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Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Quality Limit Switches for Fadal VMC ? What are you using ?
« on: September 18, 2017, 01:12:42 AM »
Yes!!!! This is one of my pet peeves. Eliminate the one switch wonders with extreme prejudice! It just makes life sooooooo much better. Life is short. Why let one switch wonders ruin it? LOL Buy a few $13.00 switches and be happy!
To the OP, those limit switches that Craig pointed to have been used on many many CNC machines. My Matsuura MC500 has them on it. They are mostly used in center mounted positions with ramps to engage the switches at the ends of the table/stage. These ramps eliminate the issue of a runaway crunching the switch. Meaning that the plunger of the switch is mounted perpendicular to the movement of the table instead of inline with the movement. The table has the ramps mounted in inline with the direction of movement. The ramps have a starting slope, a slew, and a trailing slope and are of a height that will never be more than the travel of the switch plunger. This is a solid configuration that prevents damage and naturally keeps coolant away from them as they are usually well under the table. They can be enclosed in boxes (and most are) to further limit coolant ingress. I call these "the $13.00 switch" because as Craig noted, that's about what you pay for them.
On thing though... do not run mechanical switches on logic level voltages (5v or less). Use 12v at a minimum with 24v being preferable.
The prox switches are pretty nice since a lot of the time they are already pretty much coolant proof. And if you are wanting to switch at logic level voltages, these are the better choice.
Steve
To the OP, those limit switches that Craig pointed to have been used on many many CNC machines. My Matsuura MC500 has them on it. They are mostly used in center mounted positions with ramps to engage the switches at the ends of the table/stage. These ramps eliminate the issue of a runaway crunching the switch. Meaning that the plunger of the switch is mounted perpendicular to the movement of the table instead of inline with the movement. The table has the ramps mounted in inline with the direction of movement. The ramps have a starting slope, a slew, and a trailing slope and are of a height that will never be more than the travel of the switch plunger. This is a solid configuration that prevents damage and naturally keeps coolant away from them as they are usually well under the table. They can be enclosed in boxes (and most are) to further limit coolant ingress. I call these "the $13.00 switch" because as Craig noted, that's about what you pay for them.
On thing though... do not run mechanical switches on logic level voltages (5v or less). Use 12v at a minimum with 24v being preferable.
The prox switches are pretty nice since a lot of the time they are already pretty much coolant proof. And if you are wanting to switch at logic level voltages, these are the better choice.
Steve
Have a look in the LuaExamples\Toolchanger directory of your Mach 4 installation. There you will find and assortment of tool changer M6 macros. One of them will do exactly (or close to) what you want. And if it doesn't, then what you are wanting to do doesn't fit the handful of basic operations. Luckily, we gave you the ability to do anything you want with a tool changer. But at that point, you will have to make it do your bidding with a small amount of LUA self education. It isn't rocket science. And the forum is here for help if you need it.