Spindle control in Mach

[BigDon]

Hey guys I was wondering before I wire up everything if some one had any opinions. I am starting to get the wiring done for my new cnc. I will be using a Tekno Electrospindle and Mach3 or 4 for control. I can either wire it to a relay to turn on and off the spindle with speed control on the vfd or wire the vfd to Mach for control. I think it would be easier to wire just a relay to shut it off when done but my question is do you find roughing in one speed and clean up passes in another speed necessary? Or does everyone just run wide open?
I know, I know, I could try it both ways, do my own testing and so on but I am trying to save a little time and headache :smile:

Thanks for any help!

 

[conetip]

The machine I am getting, also helped to make it originally, uses the VFD. Mach3 talks to the vfd and sets the rpm. That way you have spindle feed per rev that you want.
There is lots of ways to do this.
Neil

 

[GBCues]

There's some good information here that may help:

http://www.soigeneris.com/Document/Gecko/Using_the%20Gecko_G540_VFD_Output.pdf

Gary

 

[RBC]

Are you talking about the milling spindle on/off and speed?

Or are you talking about the lathe spindle speed?

If it's milling, I would just use Mach3 to turn it on and off, and manually adjust the VFD for spindle speed. Most inlay work is usually done at the same speed anyway.

If it's the lathe spindle, it gets more complicated. Turning it on and off is easy, but when it comes to controlling the lathe speed you need some more parts.

It sounds like you're talking about the milling spindle, so it should be pretty easy.

What controller are you using?


Royce

 

[BigDon]

Thanks Guys! Gary that looks like some good reading. I will check it out.

Royce, yes the milling spindle. I was thinking of just putting in a relay to power off the spindle when I get to the end of a run unless there is an easier way. The only thing I was thinking was if anyone was having any luck or forced to hog out with one speed and clean up with a faster speed. Is there any reason to have to have Mach bump the speed or just crank up the Electrospindle and let the Big Dog eat? I will be using the new Leadshine MX4660

 

[RBC]

Thanks Guys! Gary that looks like some good reading. I will check it out.

Royce, yes the milling spindle. I was thinking of just putting in a relay to power off the spindle when I get to the end of a run unless there is an easier way. The only thing I was thinking was if anyone was having any luck or forced to hog out with one speed and clean up with a faster speed. Is there any reason to have to have Mach bump the speed or just crank up the Electrospindle and let the Big Dog eat? I will be using the new Leadshine MX4660

Donnie

I'm not that familiar with the Leadshine products. Does it use a "chargepump"?

The reason I ask is this. If you use a standard parallel port output to turn your spindle on and off, and you don't have it run through a break out board that uses a chargepump for safety, then you could have an unintended spindle activation.

A chargepump is a signal that Mach3 outputs to tell the controller that Mach3 is working and in control. A good controller will use this to ensure that nothing gets turned on unless Mach is in control. Like a spindle.

You can certainly work without one, but you need to be aware of it. I've wired relays directly to the parallel port before, and what I did was to make sure that Mach was up and running before I turned on any power to the control. If you're spindle has a VFD, then you can just wait to turn it on until after Mach is up and running.

Royce