The more I think about it, I'm pretty sure I had something wrong in the min/max locations or +/- setup.  It was all a big blur yesterday trying this & that, error messages, etc.  Maybe the time it took me to update Mach allowed some scrambled neurons in my brain to re-connect and help to set it up properly.

I'm just happy it works now.  I also saved a copy of the ORAC .xml and a screen print of the setup page in a safe place in case I screw it up later.

Man, I'm really glad you guys are here!

i hate working out the softlimit values, it seems to defy logic.

The way I set softlimits in turn is home the machine and look at machine coords, I then jog the axis to the limits at one end and note the machine coords where it trips the limit, I then rehome and move the opposite way and do the same. These values (or slightly less)  are what you put into the soft min and max.
Hood