[Halfnutz]

I have the HobbyCNC 3 Axis board and a little Mini Mill. I need to wire up my Home and Limit switches, but I cant find a simple 1+1=2 type wiring diagram. Just text. I am not good at converting text into pictures, so can anyone help? What about the 4.7KR pull up resistor? Does that go to pin 1? If I connect all of the switches to this than how does the SW distinguish what switch was tripped? Is there a simple diagram for idiots available anywhere? It should be pretty much the standard set up, three steppers, three home and three limit switches, hooked up to a parallel port with HobbyCNC H.W. and TurboCNC S.W.

Thanks, Halfnutz

Never mind. I just figured it out. Its pretty simple, just use TB5 on the HobbyCNC board, everythings provided for.

[DAB_Design]

Since you figured it out, why not take the oportunity to make a diagram for those that are in the same boat you were in?

[Torsten]

Home and Limit switch wiring could be done in many different ways to
provide for different operating functionalitys.
On some industrial machines I used to work on the limits of all axes
where wired together acting as a single switch wich simply shut down
all movement when any one of the switches triggered, the operator
needed to figure out which axses to manualy jog off to continue.
This only required one input signal but was a bit primitive to work with.
Most controller Software today can be used with a little more intelligence
so it knows wich axes triggered and in what direction.
Some use a single input per axes as you described, the Software will know
wich direction was triggered by looking at the last direction this axes was
traveling and prevent this axes from going further in that direction but still
allow you to Jog in the other direction.
Much smarter, and now you will need a input for each axes.
I think you have to check with the Software about what kind of functionality
is supported to avoid going down a death end road.
Good Luck

[Halfnutz]

OK, well first of all "figuring it out" is not the same as "getting them to work".

On the HobbyCNC board provisions are made for +5V and a resistor network (RN4) is provided to pull up inputs. These are terminated at TB5 and wired to the parallel port pins 10, 11, 12, and 15.

I have mine wired, but I havent been able to get TurboCNC or DeskNC programed to recognize them. If I learn any more I will post here.

[HobbyCNC]

OK, well first of all "figuring it out" is not the same as "getting them to work".

On the HobbyCNC board provisions are made for +5V and a resistor network (RN4) is provided to pull up inputs. These are terminated at TB5 and wired to the parallel port pins 10, 11, 12, and 15.

I have mine wired, but I havent been able to get TurboCNC or DeskNC programed to recognize them. If I learn any more I will post here.

Don't forget to save the ini file before exiting the menu in TCNC.

Dave Rigotti

[xairflyer]

I had a lot of problems with the X axis home with my hobbycnc/turbocnc combination.

Pin 11 normally used for X home was reversed and I could not get the x axis to home properly so I cured the problem by using pin 15 as the X axis home, Y pin 12, Z pin 13

[Halfnutz]

I switched from turbocnc 4.0 to 4.01 and started running in true dos and something took care of the problem. The TurboCNC people say that 4.0 did support limits, and that I was doing something wrong, but as soon as I went to 4.01 the switch@ pin 15 started working(but not pin 11) and then when I booted up DOS all of them started working. Who knows. TurboCNC is really finicky, full of bugs, but the best thing going for the price. The support is great and makes up for its bugs. My motors love it, they run so smooth and fast. So anyway, try 4.01. Also, 4.0 would not run(missing Blahblahblah file) in DOS, 4.01 took right off. If you need switches, check out the micro NO or NC switches at Surplus Center for only 0.60 cent each. They work fine.