[northbear]

Looking to setup my first CNC router (mechanical not quite done yet) with LinuxCNC and had a question for the setup on each axis in Stepconf.

What I would like to do is have the CNC home to the front left of the machine and the z axis near the top. I will have limit switches on both end of travel for all axis and want to use "Both Limit + Home" setup to use the limit switches as home switches. I also want to set the "soft limits" so that the LinuxCNC stops the machine before encountering the switch in normal operation. (ie if I jog all the way one direction I will encounter the soft limits before the switch)

Looking at the what values I should use for Home Location, Table Travel, and Home Switch Location in Stepconf (see circled in red below)

Attachment 197200

My thoughts are setting it up as shown in the attachment below

Attachment 197204

My switches will trigger approx .04" from each end travel for all axis. I picked my "Home Location" numbers arbitrarily close to the end of travel.

Does this all make sense? Is a "Home Switch Location" outside of the "Table Travel" allowed? Or is there a better way of accomplishing the same thing?

Thanks so much in advance!

[northbear]

Well I will answer my own questions I think

Since my electrical is to the point I can test things, I was able to temp in a switch to act as the homeing switch for the x axis. I then put in a negative number (-1) for the home switch location and a positive number for home location (3) and travel from 0-18 just for testing purposes. I used larger numbers so I could better watch what was hapening.

Short answer is that it works just like I was hoping it would!

Axis would show the spindle slowly move until I triggered the switch (telling LinuxCNC that was the home switch) on the screen it would then jump to -1 (minus an inch from the safe limit box) move "away" from the switch untill i let go, and then slowly move back until I triggered the switch again. It would them move to 3 inches from the 0 position (4" from home switch)

I still welcome any imput from someone who has a actual working system like this, but it seems like it should work!

[109jb]

You can have a home "switch" anywhere in the mechanical limits of travel, but not if you are also using that same switch as a limit switch. The home "position" on the other hand doesn't have to be where the switch is. What you described is most common and is essentially how my x-axis is set up. My y axis on the other has the switch at the extreme negative end of the y-axis travel, but I told linuxcnc that the y axis home "position" was at the other end of the travel 8 inches away.