there is always that except isn't there? I was finally forced to move to Mach3 and am now using an Ethernet SmoothStepper. This has been a saga of failure upon failure and I won't go into them except the one.

I have my 4th axis set up as angular and motor tuned with correct units per to get a correct 360 rotation with mdi  !!! My problem is I cannot get Mach to recognize my reference switch set as a home only, or even if I set it as a limit. I have tried the switch as hi and lo, the switch as nc and no. The bob led blinks as the switch is activated when the shaft moves by it, but that is all. Is does not stop to reference nor does it stop if I set the switch as a limit switch.

I am homing/reffing in the negative and have to move a touch in the negative to get off the switch. I have not thought to home in the positive. Would that help me with this?

Mike

Attach your xml and I will take a look and see if anything is amiss there.
Also if you go to diagnostics page and then manually trigger the A switch do you see the A home LED light up or go out or not do anything (stay out)

Hood

Attach your xml and I will take a look and see if anything is amiss there.
Also if you go to diagnostics page and then manually trigger the A switch do you see the A home LED light up or go out or not do anything (stay out)

Hood

Hood, I just checked the diagnostic page led while jogging the a axis, and the led does not go off if lit, nor does it come on if off. The led on my break out board does show the switch being activated whether set high or low in Mach and whether it is hooked up normally open or normally closed. I have checked the switch with a meter while working it and it does work.

Thank you for your help.

Mike

Ok can you try something, put your Z switches wire into pin 13 on your BOB and your A in on pin 11 and see what happens.
Hood

Ok can you try something, put your Z switches wire into pin 13 on your BOB and your A in on pin 11 and see what happens.
Hood

Hood, I just swapped the wires and the a axis now works great. I have my x and z wired together and neither of them worked, so it is now narrowed. Question is, is it the bob, or the connectors on the bob, or pin allocation within Mach?

Mike

I would almost certainly say its not Mach, I would say it is between the BOBs output and the Parallel port, inclusive of them. First thing to check is the cable, may be a broken wire in it.
Hood

Well I am not using a parallel cable. Using the Ethernet Smooth Stepper. For the time being, I am going to take my digitize pin and use it for my a axis. That will at least get me running this afternoon.

Hood, I cannot thank you enough for your help. Sometimes when you have looked at a problem long enough, you see nothing!

Mike

Ok then check the ribbon that connects the ESS to your BOB, have heard reports of some of them not crimped properly.

Also you should be able to see it change in the ESS monitoring I think, if the ESS is seeing it, Plugin Control menu.

Hood

Hood, I realized that the bob is seeing it because the wires are direct into the axis limit pins. So, the cable from the ess to the board does sound suspect. I did however move the wire to the digitize pin, and changed the pin number from 13 to 15 and I now get the same thing I do with the previous wiring location and pin 13. It worked fine hooked to the x axis location.

Did you see anything in the xml that would indicate I have something ticked wrong? I am now running the reference switch normally open and have my pin set to active hi.

hmmmm I just thought of something. When I moved the wires to the x axis pin, I also had a negative limit set. That is what tripped and gave me my alert. I have much more testing this afternoon.

Thank you for you help and if you can think of anything, post it as my phone will alert me at the shop.

Mike