AXBB-E Mach 3 limit switch wiring

[gills]

Ok so what do I have wrong in my wiring?

I'm not in your workshop to see what you did wrong. Got a picture of the AXBB-E, as-wired?

Question: Does the LED on the input port(s) light up at all? Either when the home/limit is triggered, or when the machine is not homed/limited?

Basically just as the my drawing shows. I have a 24V and 5V power supplies feeding the AXBB-E to the power input, I also have a second set of 24v wires that go to a 24+ and 24v- splitter as shown in my sketch. I have 4 wires running from my 24- or com, to inputs I1- to I4- terminals on the AXBB-E. Next I have 4 wires running from inputs I1+ thru I4+ terminals on the AXBB-E that each go from the AXBB-E to a 2 pin GX16 connector on the box. The 4 wires are for a probe, e-stop, limit, and home switch. From those same 4 GX16 2 pin connectors, I have a wire that runs from the connector to the 24V+ splitter. So all of my input connectors are the same with 1 24v+ wire and 1 wire going to the AXBB-E input pos terminal. This is in the UCCNC manual. It is on the top of page 25 of 29, hopefully I read it right. I have also attached my input settings from Mach 3. Ok so when I have the input limit settings set to active low no light comes on in the diagnostics page of Mach 3 and it doesn't light up when I engage the switch. If I change the input setting to active high it triggers immediately and I can't reset the reset button in Mach 3. Like I said it has me baffled.

[Dazp1976]

Ok so what do I have wrong in my wiring?

I'm not in your workshop to see what you did wrong. Got a picture of the AXBB-E, as-wired?

Question: Does the LED on the input port(s) light up at all? Either when the home/limit is triggered, or when the machine is not homed/limited?

What colour wires are on your switches?. All my 3 wire are:
Brown = 24v+
Blue = 24v-/gnd
Black = signal (axbb-e input)
The above is wiring each individual switch to its own input (6).
If pnp= black will go to I+ and I- will go to 24v-/gnd.
If npn= black will go to I- and I+ will go to 24v+.
Use the above to test a single switch.

To wire in series you daisy chain- Blue-Black-Blue-Black-Blue-Black.

[fsli]

Ok so when I have the input limit settings set to active low no light comes on in the diagnostics page of Mach 3 and it doesn't light up when I engage the switch. If I change the input setting to active high it triggers immediately and I can't reset the reset button in Mach 3.

I was asking about the LED on the AXBB-E, which shows the state of the input pin, not the diagnostics on Mach3. Let's try to keep Mach3 out of it for a minute (though I think there's an error in your settings, too).

Disable all the home and limit pins in Mach3. Move the gantry to a position where none of the three axes are homed, and none are at their limit either. Middle of the bed, for example. In that position, all six switches should be in the NC state, and both the home and limit LED on the AXBB-E should be lit. Now, move the gantry to where the X axis is homed and the LED on the AXBB-E (pin 4) should go out. Move X off of home (LED goes on), then move Y to its home position and check that the LED on the AXBB-E goes out again. Check that for the Z home, and the X, Y, and Z limits. This is just to make sure that the wiring is correct and mechanically everything is behaving correctly. If the LEDs aren't showing the correct state when the axes are homed, limited, and in the middle of the bed, then you have a wiring or physical problem (that is, switches aren't getting triggered).

Let's say that works well, and we move on to the Mach3 settings. Based on how you have it wired, the pins should be configured as Active Low. That is, the LED on the AXBB-E goes out whenever an axis reaches its home or limit position. Enable the home pin only (because there's only one of them, not a + home and - home) and you should be able to get Mach3 to home any axis, or all three axes at the same time.

Your limit switch settings are where there could be a problem. You have both + and - limits on the same pin, but you've only got one limit switch. Is that limit switch mounted on the machine to where it would trigger whether the machine is at either the + or - limit, or is it mounted to where it would only trigger at a + limit (with home being the - limit)? My guess is your home switch is doing double-duty as both a home and - limit indicator, and the limit switch is only a + limit indicator. That being the case, configure your + limit pin in Mach3 to be port 2, pin 1, active low, and configure both the home and - limit to be port 2, pin 4, active low.

[gills]

As of now I do not have the controller running on the table, I am testing everything first before I go out and attach this to the table. Ok I just attached a quick had sketch of my 24v wiring to the AXBB-E and input wring inside the box and outside the box. I also included how I have the limit switches wired as in series NC. I have also added a screen shot of my input settings changing a few limits to a green check for active low and also of the diagnostic screen after making the change. There are no input lights on the AXBB-E that are lit and when i engage the limit switch nothing happens. Which I don't understand because the E-stop works just fine, I can press it and it stops, release it and hit the MAch reset button and its good to go. Here is the instructions from page 25 of the AXBB-E manual that I followed to wire the limit/home switches. "The other way is to connect the positive power supply rail +24V to one side of the NC switch and
connect the other side of the NC switch to the positive input screw terminal of the AXBB-E and
connect the 0V (24V0) to the negative input screw terminal of the AXBB-E." If I understood it correctly, this is how I wired the inputs on the AXBB-E,see the sketch below. Again I am severely lost on this one.

[fsli]

There are no input lights on the AXBB-E that are lit and when i engage the limit switch nothing happens.

That would tell me that you have a wiring problem. There's an LED indicator on the AXBB-E for each of the input pins, and those LEDs will tell you what the input pin is seeing (again, ignore Mach3 for now). Since you say the eStop is working, you should be able to confirm that the LED associated with the eStop input pin goes on and off according to the position of that switch.

You need to take a multimeter and start looking for the problem in your wiring. If the LED for the input pin isn't lit, then that pretty much guarantees that you're not going to find +24v on that input pin itself until you get the switch wiring correct. Check that +24V is present on the first switch connected to the GX16 (directly from your +24v distribution block), then confirm there's +24v on the NC output of that switch, then the next, and so on. Once you get to the point where +24v goes away, you'll have found the problem.

[gills]

So is the wiring scheme correct to the inputs and to the connector pins?

[gills]

There are no input lights on the AXBB-E that are lit and when i engage the limit switch nothing happens.

That would tell me that you have a wiring problem. There's an LED indicator on the AXBB-E for each of the input pins, and those LEDs will tell you what the input pin is seeing (again, ignore Mach3 for now). Since you say the eStop is working, you should be able to confirm that the LED associated with the eStop input pin goes on and off according to the position of that switch.

You need to take a multimeter and start looking for the problem in your wiring. If the LED for the input pin isn't lit, then that pretty much guarantees that you're not going to find +24v on that input pin itself until you get the switch wiring correct. Check that +24V is present on the first switch connected to the GX16 (directly from your +24v distribution block), then confirm there's +24v on the NC output of that switch, then the next, and so on. Once you get to the point where +24v goes away, you'll have found the problem.

I just put my multimeter pos lead on the connector 24V+ prong and touched the black neg lead to the terminal screw on the I1 + and got 24v, I moved the black lead to the 24V- and got a 24v reading but no led light on the axbb-e.

[fsli]

So is the wiring scheme correct to the inputs and to the connector pins?

Your most recent drawing is correct. That doesn't mean you wired it correctly.

I just put my multimeter pos lead on the connector 24V+ prong and touched the black neg lead to the terminal screw on the I1 + and got 24v, I moved the black lead to the 24V- and got a 24v reading but no led light on the axbb-e.

This part doesn't sound right. Placing the red lead on the +24v prong (coming from your +24v distribution block) and the black lead on the I1+ probe should not get a reading on the multimeter. Your drawing shows that the I1+ pin is the output of the limit switches. In their NC state, the +24v from the prong should just be passed back to the I1+ pin.

The fact that you got a reading that way suggests you have the I1+ and I1- wiring backwards. That would also explain why the LED isn't lit.

[gills]

So is the wiring scheme correct to the inputs and to the connector pins?

Your most recent drawing is correct. That doesn't mean you wired it correctly.

I just put my multimeter pos lead on the connector 24V+ prong and touched the black neg lead to the terminal screw on the I1 + and got 24v, I moved the black lead to the 24V- and got a 24v reading but no led light on the axbb-e.

This part doesn't sound right. Placing the red lead on the +24v prong (coming from your +24v distribution block) and the black lead on the I1+ probe should not get a reading on the multimeter. Your drawing shows that the I1+ pin is the output of the limit switches. In their NC state, the +24v from the prong should just be passed back to the I1+ pin.

The fact that you got a reading that way suggests you have the I1+ and I1- wiring backwards. That would also explain why the LED isn't lit.

I checked the voltage as you said, and I still got 24V. I swapped I1+ and I1- wires and still got 24V. I did however find a loos 24V- wire on my 24V power supply. After I secured it, I plugged the E-stop back in and I swapped the I2- and I2+ and It didn't work. I changed the wiring back and plugged the E-stop back in, and when I engaged the e-stop the LED on the AXBB-E did light up for input 2, and went out we=hen I released the E-stop. I plugged my limit switches back in and it triggered to being engaged as soon as I plugged it in and it lit up on the AXBB-E for input 1, but I could not press the reset button in Mach 3 to release them. I turned the active low setting off and it did the same thing.

[fsli]

I plugged my limit switches back in and it triggered to being engaged as soon as I plugged it in and it lit up on the AXBB-E for input 1

Don't run Mach3 while you're trying to figure out the wiring. The only good thing I'm reading here is that you've got the LED on the AXBB-E to light up.

Looking back at your most recent drawing, I'm concerned that you only show two switches in series connected to the limit GX16. You did connect the X, Y and Z limit switches in series, right?

When the input 1 LED is lit, can you manually toggle each of the three limit switches and get the LED to go out? Then, can you do the same thing with the home switches? Does the input 4 LED get lit up when the switches are in their NC state, and does the LED go out when you manually toggle each of the home switches?

Again, don't work with Mach3 until you've gotten the LEDs on the AXBB-E to show the correct state when the switches are idle and when they're activated.