[UCF_Prince]

Hello all, I am a student and I have been working on restoring a minitech mini mill 2. I have upgraded the controller board to the hobby cnc 3 axis board and have gotten the X,Y, and Z rails to move, but now I am having a problem setting the home and limits in my version of Mach 3. I am using the Demo version. The tutorial videos from Artsoft help, but the instructions they give are all for full versions of Mach 3.

what information I am looking for:
-how to set the home configuration

-how to set the limits

-and just because: what type of lubrication should be used? a light weight oil or lithium grease? (I have aerosol lithium white grease)

EDIT: the mini mill 2 doesn't come with limit switches or does it have them installed.....

thanks in advance.

[UCF_Prince]

can anyone at least point me where to start?

[UCF_Prince]

After doing a little research I was able to find out that the Controller board that I am using from Hobby CNC has a limit switch feature. I am going to try using that to fix the limiting problem so then I can finally start to cut parts. I will still be searching as to how to set limits through the probram just so I will have that knowledge on hand. If anyone has any advice as to how to achieve this please let me know. But for now my course of action will be to purchase some limit switches and install them.

[pete from TN]

Of course it is difficult to setup limits on a machine that physically does not have them!! (nuts) If you can buy some of the proper limits that the machine came with and install them, most limits are obviously a simple switch wired into the breakout board and setup as a particular input pin thru the parallel port and into the computer. All you gotta do is go into Mach3's inputs and outputs page on the config menu and setup which parallel port and which pin you are using and designate which limit movement you are trying to setup. Then check enable and wether it is No/ or NC and then go into the diagnostics page where you can monitor whether or not it is functioning by actuating the switch with your hand and watching the screen to see if the little LED in Mach3 lights up when you actuate it. It is then just a matter of getting into the Limits menu in Mach3 and setting up your distances and whatnot. The same goes for your home switches, You can use a limit for a home in Mach3, it just runs in whichever direction and looks for that particular switch until it trips it and Mach turns off it's limit function so you do not get an E-stop until the machine drives back off the switch whatever distance you decide. It really is pretty simple. The Videos on Machsupport are pretty good(except for the brittish bloke that does the ones on Modbus, I don't know what the hell he is talking about) and you should be able to get it going with their help. If you get the thing wired up and still need help just give a shout. The diagnostics page is really nice to be able to actually watch your input signals to be able to set them up easily. Good luck and peace

[ger21]

Fwiw, the demo version of Mach3 is exactly the same as the full version, with just a few limitations.
No "Run from Here", and a 500 line g-code limit are two.

[Fixittt]

if the machine does not physically have limit switches, then its next to impossible to set them up, does the mill have home switches installed? If so, you can home the machine and set soft limits to match the envelope of the machine....

dont take this as judgmental, but why are you trying to setup limits? Are you sure its limits you want to setup? Or are you wanting to zero out the machine and work from there? More explanation and pics would be helpful. Explain exactly what it is your trying to do. I dont think I have ever seen a minitech mill with limit switches, just home switches.