Issue with Z limit switch except when initialising machine?

Hi, I have a weird issue that has happened after installing an 80mm spindle with the gas piston. I havent used the machine in a long time before this.

Machine initialises well and I can see it touch the z limit back and forth while inititialisng. However, after that, the machine doesnt seem to use the z limit anymore. It will straight up go to the top and vibrate, indicating it is trying to go past the limit.

This happens whenever I use the bitsetter or whenever a cut operation is done and the machine attempts to park. The fact that it initialises fine is what really stumps me about this problem.

I am on carbide motion 640

The switches only work as homing switches, they are not enabled as limit switches (doing so would require shielded wiring to eliminate false positives, adding additional switches at the distal ends of X- and Y-axes at a minimum, and enabling them).

If you will let us know step-by-step:

  • what you did
  • what you expected
  • what actually happened

and post photos or better still a video we will do our best to look into this with you.

During initialization the internal coordinates are set. The jog function limits how far you can jog your machine and it will stop at the limits. However when running gcode there are no safety limits and your machine will try to go where it is commanded. Eventually you will hit the mechanical stops and start losing steps.

If your Z is hitting the mechanical stop at t he top check what your retract height is when you create your .c2d file in CC. Most people want a minimal retract height because the higher the retract height the longer your file takes to cut. So there is a maximum amount of Z range so the height of your project plus your retract height has to be less than the maximum Z range. If you exceed the maximum Z range you will get the grinding at the top and you need to stop your project because you have lost steps and your project will not cut properly from that point on

The interesting thing is that all the height limits are being hit by the built-in features such as bitsetter and the machine park at the end of the c2d file

What I did:
1/ Initialise machine
2/ Load tool with bitsetter

What I expect
1/ Machine to not hit the z limit

What happened
1/ Machine hit the Z limi

This same thing happens at the end of a project when the machine asks to turn off the spindle, I press ok, and it lifts the z axis up all the way.

You can see the video here: IMG_8105.mp4 - Google Drive

Can you upload a video that shows what the machine is doing from a front view?

Come to think about it. Maybe I have my Spindle mounted too high on the Z axis, so when the built-in retracts attempt to lift, it hits the limit

From the angle you show it looks like the tool bit is sticking out quite a bit, not sure from the angle your showing.

It looks as if you used the lower hole mounts — we recommend using the middle ones for a VFD.

A further suggestion is to load the shortest tool you plan on using, then positioning the machine over a Hybrid T-track and then lower the spindle in the mount until the tip of the tool just touches the top of the aluminum.

The SO5 Pro configures based on recognizing the controller, so it shouldn’t be possible for configuration to be wrong.

If you still have trouble, let us know at support@carbide3d.com and we’ll have someone look into this with you.

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