Occasionally, I have to bite the bullet and admit how stupid I am. Although I am a reasonably bright guy, I can't figure out electronics to save my butt. I have spent hours reading online about limit switches and how to wire them, but even the most basic primer assumes that I know the difference between the three wires I am dealing with. So I am going to ask some very basic questions and hope that someone will take pity on me and get me squared away.
I have 5 switches, each wired with a shielded cable. That meaning two wires wrapped in foil and copper strands of wire wound around that. There is a red, which I assume is for the 5v positive, a white, which I assume to be common, and the copper windings which I am pretty sure is the ground. Red and white wires are connected to the NC terminal and it appears the copper wire is attached to the comm terminal. I had hoped to have the switches set to X+ and X- to pin 11, Y+ and Y- to pin 12 and Z+ to pin 13. That just seems to me to be the logical way of doing it. I have read section 4.5 of the Mach 3 manual a couple times, and although I understand the principles, nothing there tells me which wire goes where.
I have tried connecting a single switch to pin 13 on my BOB by the following. 5v in to the red wire, ground to the copper and the white to the input pin. I use the autoset feature in the ports and pins setup I seldom a reaction from the BOB when I trip the switch. When I do get a reaction, it usually jumps to pin 10 or 11, instead of 13. Not always, but as often as not. I tested it with a 220 ohm resistor between the red and the 5v and without the resistor.
I tested all the cables and all the switches for continuity and that does not seems to be the problem. That pretty much narrows it down to operator error. In this case, my stupidity in not knowing which wire does what!
I am resolved to just wiring them in series and having one pin for all the switches and letting Mach 3 decide how to handle limits. To wire them in series, I am assuming it is like batteries, positive to negative and daisy chain them all the way to the end with 5v+ in the first switch and ground coming out of the last switch. But is it Red, white, or both that get connected to the comm terminal on the next switch? Which wire connects to the input pin, red or white? Do I need a resistor to pull up the current, because it doesn't seem that 5v is passing through the switches when I have them powered?
Again, I am embarrassed by not understanding this stuff. I really appreciate any help I can get.
Thanks
Dan