[bit pusher]

Hi guys, my machine dates back to 2013, I think its one of the last ones Tommy put together. On mine he used the mach motion motors, electricals coupled to an ethernet smooth stepper. Everything works well, but I've got unconnected limit switches. This machine came with no documentation at all, he talked me through connecting the x,y,z motors and the e-stop, but he never got back to me about the limit switches.

Recently I've been using my 4-th axis more and I've found that locating/re-locating the y and z zero on it is a tedious process without the limit switches and the ability to "ref all home" in mach3.

For those familiar with the smooth stepper config, where do the limit switches connect? and how do I configure it in mach3?

thanks in advance for any advice

[bit pusher]

I dug around in the mach configs and found that only z-home is even enabled, it seems to be assigned port 3, pin 13. X and y dont have pins assigned. I'll assume I can just pick a couple of input pins?
Going to try to find documentation and trace down where that port is on the smooth stepper. I'm always a little uneasy messing around in the electrical cabinet.

As far as the inductive switch itself, it seems to have 4 wires. I'm presuming +5, ground, sig- and sig+, is it even a differential signal ? I cant tell by looking if it is even NPN or PNP.
Ugh. I wish Tommy had provided some docs or even part numbers so I could dig up docs.

In case CharterOak reads this, how do you guys do the limit switches these days?

[bit pusher]

OK, found some docs on machmotion's site:
http://machmotion.com/documentation/...r%20Manual.pdf

That shows how the wiring should be done for inputs on their break-out board. Nice.
Still no clue as to what kinds of switches i have. I am starting to suspect NPN.

[bit pusher]

One of the switches had a tiny sticker so I could dig up some specs. It's NPN, normally open, with internal pull up and a little LED inside. I miscounted, it has 3 wires (no idea why I thought 4!), and likes to run between 10-30 volts. I changed the jumpers on the breakout board to run 24v.
Made some progress: wired the Z switch up to the break-out board, managed to get it sensing --- meaning the switch lights up near a wrench or magnet. Unfortunately the board does not see it yet as I dont have 3.9k pull up resistors attached. Neither the board nor mach3 are aware yet.

I need to find some 3.9k resistors, pity that radio shack is closing. If I cant find any resistors at home I'll see if the store near me is still open.