Mach3 E-stops when spindle starts

conetip

conetip

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
In another thread last year I mentioned about these spindles.Well my friend finally got his machine going last night. It is very sweet using the water cooled spindle.
He has had some problems with the controller board controlling the spindle on/off and speed. Seems the board is not outputting the correct controller voltage. So he is just using the VFD manually. It all seems fine so far.At 18k it is very quite and smooth.

For the cooling, he has a submersible fish pond pump. The coolant is 25% glycol and 75% distilled water . The tap water here is chlorine treated and has a high mineral content. The tank capacity at the moment is 5 litre but can be increased if needed.The tubing at the moment is flexible PVC.

When the spindle is started the Mach3 goes into E-stop.
When the spindle was not connected to the machine last night on testing the spindle could be started etc and all the axis moved and all was ok.
Now that the spindle is connected to the Z axis, when the spindle is started,the software of Mach3 goes into E-stop.
Everything is earthed like it was in the earlier tests when the spindle was not on the machine.
I suggested that the spindle be insulated with mylar between the spindle and the spindle clamp and then try it.
I did notice that the AM radio in the background was only outputting static.
With my Fluke multimeter are the following,
Earth to the machine is 0.2 ohms running or not.
Earth to the machine when running is 0.02v ac
Earth to the machine when not running is showing 0.001v

We are open to any suggestions or settings that some may have come across with Mach3 or with routers using these type of spindles.

Thanks for any constructive ideas.

I still plan on getting a spindle for a work project.
Neil
 
Neil

Make sure you have all the cables and wiring from the VFD and the Spindle routed completely separate from your cnc system wiring. VFD's are very noisy and can cause lots of strange things to happen with Mach3.

Jim Babcock built a machine using one of these spindles and was able to use Mach for on and off of the spindle with no problems. He did use a different VFD though.

I have one of these setups as well, but haven't put it on a machine yet so I don't have any practical experience myself.
 
I used one of these spindles with a speedmaster vfd. it took some tweeking. I'd suggest contacting someone at Mach3. My thoughts are that you need to change a setting in mach 3. I do remember a time, when my spindle was doing the same thing, however , i don't remember what exactly what it was, but it was in mach3.

You may have the spindle coming on at too high of a speed, set it to come on lower and ramp it up manually. If you have it coming on a full speed , it will not power up at all in mach3
 
Last edited:
E-stop is an input signal.

Neil, E-stop is an actual input signal into your printer port. If you are not using a smooth stepper or any other USB interface then you want to set a de-bounce on your inputs. This will not allow some noise to trigger E-stop. Check your general configuration in Mach 3. You will find the de-bounce field at the top right corner of this page. Set your debounce intervals to 5 and see if this helps. You can play around with this setting. What it does is not allow the E-stop signal to trip unless the signal has been in the trigger state for more than .2 seconds (5 x 40 milli seconds). Most noise is just a spike and short term. Can you tell us how you guys are connected to turn on and off the spindle, this could be where the noise is coming from as well. I cheated on the setup I used. I used a deepgroove box and ran my two wires from the VFD to the output relay keeping the VFD isolated from the output of the Gecko G540.

Jim.
 
Mc2 said:
Neil, E-stop is an actual input signal into your printer port. If you are not using a smooth stepper or any other USB interface then you want to set a de-bounce on your inputs. This will not allow some noise to trigger E-stop. Check your general configuration in Mach 3. You will find the de-bounce field at the top right corner of this page. Set your debounce intervals to 5 and see if this helps. You can play around with this setting. What it does is not allow the E-stop signal to trip unless the signal has been in the trigger state for more than .2 seconds (5 x 40 milli seconds). Most noise is just a spike and short term. Can you tell us how you guys are connected to turn on and off the spindle, this could be where the noise is coming from as well. I cheated on the setup I used. I used a deepgroove box and ran my two wires from the VFD to the output relay keeping the VFD isolated from the output of the Gecko G540.

Jim.
Click to expand...

Neil, I would also make sure everything is shielded. Don't buy a $10 printer cable. Get a good shielded industrial quality cable. Same for the other cables. Make sure the VFD and the computer are not near each other. I'd certainly start with the suggestions Jim made but even if they resolved the problem I would still make sure all my components are isolated. I'd also buy a good power protector to keep a steady signal, protect against brown-outs, power surges, etc...
 
All the machine wiring is shielded and earthed, still no improvement.
Disabled the estop in mach3 to pin0
This has made all the home switches and limits work as they should as well as the spindle control. All seems ok except there is no estop.
Still have to do the testing of cutting a circle, cutting pockets and assessing the XYZ axis movement and accuracy.
Have not found why there is an estop problem.
Neil
 
Just an update,

Some parts have been made on the router yesterday. I just can't get over how quiet the router is at 15k cutting wood with a 12mm cutter. The air compressor makes way more noise.
My friend is looking at getting bigger motors for the axis as well as a smooth stepper.
Max feed rate was only 1850 mm/min just under 73 inches/min.

It is working without an estop , so will look to correcting that when the new board and motors arrive.

But it is making parts.

When a video is done I will share the link.
Neil

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tugVy_rD1Ds

Glens 1st part test , a beehive part
 
Last edited:
Just had a similar problem. Only difference is that I use flashcut instead of Mach 3. Solution was simple, just had to put the router on a different circuit breaker.
 
Oh yes....

dunkelcustomcue said:
Just had a similar problem. Only difference is that I use flashcut instead of Mach 3. Solution was simple, just had to put the router on a different circuit breaker.
Click to expand...

Most VFD's recommend that you use an independent circuit for them...

I have a teco that I use for the lathe that I designed and built. It specifically states in the manual to use it on it's OWN circuit...

Jaden
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top