome, YHome and ZHome
signals and have made these pin assignments:
XHome= port1 pin12
YHome= port1 pin13
ZHome= port1 pin15

Note that I've unchecked (AutoZero) for each of the axes that I wish to home. AutoZero means that, if checked, when an axis is homed
it will not move but rather 'home in place' and just set the machine coords of that axis to zero exactly where it is, and that could be anywhere.
With (AutoZero) unchecked the machine will drive until it detects that axis's home switch activate, it will stop and reset the machine coordinates
to zero.

Note also that I've set SoftLimits for this imaginary machine. Firstly note that SoftLimits are in MACHINE COORDINATES.
The native units of my imaginary machine are mm. I have put the X axis home switch 100 mm from the lefthand extent of
the X axis, and the travel of the X axis is 1000mm. Thus the SoftLimit for this axis will be (min) -100mm and (max) 900mm.
These are measured from the home switch for the axis.

I have made indentical assignments for the Y axis, that is that the home switch is 100mm from the lower extent of the Y axis
and it has 1000mm of travel.

The Z axis is a bit different. Here I have assumed that the home switch is mounted at the very top of the Z axis travel, alongside the
limit switch and that the Z axis travel is 150mm. The Soft limits are (max) 0mm, ie the very top, and (min) -150mm, that is as the Z axis
lowers the Z axis machine coordinate gets increasingly negative. This is the most common view taken by machine builders.

Craig

[jaredM1980]

we have a usb controller not a parralel one if this makes any diifference

[joeavaerage]

HI,
a USB controller should not make that much of a difference but with cheap Chinese USB controllers who knows?

They seldom work as advertised and even when they do work they often don't conform to Mach3 so they supply a doctored
pirate copy of Mach3 so that is does work.

Still, the basic principles of setting and assigning limit and home switches still applies.

Craig

[jaredM1980]

if i change these pins would is make a difference since we are useing a usb board and would it make a difference if we are useing demo mode on mach 3

[joeavaerage]

Hi,

would it make a difference if we are useing demo mode on mach 3

No, demo mode should make no difference.

May I suggest that you disable every pin and enable just one, say port1 pin11, and then with a wire introduce either 5V or 0V at each of the terminals
until you see the LED show in Machs diagnostic page.

I have a very low opinion of Chinese made controller boards and would suggest you consider a US or European made motion control board, they work
as advertised and most importantly the manufacturer will back you up.

Craig

[mactec54]

My son and I purchased a chinacnczone 6090 router. We converted to inches and we have the motor tuning set. We can not get the homing , nor the soft limits to work. We think we have everything right and machine still crashes into the hard limit switches. We are pulling our hair out trying to get this machine to operate. If there is somebody out there that can help us, I will pay whomever. please take pity on a poor soul.Desperation is setting in fast. thank you.My e-mail address is stmyers49@gmail.com.

What Breakout Board do you have, can you post a link to it or it's manual, this is the starting point others have given some good information but confusing and all over the place so it is best to start with the Hardware you have

Demo mode is fine for setting up your machine and running up to 500lines of code

Breakout Board spec's link Manual ???

How many Limit/Home switches do you have per Axis ???

[jaredM1980]

we changed the pins to what craig sent. What I am having a problem with is understanding how to home the machine. I want it to home to the x- y- z+ position. homing is set under machine co-ord or soft limits? I looked up the machine specs and the size of the table is listed in mms as 600x 900y 150z . since I need to operate in inches/imperial, I ran my carriage all the way to the z- stop. I zeroed the machine. I ran to the z+ stop and the screen read 23.5 inches (596.9 mms) Did same with y. 35.1 inches (891.5). z was 6.3 inches (160.02 mms) what buttons do I push and what screen do I use. how do I load the numbers. ( i told you I was a dummy) Furthermore, I have absolutely no idea what a Breakout Board is nor where to find it. I do need this machine to run in inches. the bobcad program runs in inches and I do understand the machining process. So, someone is going to tell me in baby steps how and where to load checks and x s plus proper numbers. thanks

[joeavaerage]

Hi,

I do need this machine to run in inches.

No you don't, the Gcode presented to the machine can be in either inches or mm's, you change the machines interpretation of th numeric values
with either a G20 or G21 in the code. G20=inches, G21=mm's.

There are 'Native Units', these are the units that the motor tuning, softlimits and so on are measured in. They can be selected to be either inches
OR mm's at your preference and thereafter they are left alone for the life of the machine. I assume that because you can jog and MDI the machine
that you have the units set and have tuned the motor to those units?

Open the top of the control box and post some pics of the internals.

Somewhere in their there will be a block of inputs and probably some outputs. You need to be able to identify them. Then you are going to
have to, with a piece of wire determine which one is which.

Did you get a manual with it?

The problem with Chinese stuff is that often you don't get any, certainly any decent documentation, and forget trying to get it out of the manufacturer,
thats China, China in a galaxy far far away. They've got your money and they don't care .

Craig

[mactec54]

we changed the pins to what craig sent. What I am having a problem with is understanding how to home the machine. I want it to home to the x- y- z+ position. homing is set under machine co-ord or soft limits? I looked up the machine specs and the size of the table is listed in mms as 600x 900y 150z . since I need to operate in inches/imperial, I ran my carriage all the way to the z- stop. I zeroed the machine. I ran to the z+ stop and the screen read 23.5 inches (596.9 mms) Did same with y. 35.1 inches (891.5). z was 6.3 inches (160.02 mms) what buttons do I push and what screen do I use. how do I load the numbers. ( i told you I was a dummy) Furthermore, I have absolutely no idea what a Breakout Board is nor where to find it. I do need this machine to run in inches. the bobcad program runs in inches and I do understand the machining process. So, someone is going to tell me in baby steps how and where to load checks and x s plus proper numbers. thanks

There is a lot of information that is needed to set up your steps /per so I would suggest, set the machine up in MM as you have all the spec's in your manual to do that

So you set your machine to MM why because you have all the information in your manual on how to do it in MM

Setting your machine in MM is not a problem, or doing your drawing in Bobcad in inches, just in your program at the start you have to have a G20 anywhere at the beginning of the program and your machine will cut the part in inches

Do you have the Black control box or the Cream colored one ??? Photo would be good

Yes the pins that Craig posted are not suitable for your machine

If you don't have the manual once I see what you have I can post the information for your machine setup

The attached photo you should have the same in your manual

[dazp1976]

we changed the pins to what craig sent. What I am having a problem with is understanding how to home the machine. I want it to home to the x- y- z+ position. homing is set under machine co-ord or soft limits? I looked up the machine specs and the size of the table is listed in mms as 600x 900y 150z . since I need to operate in inches/imperial, I ran my carriage all the way to the z- stop. I zeroed the machine. I ran to the z+ stop and the screen read 23.5 inches (596.9 mms) Did same with y. 35.1 inches (891.5). z was 6.3 inches (160.02 mms) what buttons do I push and what screen do I use. how do I load the numbers. ( i told you I was a dummy) Furthermore, I have absolutely no idea what a Breakout Board is nor where to find it. I do need this machine to run in inches. the bobcad program runs in inches and I do understand the machining process. So, someone is going to tell me in baby steps how and where to load checks and x s plus proper numbers. thanks

Soft limit setings page is under the config tab.
When you know your table sizes put your numbers into there relative to where you want your home to be.
Once you've moved the table to your required home position press the 'ref all home' button next to axis positions and they will/should go green.
There are good vids out there showing all this, seeing makes it easier just need to look.

When you finish a job I find it best practice to run a G28 program that will send machine home before switching it off.
Then when you come back to turning on just click ref all home and you're ready to go again.