Total noob, so bear with me please.

I'm making progress landing everything, motors and limits and such,

I'm running Mach 3 into a smooth stepper and then into a Gecko G540.

when I go to home  the machine it goes past the Z--/home limit till the Z axis binds.

If I jog the Z it reads and stops.

If I hit the Estop, and then reset it the Z it will act as if the Z home switch was made and continue to do the home routine, with the X axis moving to the limit then backing off then the Y axis does the same.

Also, If I jog into a limit switch, I have to shut the machine off and move the axis by rotating the ballscrew with a pair of pliers until it is off the limit before I can reset it, is there a way around that?

First be sure oyu have all the wiers set right in Ports and pins. Use the diagnostic screen and pus the switches with your finger, one at a  time and observe that correct LED lights for each function- note that the LEDs are labeled M1 M2 M3 instead of X Y Z. no good reason for that, it just is.

On the setttings screen ther eis a button for auto back off limits. Check it, it will let you jog slowly off a limit switch

This is all well explained in the Mach install manual

Thanks for the info Ron, I'll double check all that.

As far as a manual goes, I never recieved one with this machine when I bought it.

It's a project that someone else quit on.

this is how I have it wired so far

Ok, it looks like a G540 driver, and thats a very good device. Also a smoothstepper.

You only have 3 switches wired, the Negative in each direction. They are the home position.

You have Z home on Pin 10. Y home on Pin 11 and X home on Pin12

Use the Ports and pins setting and make sure these are the port numbers entered. Also make sure each is set for Active Low- that means the  switch is indicating its condition when it is Low or grounded. Be sure you are set for port 1

The manual you need is the Mach install Manual, see the downloads tab at the top of this page.

As far as a manual goes, I never recieved one with this machine when I bought it.

Lemic,
As far as I know, bound copies of the Mach manuals aren’t (were never) supplied with the purchase of Mach3 but they are available on line.  I would urge every Mach3 user to download as a minimum the first two of the following manuals.  Kinko’s, Office Depot, etc. will bind them into a nice spiral binder for a very nominal fee. Best money you can spend, (IMO).

Mach3Mill user’s guide:
http://www.machsupport.com/docs/Mach3Mill_1.84.pdf

Software Installation and Configuration
http://www.machsupport.com/docs/Mach3Mill_Install_Config.pdf

And another one that’s nice to have:

Customizing Mach2
http://www.machsupport.com/docs/Mach2_6.11_Custom.pdf

Don’t be put off by the revision dates. The info is basic and the more recent changes to Mach will in most cases be apparent and easily understood.  If not, check with this forum, (That’s why we are here.)
HTH, Al

  OOPS,

I should have figured a software company would have paperless docs.

I'll DL in the morning when I have fresh eyes.

Thanks for those links!

They might help me to keep from exposing my NOOB too much!

I tricked the Z limit and  cut a few air parts, all the axis' move the way they should and the X and Y limits perform the way they should too. It was VERY exciting to see the whole thing in motion with the steppers whining and all!

I set the "backoff" on the setting screen to .2" and the X and Y back off as they should, But the Z still overtravels the limit and when I trick it it does not back off. I thought that may it was backlash as the Z axis is a trapezoidal acme, but I did not see the motor shaft reverse and move before the Y went into its homing routine. I think I'm missing something very basic here.

And when the table is jogged into a limit, I cannot reset  Mach and make it jog off the limit like it does in the Home routine.

The prox signals are landed at pins 1,2 and3 of the G540 and they are read on the Diagnostic screen. I slowed the Z axis motor a lot in the motor tuning screen thinking it may have just blipped past it, but it did not help.

When I jog to the Z into the limit it trips fine, And it moves MUCH faster when I jog that it does during the Home routine.

I'm thinking if I put a diode on the end of each of my prox signal wires, I can tie all the  --/Home limits to one input on the G540 and not worry about feeding back a signal into the other proxes. it might drop the high to around 4.5V and the low to 0, but the board seems to trigger around 4V

Ray

Ray, this may help.

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,10308.msg63702.html#msg63702

Brett

Some more successes!

My Z-- had a cold solder joint on the connector pin, The Z axis homes as it should as does the rest.

I have been also been thinking that the "backup" is how far the axis moves after it hits the home, It is as I found out the G73 peck drilling back out, so when I changed the number it did not affect my home routine,

go figure!

thanks for the Help fella's

Ray