Limit switches / on or off

Yes I did try that,I tried each switch and the report came back the same Idle,MPos:0.000,0.000,0.000 I tried changing the limit switch wires where they connect to the G shield and that worked and I can home the machine now which is great, how do I find how much noise I have if any, maybe I don’t need to get shielded wire, or would it be better if I do

The pin readout is 000|| , when I open UGCS to send a command every time the alarm is on and I have to send the command $x . to unlock it, why does the alarm keep coming back

You have the homing function turned on. The alarm is there because you have told grbl you are going to home the machine, but you haven’t homed it yet. When homing is complete then grbl will clear the alarm.

It is that way to protect you from yourself if you forget to home the machine. You can use $X, but then you have bypassed grbl’s protections.

The other alternative is to turn the homing function off (not recommended) and grbl will start without the alarm.

You can’t use UGCS to send the ? command. You have to use a different method like the Arduino IDE Serial Monitor.

Thank you for your help Larry, I will leave the homing function turned on, and I have been using Arduino IDE Serial Monitor to send the ? command, so do I home the machine everytime first if it is not already homed, and how do I find out if I have a noise problem as I need to get my wiring sorted out, I have ordered the Xcontroller which should tidy the wiring up a lot, I do not like the pins on the Gshield, they are very flimsy.

Yes.

The noise issue depends a lot on how you intend to run your machine once you’ve got it adjusted and tuned to your satisfaction.

I recommend homing and soft limits. If you run your machine in this configuration the only time you need to worry about noise is when you are running the homing cycle. With soft limits turned on, the only time the switches are used is during the homing cycle and after that is complete, then the switches are ignored (with hard limits off).

The way that you know if you have unacceptable noise is if your homing cycle doesn’t complete properly, but stops before you have reached the homing switches.

If your machine homes properly, every time, then you don’t have to worry about noise.

It is a different, but similar issue if you don’t use soft limits, but have hard limits turned on. Then you might get an alarm during your carve from noise on the switches.

It is not as prevalent if you use the X controller as it has some filtering on the homing switch connections.

Thank’s Larry, I will do as you said and run with homing and soft limits turned on, I will try and get soft limits working today, I will leave the wiring as it is for now and check that is is homing properly each time, if I do have an issue with noise then I will replace the limit switch wire with shielded wire, I will have to add a lenght of stepper motor cable to one of the Y motors as in the instructions

Okay all done, soft start enabled, whenI open UGCS and click open, the alarm comes on again even though it is homed and when I give the command $h it goes off again, is this normal

@PatrickDunne

Maybe there is a terminology problem here. If you power up your machine and you have not done a $H command then it is not “homed”.

What do you mean when you say that the machine is homed?

I was homing it in Easel, .and when it was in the home position I left it there and then went to UGCS, I think I understand it now, I will jusr use UGCS and home with $H each time

Thank you Phil, I understand it now, one software at a time, I do intend to get Ccarve pro and use UGCS when I get more experienced

move it off the limit n the machine will reconnect