proximity sensor weirdness

[metabot]

hi there.. new Desktop Shopbot user here…

I'm having trouble getting the C3 command to work in a sensible manner. I'm actually not sure what exactly it's supposed to do or how I set the sensors in relation to the 0,0 point I established.

What I do know is that the C3 command has never resulted in travel in both the X and Y directions. All that happens is the spindle travels quickly all the way to the left, stops and then travels back to the right but only an inch or two past center and then it stops and slowly travels back to about an inch or two to the right of where it first stopped (from the left side of the table). Then the whole process stops. The spindle never travels to the true left and right limits of X and there is no Y movement at all.

I can't tell if the problem is the sensors, software settings or my own understanding of what the C3 command is supposed to do… Any ideas?

[adrianm]

If it's the same as the big machines you first need to run the ShopBot Setup routine to set everything up.

Once that has been done when you run the C3 routine the Y axis should move until the sensor triggers. It should then back off and move slowly back to the sensor and stop again.

This is then repeated for the X axis.

Once all that has finished the X and Y should move to the 0,0 specified (via offsets from where the sensors are) when the setup routine was run.

[metabot]

Thanks Adrian.. but I figured it out (at least partially)... apparently the margins in the setup routine can't be set at -12.5 and -9.5 to specify the 0,0 in the center of the table. That is why I was getting this error. Once I set the margins in the setup routine to -5, -5.. everything worked like a charm - except of course, my 0,0 was in the lower left. Now I need to figure out how to get my 0,0 in the center of the table using the prox switches. Maybe that's for a different thread though..

[adrianm]

Strange. I can set them to whatever I want without problems via the setup program.

You could try editing them into the file directly if the routine won't let you.

c:\sbparts\custom\my_variables.sbc

[garyc]

Any chance tht the table base coordiates are off, or limits are whacky?

Check both and set to acomodate your parameters.

OR:
C3 to the normal 0,0 corner (with the .5 rollback)
J2,9,12
Z2