Root 3 CNC - Endstops Overview

Implementing endstops is where my Root 3 project was originally put on pause, so an argument could be made that I spent 18 months working them.  In reality it wasn't quite that long, but upon project restart I did spend a lot longer than I would have guessed at making the endstops behave.  Rather than trying to squeeze everything into one long post, I'll be breaking this topic up into a few component parts.

Note that everything I document is actually the second pass at building a solution.  For the first pass, I followed the standard Root 3 design and attempted to solder everything into a DB9 connector on the project control panel.  This resulted in a mess that never really worked reliably.  Apparently soldering 9 22awg wires into a DB9 connector is very tedious and prone to error if your soldering skills are rusty like mine...

Since I also wanted to run both min and max endstops for each axis in a "normally-closed" configuration, I decided to take a step back and design a different approach using DB9 breakout connectors and a breadboard soldering panel (see below).  This is completely over-engineered, but after my first DB9 soldering pass failed, I wanted to ensure success on the second pass.

CNC Endstop Panel

Electronics Cabinet Endstop Panel