Hey Al
On my last cnc I had a touch plate for auto-zero of the Z axis and worked really well
I like to install the same on my new cnc but I don’t remember what I did about this 10k resistor Chris (from cockrum.net) is talking about. Here is a part of his instructions:
“….The idea is to use the cutter itself and a soft conductive plate as a switch that triggers the probe input on Mach3. The touch plate is connected to a parallel port input pin that is pulled up to +5V with a 10k resistor and the ground is connected to an alligator clip. The ground is clipped onto the cutter bit and the touch plate is held on the work surface. Clicking the Auto Tool Zero button runs the Visual Basic code that lowers the cutter until it gets a signal from the probe input, sets the Z-axis readout to the thickness of the touch plate (.060" in my case) then raises the cutter to 1 inch above the surface”
I have reserved Input #4 on the G540 for this auto-zero plate. If I connect the Red wire from the touch plate to Input #4 and the Black wire from the alligator clip to ground, would it be ok?
BTW I may have more questions as I’m progressing with the start-up of my new cnc. Should I keep posting here or open a new thread for each subject?