Hello All-

I am pulling my hair out trying to figure out something in Mach3.  I was trying to set my "limits" with my X axis last night.  I jogged my X-axis to the front of my machine and hit the "Zero X" button to zero out the DRO.  I then jogged the X-axis to the extent of my machine.  The X-axis DRO said 28 inches.  So, in the "Motor Home/SoftLimits" menu, I set the Soft Max to 27 and the SoftMin to 0.  I then moved the X-Axis to about 15 and then activated the Soft Limits toggle.  As I moved toward zero, it instantly started slowing down.  It got to like 14, and then stopped.  I was able to move past 27 and it didn't stop.

So, I toggled the "Home Negative" toggle on, but then I couldn't turn on the Soft Limits toggle.  It said that it wouldn't activate because I was outside of my limits, even though I was.

I tried everything and couldn't get it to work.

I have no limit switches so far, so I was hoping to set the programming limits so I wouldn't drive one of the axis farther than it could go.

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?  I've attached a picture of what I have it set to so far.

Thank you-

Brad

Brad, I don't know if you can use soft limits without home switches. What are your machine coords. when you jog to your limits? On the program run screen, click on the button that says machine coord. Also, in config, ports and pins, mill options. Is homed true when no home limits checked? You might want to imulate some home switches and try that. I have never tried any of this without home switches so maybe someone who has will kick in.

Brett

Brad I think what you are missing is that soft limits are in "Machine Coordinates"

Like Brett says do you have home switches?

You can "Home" without them but not accurately.

Move all axis to what should be the home position and then press "Ref All"

This should reset machine coordinates to zero at that position. Then soft limits will be workable.

This is what I suggest to people who have no home or limit switches to get a reasonable soft limit working.

Greg

EDIT:  you will also have to check "auto zero"

Thanks Greg.

Brett

Greolt,

When I press "Ref All" my machine takes off to some other position. I can't seem to set the home coordinates of my machine. When I run a simple code such as X-1, X1, my machine jumps to 0.28, comes back to 0, then runs -1 to 1. I know that I am missing something very basic. All I really want to do is jog my machine to my physical home position, set it to X0 Y0 Z0, then have it run my code based on these coordinates. This is my first day with the machine lol...

You have home switches enabled in Ports & Pins, Input pins. Disable them and you will no longer get movement when pressing Ref All.

My "ref all home" does not zero when I'm trying to set "HOME". I have all switches disabled. I click on "machine coord.", it lights up red, but nothing happens when I click ref all home. Help please!