Hi,

I've been trying to be a Z zero plate wired up now for a couple of days and I've ran into a new problem. I've wired my plate to pin 12 and used the auto configure settings option to set up my Z home. I then configured homing / limit switches screen for my Z axis.

Here's the problem, hoping to just be able to hit ref Z and have the machine drop until it encounters the plate, when I hit ref Z nothing happens, nor does anything happen when I hit ref all.

Anybody with more experience with Mach3 have any ideas why nothing would happen?

Thanks for your help,

Sounds like you don't have any home switches enabled. Do the axis Ref'd LED's turn green?

Also, if you try to home to a plate, the axis won't be zeroed if you have any offsets set, unless you use a custom Ref Z macro.

Gerry,

All I have set up is the Z plate. Am I correct that if I initialize a home plate in homing / limit switches that when I press ref Z in Diagnostics that the spindle should lower until the homing plate is contacted?
I can understand why the ref All doesn't work, but not why the ref Z.

Thanks

I'm back in front of the machine staring at the Diagnostic page, when I notice that when I don't have the alligator clip on the bit, I have no yellow lights on the right hand side of the screen. When I hook up the clip, the M3 light flickers intermittently.
Not certain if this changes anything but it does seem odd, I would think I would only get that light when the bit touched the plate.
Could that be caused by noise, and if so would that noise cause the ref Z button to not work?

Thanks,

Again, does the Z axis Ref'd LED turn green? If it does, than noise is triggering the input

Ger21,

Yes the light does turn green. This is where I'm assuming I'm going to need to learn how to wire a capacitor to reduce the noise? Would I wire it in-line?

Like existing wire into BOB connect to capacitor, through capacitor back to wire then the plate?

Thanks,

Just did some googling and it looks like you wire a .01uf capacitor between the input pin and ground.

Ger21,

A user on another forum was nice enough to help me find the manual for my BOB.

http://www.cnc4pc.com/Store/osc/product_info.php?cPath=33&products_id=45&osCsid=def66f9ad4e14ec044d02cab3413b19c

Looking at page 15/18 it shows a diagram of what I'm wanting to do. Now the only problem is the wiring diagram to me isn't 100% clear, it shows the plate being grounded but does it also go to the 5V side?

Thanks