Lightobject.com Support Forum

I’ve upgraded my K40 over the last week with the LO-X7 DSP, LO-60W PSU, and the LO Z-axis table … potentially a very nice setup. Finished wiring up everything over the weekend and all is work perfect with the exception of the XY limit switches.

I have hard mounted (i.e. with screws) mechanical switches, currently wired for Normally Opened … and have verified continuity (repeatedly) and am convinced that the switches are good. The switches are connect to X-/Y-/GND on the controller.

The only software setting I have changed, at least for this, is in the Manufacturer Parameters, to enable Hardware Limits for both the X and Y. I’ve actually tried it both enabled and disabled with no change.

One strange thing while I was trying various things to get it working; I hooked up another limit switch on the X+/GND (it was one I had lying around wired up for Normally Closed) and with it in place the X-/Y- switches started responding. OK, since this switch was N.C., I took it out and just replaced it with a jumper wire to see if I could reproduce it … nope, back to not working. In fact, even putting the extra switch back in (which really shouldn’t be required) I could never reproduce my one time success.

I’m sure I’m missing something simple here … limit switches are pretty basic and I’m not a complete newbie to X/Y/Z systems (not an expert either), so I would welcome any suggestions. I’m not to the point of calling into question the DSP controller (yet), but I’m running out of ideas.

Thanks in advance for any help,
Frank

Either NO or NC, you still need to use X- and Gnd
Since you are using N.C., you need to change logic level in the parameters setup. If current setup is for Positive, then change it to negative

Marco

OK, so I thought I had everything fixed and was quite happy. Last night (and this morning) everything was homing correctly and it looked like I was out of the woods. Got home from work this evening and started it up (having not changed a thing since it last worked) and the direction of travel on the x/y was reversed and she wouldn't home. Been changing the 'Datum Dir' from Neg to Pos (and back) ... got it to work once, but as soon as I reset it, it did the reverse thing again.

Sure could use some help on this one ...

The settings I had that worked (for a while anyway):
Switches N.C. - both X and Y
X Datum Dir - Pos
X Key Dir - Pos
X Limit Polarity - Pos
Y Datum Dir - Neg
Y Key Dir - Pos
Y Limit Polarity - Pos

5. HardLimit Settings is disabled for all axis.

One other thing I discovered last night and confirmed this morning. When the machine is acting wonky with the homing,iIf I disconnect the cables from the head unit (LCD display) and reconnect them then it starts working fine for a period of time (not sure what the period is yet). Then at some point it'll start acting up again. Did this once last night and went to bed with it working fine ... got up this morning and it was not homing again. Unplugged/plugged the head Unit cables and as of right now its working.

Is this a defective unit, do I need to replace the battery, or am I doing something wrong? Very confused right now!

It seems that you didn't plug those two connectors deep enough to the sockets. Unplugged it and plug it in again firmly. No reason it worked for a night but not after.

Marco

Any update?

Marco

So everything was working fine until just the other day ... I was assuming you were correct and a plug was not properly seated. So a couple of days ago, without any changes at all, the machine starts trying to reverse home ( x and y axis going opposite direction). So based on the previous solution I wiggled the plugs and re-seated them. It worked OK for a bit (1 day) and then reverted to reverse homing of the x and y axis again. Now no amount of messing with the cables/ plugs is fixing the issue, so my cutter is now down for the count.

Do I have bad cables or are the plug connectors in the controller bad? There's obviously intermittent hardware issue going on here because I haven't change anything in the configuration of the software or for that matter changed anything with the hardware.

I would appreciate any help with this ...

Frank

OK, I found the problem. One of the control cables has a female pin that is crushed inward and not making good contact with the male pin on the control board. I got it "augured" out a bit to get the machine functional again, but will need a new cable ultimately. I have no idea if that cable was originally like this or if I somehow did it, but I'm sure this has been my problem since I install the controller.