Homing

Home Offset

Offsets are a way to change the reported position of a homing operation.

Home Condition

This is where the homing condition is met: current position, index pulse, home switch active, etc.

Motor Home Offset

The motor home offset is the amount (in position units) added to the physical home position that the motor position will report zero.

This quantity is referred to as slave misalignment by the HiCON.

Axis Home Offset

The (Mach 4) axis home offset is the position that Mach 4 will display when the motor is at the home position.

Scenarios

No Home Offsets

When no offsets are employed, the physical location where the homing condition is active is where the Mach 4 will report a motor's position as zero.

After homing an axis, the motor will be at the physical location of the homing condition and Mach will report the current position as 0.0000.

Motor Home Offset

When a motor home offset is configured, the reported motor position of zero is the physical location of the homing condition with the motor home offset added to it.

If move to zero is configured, the motor will move to that position at the end of the homing routine.

After homing an axis with a motor offset of 0.25, the motor will be 0.25 units in the positive direction past the physical location of the homing condition and Mach will report the current position as 0.0000.

Axis Home Offset

When an axis home offset is configured, the reported motor position at the physical location of the homing condition corresponds to the Mach 4 position equal to the axis offset.

If a move to zero is configured, the motor will be commanded to the physical location where the homing condition is active.

An axis home offset might be useful if the physical axis location of zero is not actually reachable by the axis, but the physical location is useful as a reference point.