Can't jog with soft limits turned off

Everything works fine with soft limits turned on. However, if I turn them off, there are issues with jogging. Here’s what happens when they’re turned off: After homing the machine, I can initially jog in the x and y directions. But when I try to jog the Z, machine clicks, then, nothing. I can no longer jog in the x and y (as well as the Z). Turning the soft limits back on corrects this. BTW, it’s a chore turning the soft limits back on, as gsender reverts back to “off” when accepting the change. After several tries, it finally takes.
I’d like to get this machine to work with soft limits turned off, as I want to set locating pins tangent to, but outside the machine XY0. Any help would be appreciated.

6-19-25 Update: Not really related, but the weirdest thing happened last night. I was working on this issue, but when I turned on the soft limits and tried to home the machine, it buried my v-bit into the spoil board. Hit the emergency stop, then tried to retract the spindle. Nothing. Turned the conroller off and physically raised the Z by turning the spindle screw. Turned the controller back on and tried to home the machine. Nothing! Could not get the machine to home or jog. Checked my firmware settings, and nearly every setting changed, and I mean change significantly. X, Y, and Z max travel got set to 0. Junction deviation, arc tolerance were reset to some number carried out ten decimal places. My inverts changed; nearly everything changed. No idea why. Forturnately after I did the NEMA 23 and 4080 upgrade (this machine is a Masuter Pro) and I got everything dialed in, I exported the firmware settings and saved them. Importing them back in fixed the issues. Still can’t jog with soft limits turned off, but that’s not a show stopper. BTW…After the NEMA 23 and 4080 upgrades, this machine is phenomenal. I did about a dozen carves and it has yet to skip a step. Cutting deeper and faster than with the original NEMA 17 motors. Out of the box, the Masuter Pro is a good starter machine, but frustrating to use because of constantly skipping steps. The NEMA 23 upgrade is a definite must-have!

@BrianV I’ve moved your post to a more relevant category, Brian.

If my help if you add information on what machine you have, what controller and if this is a new problem.

I’m confused by this. The machine should be able to reach everywhere it can go with soft limits enabled if the dimensions set in the firmware are correct. What am I missing?

Hard to explain. I just want to be able to operate the machine with the soft limits turned off.
btw…I was wondering how the soft limits are determined relative to the hard limits. Are the soft limits set by $27 (homing switch pull off distance), or are they hard coded into the controller as a set distance from the hard limit switches and unchangeable?

The soft limits are set by $130, $131, $132 and $133 for the X, Y, Z and A axes respectively. You’ll only have $132 if you have grblHAL. So basically when you home the machine it sets the machine coordinate zeroes and then it knows it can’t go past the settings in the firmware.

I have a LongMill with Sienci’s sensors and there is only one per axis so I have hard limits turned off.

Makes sense. That’s why the actual travel is greater than the manufacturer recommended settings for the 4080 machine. Thanks.

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