I would like to wire limit switches to port 1 pin 11 or 12 but I have a constant active low led with nothing wired to my board. I would like to use these pins but I don't know why they are active low all the time. I have a limit switch wired to pin 10 active low and it works great. My board is a Xylotex XS-3525/8S-3 and I'm using Mach 3 R1.84.000

You may have a normally closed switch on the limit switch that you have wired now. So the pins that you don't have wired up are seeing an open switch. To fix this you could do one of the following:
1.) Add more limit switches
2.) Deactivate the inputs under ports and pins
3.) Wire a jumper where the limit switch should be


You are doing good, you got it working on one

I was trying to use a normally open switch and wire it ground so it would go low when hit. I have active low state on those pins before I even touched them. I thought that their normal state is high, I thought that there are internal power source in the port at bring them up to 5 volts. I am confused? I was going to wire all limit/home switches to their own pins and all other limit switches to the same pin leaving 1 pin for the estop. I guess my question is why are some of my pins showing low to Mach3 and others are not? Could I have a bad board or am I missing something?

There are many things that can change the state of the pin. You could have some "stuff" on your braekout board that is changing the active high/ low satate. Also how you wire the switch will change this...

I just wire everything up and test by pressing the switch with my hand and looking at the LED's on the screen.