Right, I am getting really confused now....

The guy in the mach3 video (that sent me to sleep) talking about limits and home switch's shows mach with 4 limit switch's wired (2 axis) and then goes through the mach3 configuration, can't remember how many inputs he has them wired to. I will watch it again and try and stay awake this time, see if I missed something.

He uses the limit switch's as overtravel limits but also as home switch's, one limit switch doing both jobs. When he press's the machine ref button on the screen the axis jog one at a time to the limit then jog off then auto zero (if you have set auto zero function). Then he goes into how to set up soft limits, looks straightforward and exactly what I want.

Surely it would not matter which overtravel limit switch it hit as long as it stops, the soft limits should cut in before the actual limit switch's as the limit switch's should only be your last line of defence before the machine decides to break itself. You should be able to see which switch has been activated and sort it accordingly.

I want to get them on before my lad starts using the machine, safety first and all that!

Tell you what, instead of ranting on about it, tonight I will mount some switch's on my machine and try it for myself.

SO...

Forget about the wiring and configuration for a min, what switch's have you tried and work well? Got some of those honeywell ones (pic above) but they are a bit big for the Y and Z axis, should be ok for the X though.