I’d prefer to home my machine to the front left, rather than back left.
My old Genmitsu 4040 pro homed to the front left, so I’ve become used to that. I also start my projects from the bottom left corner, so it works hand in hand.
Has anybody tried installing the Y axis sensors to the front of the machine, rather than the rear?
I presume that would need to be done in order to home to the front left.
Also, are the homing sensors accurate enough to repeatedly return to the same home position?
Hi @HKingUK - I have my machine homing at the front left (“front” being closest to where I stand, and 0 in the Y direction) - but I don’t think I did anything specific to do that.
As to the repeatability, I haven’t tested. They do seem to do the fast home / slow repeat - which makes it more accurate - but I haven’t tried to see how that goes a second / third / fourth time. Maybe someone else can chime in?
@HKingUK All the videos and text instructions I have seen have the Y switch mounted on the left front. Where did you see it installed in a different location?
The Altmill homes to the back left as shipped.
I would think that homing to the front should be possible if you can mount the sensors. I would think the ‘home’ macro on gSender would need to reflect the new sensor position.
@HKingUK No apologies necessary, Harry. I jumped to conclusions. I’ve added a reference to the AltMill in your title so that it’s clear what you are asking about.
While I believe I know theresponse to your statement about installing the sensors at the front to achieve your objective. I’ll withhold comment (for a change ) and let those with AltMills jump in.
“You can definitely mount the sensors in the front, it might need some repositioning to allow it to home properly without alarms. Additionally you will need to change the homing direction by going to Firmware on gSender, then scrolling down the list to setting 23 Homing direction invert. Toggle the axes you need, then press Apply New Settings. Then turn off and on the controller, and reconnect.”
I think the sensors are very accurate but that’s just my subjective opinion. I have the Sienci sensors on a LongMill 30x30 and I have a grid centered on my spoil board that I did with my laser. I have the center coordinates saved in a workspace that I don’t work in so I can home, swap to that workspace, go to XY0 then switch to the workspace I’m going to use and set XY0. It has always been spot on as far as I can tell. I haven’t measured the accuracy with anything other than my eyeballs but if I put a V bit in it’s always within the laser lines.
Anyway to test I would put a V bit in and lower it just enough to make a small mark in the spoil board and set XY0 there. Then you can home and go back to XY0 a couple of times to check if it is accurate enough to meet your needs.
You can definitely reposition the Y-axis sensors to the front to home at the front left. Just make sure to update the homing direction in the firmware settings in gSender. Have you tried it yet? Curious to hear how accurate the sensors are for repeat homing!
) and let those with AltMills jump in.