The jogging works fine now. Sorry about the confusing message below.. please check the second part of the reply.
This is what is happening now.
Jogging works as it should, but probing still doesn't work.
This is the sequence that happens now.
1. hit cycle start
2. Torch moves to start position.
3. probe move up (position direction) until it reaches home zero.
4. stops and give aborted message.
I tried changing the machine home location to different heights to confirm that was the stopping location. It is. The THC max is set to 5.0". So I set the torch about .25" above the plate and made that work zero... it moved to 5.14" to reach the home position and stopped.
Previously it moved down first, so I guess it is moving in the wrong direction for some reason. The axis orientation is correct is that z+ is up and z- is down when jogging the machine