Bench Test cannot find home switch. (resolved)

[Reedfirst]

Hey guys, I am doing some preliminary tests on my Bridgeport cnc conversion and I am having a problem getting to controller to see the Y- home switch.

I plan on using the Y- switch as my limit and home switch.

I have my limit switches bracketed and connected to the Y axis of the Machine. One on Y- and on on Y+.

The Y+ switch is connected to input 8 and common on the acorn controller. When I trip this switch the controller sees the switch and states " emergency stop detected" at this point all movement to the machine halts until I release the switch at which time I get a message "emergency stop released". When I release the switch, the machine can be jogged once again. I think this is working correctly.

They Y- Switch is connected to input 2 and common on the acorn controller. When I jog the machine in the y- direction; The table moves towards the machine until the switch is tripped and at which time I get a message "Y- Limit tripped" at this point I cannot move the table any further in the Y- direction.

I can then jog the table in the y+ direction and when the switch releases I get the message "Y- limit cleared" Again, I think this works correctly.


The problem is when I am trying to find the Y- Home switch. (Same switch and my y- limit switch)

This is exactly what I am doing to try and find y- home switch:

1. I press F1 to get to setup

2. I press F3 to go to config

3. I press F2 to go to Mach

4. I press F3 to find home, I choose my Y axis and in the - direction and hit cycle start. The table jogs toward the machine in the negative direction, hits the limit switch, backs off, jogs towards and hits the limit switch again and I get the error "Cannot find home switch"

In my motor configuration I Have the Y axis motor set to Limit- 2 Limit + 0 Home- 2 Home+ 0 DirectionReversal Yes.

In the wizard I have input 2 set to secondaxishomelimitok NC

On the Axis page of the wizard I Have the 2nd Axis (Y) set to M91 for home direction.

I can't seem to figure out what I am doing wrong to get the controller to see the y- limit switch as the y- home switch.

Any ideas on what i'm missing?

[martyscncgarage]

Hey guys, I am doing some preliminary tests on my Bridgeport cnc conversion and I am having a problem getting to controller to see the Y- home switch.

I plan on using the Y- switch as my limit and home switch.

I have my limit switches bracketed and connected to the Y axis of the Machine. One on Y- and on on Y+.

The Y+ switch is connected to input 8 and common on the acorn controller. When I trip this switch the controller sees the switch and states " emergency stop detected" at this point all movement to the machine halts until I release the switch at which time I get a message "emergency stop released". When I release the switch, the machine can be jogged once again. I think this is working correctly.

They Y- Switch is connected to input 2 and common on the acorn controller. When I jog the machine in the y- direction; The table moves towards the machine until the switch is tripped and at which time I get a message "Y- Limit tripped" at this point I cannot move the table any further in the Y- direction.

I can then jog the table in the y+ direction and when the switch releases I get the message "Y- limit cleared" Again, I think this works correctly.


The problem is when I am trying to find the Y- Home switch. (Same switch and my y- limit switch)

This is exactly what I am doing to try and find y- home switch:

1. I press F1 to get to setup

2. I press F3 to go to config

3. I press F2 to go to Mach

4. I press F3 to find home, I choose my Y axis and in the - direction and hit cycle start. The table jogs toward the machine in the negative direction, hits the limit switch, backs off, jogs towards and hits the limit switch again and I get the error "Cannot find home switch"

In my motor configuration I Have the Y axis motor set to Limit- 2 Limit + 0 Home- 2 Home+ 0 DirectionReversal Yes.

In the wizard I have input 2 set to secondaxishomelimitok NC

On the Axis page of the wizard I Have the 2nd Axis (Y) set to M91 for home direction.

I can't seem to figure out what I am doing wrong to get the controller to see the y- limit switch as the y- home switch.

Any ideas on what i'm missing?

You should not need to go into CNC12's setup. Everything you should need is in the Wizard.
Can you post screen shots of your Wizard pages?

Have you pressed ALT-I from the main CNC12 screen to bring up the diagnostic LED page so you can test your limit switches on the inputs you have them connected to? Upper left corner of the screen.

[martyscncgarage]

Also list what limit switch is connected to which input.

[cnckeith]

marty is correct. please use the Acorn setup wizard to setup limit switches (and everything else!). the wizard takes care of all the background cnc12 configuration settings for you so you don't have to go into cnc12 config screens.
posting shots of the wizard is good idea as well.
also posting a report.zip file will 'show' us how you have your particular system setup and we can give you pin point advice with that information.

[Reedfirst]

I have checked the inputs using the ALT I function and when I release my y- limit/home switch I can see the indicator for input 2 turn from green to red.

Here are some screen shots of my wizard and as well as a couple from inside cnc12.

[Reedfirst]

Also list what limit switch is connected to which input.

I have the y- limit switch connected to in2 on the acorn and common.

I also have +24volts going to +24in on H4

[martyscncgarage]

We are conferring.....
Question, are you trying to use Input 8 (ESTOP) as a way to stop the machine with the other end of each axis limit switch (Opposite of home)?

[Reedfirst]

Ok, I have a little bit of an update on this.

First I went ahead and set up the machine for a 2 axis with a manual Z (only because I don't have a z axis yet)

I then installed my x+ limit switch, closed and re-started cnc12 and tried again.

When cnc12 restarted, I got the message "machine home not set! Press cycle start to set machine home position"

I pressed cycle start...........

CNC 12 prompted me to move my z axis up (it was already up)

it then moved the Y axis in the negative direction. It hit the limit switch, backed off and started moving the X in the positive direction. The X axis limit switch tripped and then backed off and the dro in cnc12 displayed it's position.

It apears that cnc12 saw the limit switches as home switches. SUCCESS!!!!!

So then I decided to try and manually find home in the setup menus.

I navigated my way back to:

1. Setup F1

2. Config F3

3. Machine F2

4. Find Home F3. Here I chose my Y axis and the -(negative direction) and hit cycle start. The table moved towards the negative, tripped the y- limit switch backed off, then traveled negative towards the switch again tripping it. The message popped up "unable to find home"

So it appears that for some reason If I run the homing routine at startup the software recognized the limit switches as homing switches however, If I manually try and find home using the F3 command (find home) it doesn't recognize the limit switches as home switches.

[Reedfirst]

We are conferring.....
Question, are you trying to use Input 8 (ESTOP) as a way to stop the machine with the other end of each axis limit switch (Opposite of home)?

Yes, I wired the opposite limit switch (y+ in this case) to input 8 (as per acorn hookup schematics) figuring I would set my software travel limit before it hit the switch. That way if the machine ever went past the software limit it would throw an e-stop condition.

I'm not 100 percent sure if that's the proper method but I was going to wire my opposite (of the home/limit) switches in series to conserve inputs.

[martyscncgarage]

We are conferring.....
Question, are you trying to use Input 8 (ESTOP) as a way to stop the machine with the other end of each axis limit switch (Opposite of home)?

Yes, I wired the opposite limit switch (y+ in this case) to input 8 (as per acorn hookup schematics) figuring I would set my software travel limit before it hit the switch. That way if the machine ever went past the software limit it would throw an e-stop condition.

I'm not 100 percent sure if that's the proper method but I was going to wire my opposite (of the home/limit) switches in series to conserve inputs.

You are correct wiring the opposite travel end limits that way.
Is there a reason why you didn't use:
-X (Input 1)
-Y (Input 2)
+Z (Input 3)
for your home/limits?

I think you said you were homing in the +X direction?