Mach3 broke my machine last night while I was trying to repeat another issue I was having.
I was having issue where an axis would not stop running randomly when I let go of the enable button on the pendant. Pressing it again would stop it, but more than once the limit switch was the saving grace.
While testing the possible fix on that, the limit switch in Z got ignored by mach. This is not the first time for that except this time it broke.
I think a pokeys update MAY have fixed the first problem. I could not replicate it after the update and correcting the direction of the encoder (was set to move the wrong way). So after a long time trying everything to duplicate the runaway axis, I could not. Everything was working perfect. I decided to do a Reference home. Bad move....
Bam, Z never stops, it goes up, rotates the turret, but then keeps driving even though the limit switch is tripped and lit on mach.
Well, I had an update document that came with my machine on a part that needs to be replaced for safety from who knows when...1980s maybe. They never put the part on and I don't have it. Well sure enough, this last crash snapped a bolt and two bent and then it proceeded to rip my ratchet rod ball link apart (pulled the lock ring out), then the giant linear bearing hit the rubber pads and that was the end. I did not notice any of this happened until it got to the end and made motor noise still. I hit the E-stop.
So, I took the Z motor belt off so it could spin free. Sure enough you hit the ref button and it spins forever, even when your hitting the limit switch manually and Mach shows it activating.
I was told this could be normal??? This is super dangerous on my machine. This is not a $600 Chinese mill. The AC servos are strong and will break things. It has crashed before like this and broke my link rod, but the other part was able to stop it.
So, how can you reference home and zero everything out without breaking the machine??
Something must be up with Z that it loses its location or I am doing something to make it lose its location since it never stopped.
This machine has a weird Z, where the upper portion of Z is used for the tool change. I wrote the macro and got it working a long time ago, but this is not going to be safe. I have to figure something out.....
Here is the old thread on that.
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,18069.0.htmlSo far I do not recall X or Y crashing since I have been done. When they kept going using the pendant, the switch made an E-stop like I would expect. Then I am able to just override limits and back it up.
If you cannot use the switches at some point to set home, how will it ever know where it is if it loses position?