Homing/Limit Switches

Hansi, once I squared up the frame as well as I could with a tape measure, and before bolting it down, I ran the Z axis back and forth at a slow speed from end to end several times, watching for any movement in the rails. Then I ran the Z almost all the way to the back, turned off power, and manually turned the Y ball screws until each side was up against the end blocks. Then I powered up and ran the Z to the front to be sure they touched the front end blocks. Then I repeated the slow run back and forth looking for any movement in the frame. Then I screwed the support blocks down, being careful not to move them while running the screws in.

I have, like you, wondered if there was enough error from start/stops, rounding from direction changes, etc. to cause any significant , or even noticeable, change in the alignment of the axes. I repeat the back and forth test every once in a while, and have not found any errors. I make qute a few aluminum parts with bearing pockets, alignment holes, etc. and all seems well. True the parts are relatively small so small errors might not be showing up, but I mic the parts and have been pleased with the results.

On an sort-of-unrelated topic, while testing the LongMillā€™s ability to do aluminum, I was reminded that you canā€™t always believe the specs from the manufacturer of the end mill youā€™re using. I use the Sienci 1-flute 1/8" mills for aluminum and they work great. Because of their shape, it is very hard to accurately measure the diameter of the cutting surface. I tried it at 0.125" and the diameter of the holes came out 0.012" too small, so I dropped the mill diameter to 0.113". Then they were 0.008" too big. I finally settled on 0.118 for the end mill and itā€™s right on. The reason I bring this up is that now that the cutter D is firm, I am getting very repeatable results, which leads me to believe the LongMill is behaving correctly. Iā€™m almost done with the assembly of a drag knife, all the parts of which were made on the LongMill from 3/8" aluminum plate except the shaft that I turned on the lathe. Iā€™ll get assembled pics up in a while.

Good talking to you. Stay safe.

Bill

4 Likes

Those look great, Bill. Iā€™ve been looking at plans on line to make one. What are you using for your cam program. Is it, by chance Vcarve (hint, hint).

I assume when you said that you ran Z back and forth, you meant Y. Yes?

Grant, yes I meant Y. Iā€™m easily confused.

Thanks. I designed my own version and then found a set of drawings from Grunblau (I think thatā€™s the way you spell it) for $5. They are his idea for the knife, not plans, so they need some massaging to actually make the part. I liked his design for the frame over mine so I used his. Unfortunately, I used Fusion 360.

The LongMIll with the 1-flute aluminum end mill did a great job. Cutting time was about 35 minutes each for the bearing caps, 55 minutes for the frame, and 10 for the clamp bar. The shaft is aluminum until I find that it needs to be SS, obviously not done on the LM.

Bill

Tks, Bill. I bought his plans for a soap dish. I never was able to get the 3D drawings to work in VCarve and the included Gcode would not run, as he clearly was not using grbl inch, but Iā€™ve used his double-sided cutting jig for a couple of projects. So, I feel that I got my moneyā€™s worth.

Iā€™ll be interested to see your cutter in action.

Wow! First of allā€¦Nice parts!
You really pushed my hopes for this Mill.
Iā€™m impressed! Yes, dimensional parts? Not just an aluminum carveā€¦ That is awesomeā€¦ Hats off :clap::clap::raised_hands:
And thanks for verifying that the gantry doesnā€™t accumulate start up error.
I will try an follow your technique for tracking the Y.
Hansi

You obviously have to go slower and shallower on aluminum, but Iā€™m impressed with the details and repeatability. In this pic of the frame the two raised parts are there to restrain the blade and are 0.025" deep. The pic does not do the part justice - all of the things that look like depressions and defects are really reflections from a surface thatā€™s so smooth you canā€™t feel them with a finger nail. If you look at the edges of the part you can see how crisp an edge can be. Maybe in 100 years when I get good at this Iā€™ll work on my photography skills.
Have fun. Stay safe.

Bill

3 Likes

Iā€™m really impressed! :raised_hands:
This opens up a whole new opportunity for me. Once I get that far :see_no_evil:.
You donā€™t experience any deflection problems?

I probably get more side-to-side deflection than most people because I mounted the LongMill frame on 1" tall strips of MDF in order to allow room for tall work pieces, and I have to keep the router as far down in the clamp as it will go. This creates a longer lever arm between the clamp and the cutter, so it takes less force to deflect the cutter. Even so, with the slower speeds and shallower depth of cuts, I am getting measurably good results with aluminum. Another down side of raising the frame is that sometimes the dust boot is lower than the bottom of the router, so vac efficiency suffers. I get around it with a sealing plate I milled to sit on top of the dust boot, and by using several layers of MDF under the waste board. Engineering is the science of trade-off and compromise.

I have the 1st pass drag knife assembled waiting for the epoxy that holds the 1/4" shank to the top plate to cure and Iā€™ll see how it works.

Have fun. Stay safe.

Bill

Great! Thanks for the infoā€¦ And you have me in suspense over that drag knife :muscle::open_hands::open_hands:

Philip: I skimmed this thread again, and I donā€™t see where you have your shield grounded?

Why the .1 uf capacitor?

per the Long Mill Documentation, section 5.0 Advanced, adding limit switches:
ā€œIt should be noted that it is very important to shield and filter noise along the lines with the limit switches, as interference can cause the limits to trigger erratically. We have found that placing a 0.1uF capacitor across the input and ground for each limit helps to prevent errant triggers.ā€

the shields are not grounded.

Hansi,

Not sure if you found an answer to your question yet but I have some code I wrote this week that I could share. I am using magnet switches that appear to be fairly standard and I wired them up to a Raspberry Pi, through a few resistors to take take the voltage down from the 5V I am driving them with to the 3.3V input required for the RaspberryPI GPIO.

In this was I can detect all six of the limit sensors being triggered individually. Also, the way the particular switches I have ended up working is they carry the supply current on the signal pin (they are 3 wire NO switches) and when the switch is activated, the power on the signal pin goes low and it is enough to drive a 5V relay. So you can use them without the Pi but you lose the ability to do fancier things you may want to try.

I had it all working on my bench where any sensor would trigger an alarm and report and log on the Pi with a corresponding outbound signal to a 5V relay that would connect to the input lines on the Arduino. So you can definitely detect two Y motors at the Pi, but what you do with that information - how you get it to GRBL and get it to do something about it, isnā€™t clear to me.

Iā€™m happy to share my python code and notes with you if you would like, just send me your email address. In the process of preparing for the project I discovered the gpiozero library and it made the work quite enjoyable and easy. You may want to check it out.

In terms of mounting, after multiple prototypes I have milled a piece that sits across the top of the ZX plate and has mounting holes for the sensors for both XĀ± axis and the Z+. As well it provides support for the vac hose which has caused me problems from the outset - so much torque.

I havenā€™t figured out yet how/where to mount the Z- sensor. My front Y sensor is mounted in the table in the front left corner just in front of the foot. As the gantry rolls up and over it, the sensor triggers. This position works in the front but not in the back due to the leg design, which is unfortunate. Also you loose a bit of Y travel due to the sensor having a small range where it is still active after being triggered and also GRBL having the homing back-off distance. Well worth it for repeatable positioning though.

At the rear I havenā€™t decided how to mount the sensor yet but have been experimenting with putting it through the opening in the leg somehow, horizontally from the rear. Itā€™s a shame that there arenā€™t any mounting spots.

-Jeff

Thanks for the infoā€¦ Iā€™d be happy to see some pictures of your sensor mountings.
A guy from another CNC forum shared some relay logic with me, regarding the two motor Y axis homing circuit. When I get that far, Iā€™d like to test it and ask the fellow for permission to post his solution for others.

Can anyone tell me the whole wiring diagram for wiring the limit switches in a normally closed configuration

Hiā€¦in my case While homing my X hub, the X- - limit switch triggers prior to homing finishes, tossing a stop condition.

I have perused (again and again) that this is normally brought about by switch ricochet when the sensor triggers. The homing capacity winds down the breaking point switch while the bed is crawling toward the sensor, then, at that point the switch closes when contact is made, and before it can ease off the bob triggers the cutoff switch. As indicated above, I have done all that I can consider to dispose of conceivable electrical obstruction with the switch. I have additionally had a go at turning down and up the speed increase and speed boundaries (to the limit) with no adjustment of conduct.

My gut advises me now that I have a Mach3 setting some place that is causing this?

@BriggTrim - I think you may be in the wrong forum. The LongMill will not run with Mach3. It is a GRBL based machine. However, there may be someone familiar with Mach3 on this forum. Good luck.

I was wanting to setup homing switches just to have a repeatable home position.
However, Iā€™ve found this to work for that purpose without any modifications; just have a fixed point to probe X/Y.
Since I use a corner jig for virtually all of my work, I just made a square block to set the touch plate and prove X/Y. Then go to zero for X/Y, set the jog rate for half the radius of the bit, Jog X/Y and set zero (If the probe function asked for the bit youā€™re using, the last part wouldnā€™t be necessary). Of course itā€™s best to use an End Mill since a tapered bit would require some serious math calculations.

Now, I do want to install an upper limit switch on the Z axis. Iā€™ve had a few occasions where after setting 0 for Z, Iā€™ve raised it up to install the dust shoe and didnā€™t notice I had hit the limit. The only down side on the Longmill of hitting the limit is that it screws up your 0 settings.