Well, dear, if you know the answer to the original question, why don't you post it rather than engaging in your favorite brand of loudmouthism?

I'm not here to help people that go around insulting others, but I'm certainly not going to let those people (you) misinform folks on a subject as dangerous as electricity.

Don9mm wrote:

The purpose of a ground is to prevent electrical shock and is included for safety reasons.

This is massively incorrect as a broad statement. It is correct for household AC wiring. It is not correct for PCB/electronics wiring.

Don9mm wrote:

Normally your ground wires would be attached to any metal parts in such a way that everything is eventually attached to that bare copper wire discussed above on light switches.

Again, correct for AC (mains) wiring, incorrect for low voltage DC wiring.

Well, dear, if you know the answer to the original question, why don't you post it rather than engaging in your favorite brand of loudmouthism?

Don9mm wrote:

The purpose of a ground is to prevent electrical shock and is included for safety reasons.

This is massively incorrect as a broad statement. It is correct for household AC wiring. It is not correct for PCB/electronics wiring.

Don9mm wrote:

Normally your ground wires would be attached to any metal parts in such a way that everything is eventually attached to that bare copper wire discussed above on light switches.

Again, correct for AC (mains) wiring, incorrect for low voltage DC wiring.

+1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_(electricity)
It covers a lot, some relevant, some not, but at least clarifies that grounding has a lot of angles other than just power systems & safety, and can be quite a complicated matter!

The purpose of a ground is to prevent electrical shock and is included for safety reasons.

This is massively incorrect as a broad statement. It is correct for household AC wiring. It is not correct for PCB/electronics wiring.

Again, correct for AC (mains) wiring, incorrect for low voltage DC wiring.

"For example, if you were to ask how to wire a light switch (something I do know how to do), I would not tell you that you don't have any business wiring a light switch if you haven't been to electrician's school. I would tell you to connect the black wires to the brass colored screws, the white wires to the black (common) screw, and the ground wire (bare copper or green) to the green screw, which is the ground."
You quoted this as something you know how to do and I believe you do and simply are confusing a common outlet's wiring for a switch.  Last I checked (for a light switch) the only wires that go to the switch are the black (line in) and the black (line out) the white is neutral and tied to each other with a wire nut.  The ground does go to the little green screw.
Way off the point though and again I'm willing to help if you'd like.
I understand what your saying about a switch being a switch it just closes a circuit. In this case you have two switches in one convenient package.  Depending on how you connect the wires you can be either turning on the light when you hit the switch or the light could always be on until you hit the switch at which point the light would go off.  Does that make sense?

Your comparison of a light switch is not applicable here as your (Do you mean "you're" as in "you are"?) not wiring a house.

The ONLY thing a switch does is turn something on or off. In ANY electrical circuit, that is accomplished by completing or interrupting a circuit. It doesn't matter if the switch is connected to a light, firmware or a rocket to the moon. There are ONLY two choices: on or off.

I'll take your word for it that you were, in good faith, trying to be helpful, if you will pardon me for not finding it so. In a round about way you did help me cut through the smoke and mirrors and get back to basics: A switch is a switch and they're basically all wired the same way. I gather a lot of folks don't bother grounding the switches, which probably isn't a good idea considering the amount of flexing printer wiring is subjected to, but the switch will work as long as you never get a wiring failure that causes a short.

There is no promise of any instructions; and it directs you to the buildlog.net forums for assistance by people far more intimate with the platform.

it seems to me being able to check for continuity should be a prerequisite for building a printer

Well, I suppose opinions vary. It seems to me that including wiring diagrams and instructions should be a prerequisite to selling printer kits to the general public.

Let's be serious. The ONLY reason one would need to test what is essentially a simple on/off switch is ignorance. As already noted above, each pin is labeled. I wasn't sure what the labels mean, and from your response, I gather you don't either. As there are, however, quite a few people who have built these kits, there is no doubt in my mind that there are those who do not share our mutual ignorance and happen to know the answer to what is a fairly simple question.

For example, if you were to ask how to wire a light switch (something I do know how to do), I would not tell you that you don't have any business wiring a light switch if you haven't been to electrician's school. I would tell you to connect the black wires to the brass colored screws, the white wires to the black (common) screw, and the ground wire (bare copper or green) to the green screw, which is the ground.

How hard is that?!

I asked a simple question and it's starting to sound like a joke about how many whatevers does it take to screw in a lightbulb.

As near as I can figure at the moment, it's the goofy labeling and goofy terms folks sling about, such as "normally open" and "normally closed" that's throwing me off. If "gnd" means what it normally means, that pin is a ground that is not part of the circuit. The purpose of a ground is to prevent electrical shock and is included for safety reasons. Normally your ground wires would be attached to any metal parts in such a way that everything is eventually attached to that bare copper wire discussed above on light switches. The reason it's called a "ground" is because that's where it goes - into the ground. If you get a short somewhere in your appliance - any appliance - the current travels through the ground wire into the ground, instead of through you into the ground.

Assuming the above accounts for the pin labeled "gnd", which in this case happens to be the middle pin, that leaves one pin labeled "out" and one labeled "vcc". If the switch works the way switches normally do, it's dumb to label them that way and it doesn't make a speck of difference if the switch is "normally open" or "normally closed" any more than it does if the lights in your home are "normally on" or "normally off". All a switch does is turns things on or off. Polarity doesn't make any difference, so there's no sane reason to label the fool things differently on either side and it doesn't make any difference which of the two wires in the circuit go to which of the two pins on the board.

Does that about cover it?

IronMan wrote:

In most cases, you want the 2 leads that are read NC (normally closed) from the switch to be the wires that go to the 2 pins on the board.  Use a continuity tester on the switch to I.D. these...

Ummm... there are evidently two approaches to this sort of thing. One is to use a tool I don't own and would have to spend time learning how to use if I bought one, to probe the mysteries of circuits I don't currently understand.

The second approach is to look at a switch that's marked "vcc", "gnd" and "out", then run a wire from each of those three points to three presumably known destinations elsewhere. Once those destinations are identified, the connections are made and it's a done deal.

While I'm generally open to learning new things when I have time to study them, at the moment, I'm primarily just interested in learning the second method. Thanks.

I can appreciate what your saying but it seems to me being able to check for continuity should be a prerequisite for building a printer.  You can wire endstops either way and both only use two wires so your left with an unused pin. On the switch usually that's the middle pin and one of the outer pins.  One for NC (normally closed) or the other for (normally open).  If you need more clarification on the difference or help with the use of a continuity tester or multi-meter just ask and I'll be happy to go into more detail.

Some other more experienced members please correct me if I am wrong!

In most cases, you want the 2 leads that are read NC (normally closed) from the switch to be the wires that go to the 2 pins on the board.  Use a continuity tester on the switch to I.D. these...

Ummm... there are evidently two approaches to this sort of thing. One is to use a tool I don't own and would have to spend time learning how to use if I bought one, to probe the mysteries of circuits I don't currently understand.

The second approach is to look at a switch that's marked "vcc", "gnd" and "out", then run a wire from each of those three points to three presumably known destinations elsewhere. Once those destinations are identified, the connections are made and it's a done deal.

While I'm generally open to learning new things when I have time to study them, at the moment, I'm primarily just interested in learning the second method. Thanks.

Mechanical Endstops
MechSwitches 2Wire.JPG

The recommended firmware will provide a configuration to use mechanical endstops with just two wires.
Find the area labelled "endstops" in the upper right corner of the board and for each of the X, Y, and Z pairs of pins (label should be below each set) do the following:
Connect S (top row, labelled to the left) on RAMPS to NC on the switch.
Connect GND on RAMPS to C on the switch.
Note: The latest firmware such as Marlin seems to use NO as the default pin on the switch. Otherwise you may need to invert the endstops in the firmware. You can use M119 to check your endstops status.

http://reprap.org/wiki/RAMPS_1.4

NO would be fine too, you can just check the status as indicated to see if you get a "Triggered" echo...

EDIT:  The condition cited above seems to be heavily preferred from the research I've done, but in fact, I happen to be using a NO configuration due to the pre-wired plugs that came with the switches...

Cheers!

In most cases, you want the 2 leads that are read NC (normally closed) from the switch to be the wires that go to the 2 pins on the board.  Use a continuity tester on the switch to I.D. these...

As a soon to be hadron builder this would be opposite of how the SD's work.  So what are you using for firmware?