Do the Chinese lasers usually have limit switches?

[bill.french]

... and if so, are they just at "home" or both sides? (Hopefully my question makes some kind of sense...)

[TLHarrell]

Mine just has the two homing switches. They are not used as limits either. It is possible to bang the axis into either end, causing steppers to lose steps on both X and Y.

[Gadroc]

What class and kind of "chinese laser" are you referring to. If you are referring to the really cheap K40 type machines then they typically only have home limit switches. I can't speak to the step up machines which have a DSP controller designed in.

[twehr]

Mine just has the two homing switches. They are not used as limits either. It is possible to bang the axis into either end, causing steppers to lose steps on both X and Y.

If you have home switches, then they are your limit switches (x0,y0). If your head is able to bang into it, your deceleration rate is too slow or the switches are not communicating properly with the controller.

[bill.french]

Cool, thanks. I'm rebuilding an older Full Spectrum Laser unit.

So, now I have to figure out how to configure EMC2 to work with the switches. How does it generally work, once I get it set up with the right pins?

I imagine there's something in EMC2 where i push a button and the laser head moves to home, and emc recognizes that as home?

[TLHarrell]

If you have home switches, then they are your limit switches (x0,y0). If your head is able to bang into it, your deceleration rate is too slow or the switches are not communicating properly with the controller.

I have run a rastering job where the X-axis home switch was being tripped on each sweep to the left. It continued normally, did not hit the end of the axis, and completed the job without stopping or dropping steps. I have also crashed the axis on that side while rastering. It merely drops the rest of the steps and continues on it's merry way with the image suddenly shifted to the right. Sounds ugly as heck too.

There are no limit switches on the other ends of the axis.

Unit homes right to both switches slowly and zeroes out. The switches do not seem to be used for a limit, just for homing.