[boosted]

OK, starting to finish this RF31 conversion.
I had a question on limit switches...
do I need them or no?
If I do how exactly do they wire in?

The motors I decided on were kelinginc.net 1160 oz units for X and Y and a 497 one for Z.

I was going to simply hook them directly and not deal with pulley's or anything like that.

[Bubba]

boosted,
My opinion is that one should definately have limit switches. Before I got smart, I had several "hard stop" crashes and tore up some of the equipment through mostly stupidity on my part. EG: issued a G0 10 instead of G0.10 or something like that.
Not sure what controller program you are planning on, but if it is one that uses the parallel port, you can configure it several ways. First off, for safety, I would set them up as NC (normally closed) and they will open on activation. This way, if a wire were to break, you would stop the machine and have to figure it out. If you run NO (normally open) and depend on closure of the circuit to cause a trip, you will never know if a wire was cut or broken.

Next, is to figure out how many "circuits" you are going to need. Again one way is to have one circuit for each axis. Then how many switches per axis. It is not uncommon to have one switch per axis and have it mechanically tripped when the limit from either direction is reached. This is how it is done on my RF31 for the X and Y axis. I used a couple of mini din switches from Automated direct (that are swarf and coolant protected) and have trip levers from each direction. On the Z, I used a couple of micro-switches wired in series.
One additional benifit of doing it this way is that I also use the same switch for homing purposes and as we both know, there is not a lot of realestate on the RF-31 to start hanging a lot of switches:})

[boosted]

I was thinking a dual action on the X and y and two singles on the z.
As far as programs I was gonna use cnclinux as I have computer parts out the you know what... I mean I am only running 5 right now...

[Bubba]

Hey, nothing wrong with your computer supply! That is how I keep my shop running. My prefrence is dos because when I got started, the linux system had to many bugs and I was not familar with linux. Now my system works so I don't want to change. Operating system aside, sounds like you have a plan and it should work.
The best advise I can give though, especially if you are also going to use them as homing switches; is to set up ONE axis at a time and get it working properly before going on to the next one. There is to much inter-reaction to troubleshoot a multi-axis problem. You just end up chasing your tail:{( Also for testing, put the axis in the middle of travel, issue a G01 at a slow feed rate and then trip the switch by hand to verify its operation prior to running into it at the end of axis travel!

Good luck

[boosted]

Hey Bubba if you do not mind could you post a few pics on how you did your z axis?
The plan I had for mine got shot to hell today when I tried to mount the plate...

[boosted]

ahh I thought of another idea, but need to think it through to see if it will work for me.
But just off hand I think it will solve my problems.

[Bubba]

boosted,
I thought I had some pics of the Z axis and I can't find them so will go to the shop tomorrow and make some more and post them

[boosted]

boosted,
I thought I had some pics of the Z axis and I can't find them so will go to the shop tomorrow and make some more and post them

I came up with a different way to mount the z axis.
You will understand this way by words. I am mounting it to the original tension spring mount, I simply removed the spring and fabbed a mount to go to that plate. I feel that the 497 In/Oz motor can probably more than hold the spindle.

[boosted]

mounting pic's?