Rotary axes homing

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22 Oct 2026 21:44 - 22 Oct 2026 21:46 #350420 by tuxcnc
Rotary axes homing was created by tuxcnc
I think I can configure it myself, but I decided to start this topic because, firstly, maybe someone has a ready-made solution, and secondly, it may be useful to someone else.

Well, I bought a Chinese rotary axis. It is of good quality and works properly, but the designer did not provide homing limit switches.
I decided to add them in such a way as to interfere with the original structure as little as possible.
I came up with an idea that if you cleverly place miniature inductive sensors, they can work with small pieces of metal attached to moving elements, while the sensors themselves will be attached to a stationary base.
I fiddled with it a bit and it worked.
The video shows a complete makeshift, the elements are attached with double-sided tape, and the Chinese TL-W3MC1 sensors work with plates from a canned food can. Of course, ultimately it needs to be done better.

As you can see, the B axis (tilt) is referenced first, then it is set at the appropriate angle relative to the sensors (in this case +90 deg from machine zero), and only then the A axis (rotary table) is referenced. No special combinations are needed here, just set the HOME, HOME_OFFSET and HOME_SEQUENCE parameters correctly in the ini file.

As I wrote above and as you can see in the video, it works properly, but there is a problem that needs to be solved.
Well, everything is fine when we base all axes at once.
If we try to reference only the A axis, it will probably fail, because the sensor and the mating metal will be in such positions that they will never come close to each other. Therefore, when homing only the A axis, should be first check whether the B axis is referenced and is in the appropriate position, and then decide whether to perform homing or display an appropriate message instead.
It seems to me that LinuxCNC has the appropriate pins and HAL components to do this, but I haven't thought about the details yet, because I only started this project today and, objectively speaking, I've already done a lot.

If someone would like to help me, that would be nice.
Last edit: 22 Oct 2026 21:46 by tuxcnc.

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