When I home the machine and zero all the axes and then jog away from home and come back it is not 0 (it does this both on the x and y axis and it is a different very small or even negative number each time). The limit switches are tight and square. Also, if I turn off the soft limits and go to the hard limit of one of the axis (either one) it has a different value every time.
Nothing is getting snagged I have watched the machine for literally hours going back and forth. I squared the table very well.
I tightened the couplers on the lead screws very tight and I am afraid to break them but I feel like this could be the only thing right? Or could the two leadscrews that are parallel be getting out of sync somehow?
I would guess that if it is a small number, the lead nuts are worn and need to be replaced. Or the housing of the lead nuts is/are loose. The lead nuts are nylon.
But one time today I didn’t get that error and then when i jogged the machine away from home and back it actually went to 0.000. The limit switches stop the machine twice sometimes. Once when the switch is pushed and then it stops the machine again when the switch is released when you jog away from the switch.
When I manually jog into either limit switch it gives me this error:
I read a post similar to this a while back and I believe doing all the updates followed by reseting the settings fixed them but I have tried this multiple times.
I already know that some around here don’t like the limit switches, but I still want to see if there is a solution. Unless there is a way to accurately do indexing, because I am trying to build the square for the table I found in a video.
A “hard limit” means the switch is triggered. Those switches are normally closed. When they are pressed, they open the circuit. An open circuit could be a loose connection or broken wire. Trace each one. It could be a defective limit switch.
What ever you do, don’t get @Bigdaddy2166 in this topic!
There is also the possibility that you are getting outside your work area on the table. It sounds like you are using the “Home Machine” and then zeroing all axes at that point? Is that correct.
You might be getting caught outside of you work envelope by setting your ‘work zero’ right where the limit switch is stopping the torch.
I don’t think any of us use the machine “Home” spot to set our “work zero” for our work piece. I guess you could do that but I would bet you would have a better test of consistent “work zero” spot since it is using the x=0.0, y=0.0. So I would have to say, I have never tested that for accuracy.
As for the limit switch alarm:
I found that if I got any alarm with the limit switch here is what I did that seem to keep me out of trouble:
you need to clear the alarm
Home the machine (Not Go To Work Zero).
Move the torch to where you want “Work Zero” to be
Zero all axes
Pick your Program Origin to be the same area of your design, consistent with how you picked your work zero (if left lower corner then it needs to be “left lower corner” for both).
