odd/nonexistant homing behavior

Indeed. I think there is something weird going on that is unrelated to the encoder.

Hence the suggestion to either short-circuit or monitor the stepgen..feedback

I'm not sure, if I don't recall reading somewhere where there was a bug in someone's hm2 firmware that caused a stepgen (or encoder counter) to not work right if there was only one configured, it worked when 2 were configured. Also if you want an encoder you need to have it configured for one. What happens if you change this part of your ini from: to

That certainly would make sense. There is only one encoder available in my bit file. My mesa config reads like your second example. I suspected all along the bit file or driver was f@#kd, as i get endless goofy unrelated errors and the ssi is all hosed up. Im gonna have to bug PCW some for a new bit file with a couple more encoders.

I really do appreciate everyone's help. I make an effort to be thorough before asking. I have a working rspi3 image I would be happy to share, it is 4gigs. If some one can tell me how/where to upload it, its available. I can also provide the 7i90 spi settings to get a rspi3/7i90 combo up and working in a couple hours.

My undersanding is that there are a number of bugs related to rspi3 and spi. There has been a lot of discussion on the subject on the Linuxcnc mailing list. I believe that just to day someone put out new drivers and what not for it there. My personal opinion is the whole lot is far from ready for general consumption.
sourceforge.net/p/emc/mailman/emc-users/...arg.org/#msg35872514

I do not have any rspi boards, and I have no plans to acquire one any time soon.

Thank you for the link. Im on that.

The offer was for anyone who is interested in trying this out. There are ALOT of requests on this forum as how to get this combo working. It is not perfect, it is a work in progress. Good bad or indifferent, computers are getting smaller. In a few years that Atom board is gonna be as archaic as a paper tape reader. Would i try to run a big machining center with this?
No, but for a small simple machine, it has promise. It takes some effort to figure it out, why not share? In a couple years, these mini computers will be capable. Take a look at the size of a Fanuc 31i......its already.
The idea is to keep moving forward.....

Ok, the driver was just upgraded and PCW says the single encoder issue was fixed 6 years ago. I have the same issue I had before , the Y axis will not search for home. Has anyone had any ideas about this?

Homing is a "joint thing". Is the joint associated with your Y axis configured with a home sequence and search velocities?

It is. It acts as though home_velocity is set to zero. Where ever the axis was parked when the machine was powered down is where lcnc sets home when it is powered up. It will not search for home. I should prob make a video.

attached is a video of this screwy homing issue and my files. Please take a look...... Thanks