Reply with QuoteI will be looking forward to the videos and results. Nice job.
Custom X2 Mini Mill CNC Spindle Controller
All,
After struggling for a while with controlling the spindle on my HF Mini Mill, I decided to make my own custom controller. I know there are nice boards offered by vendors but most seem to be bulky and I was a little confused on mixing and matching them for reverse and control.
Goals of the project were as follows:
1. Make it small enough to fit in the original mill controller box for a OEM look.
2. Reverse the Spindle for tapping.
3. Have all inputs/outputs opto-isolated.
4. Use PWM signal to control the speed (0-10v).
5. Power and take an index signal from a proximity sensor.
6. Provide power to the existing fan.
7. Forgot to add, it sends an estop signal from the OEM button also.
One LED is just for power, one LED is for the enable relay and one LED is for the two reversing relays.
Here is the result. As of today, it has passed all testing off the machine with Mach3, USB Smooth Stepper and CNC4PC C25 BOB. I will try to install it in the next week to see how it does. Let me know what you think.
Alex
Similar Threads:
Last edited by aj289; 12-01-2016 at 05:23 PM.
Re: Custom X2 Mini Mill CNC Spindle Controller
I will be looking forward to the videos and results. Nice job.
A lazy man does it twice.
Re: Custom X2 Mini Mill CNC Spindle Controller
I looks Nice. Did it work out ok? You have not let us know yet.
Re: Custom X2 Mini Mill CNC Spindle Controller
That is great. Looking forward to the run test. I am also trying to gain control of my spindle and other stuff on the same HF44991. If you are sharing, I would love to have a copy of the parts list and schematics so I can gain control of my spindle as well. I would be happy to compensate you for your time and efforts on this unit if you plan on going production with it.
I posted a thread on my machine and my intentions and will have to ask some questions as to how to resolve some issues. You should consider dismounting your electronics if you have the room to do so. Makes the machine much slimmer and easier to manipulate.
I hope you are as happy with the results.
Re: Custom X2 Mini Mill CNC Spindle Controller
Deleted
Re: Custom X2 Mini Mill CNC Spindle Controller
First, let me apologize for not being around to follow up on this. I posted the original thread two months after having my first son so I have been pretty tied up. I got the board installed shortly after posting it here and was only able to test it once before having to shelf the project.
From the first test, I can say that it is definitely not nearly ready for regular use. I am not an electrical engineer and it shows. Speed control and tach pulses worked as expected but there were some serious hiccups:
1. My USS kept throwing random, “USS not found,” errors when I would switch the relays. I assume it’s noise and I wanted to test this with a ESS but I don’t have an ESS and I figure I should fix the problem, rather than mask it by isolating.
2. The spindle dir control worked just fine as long as mach was in full control. Hitting the ESTOP while the spindle is on would cause some interesting issues. One of the Mach3 output defaults to one state if the ESTOP is triggered (there’s no way to set it to stay in the current state). So if the ESTOP is triggered while the spindle is active, this pin causes the motor dir relays to immediately switch over causing all kinds of weirdness I can’t even explain. If the spindle is in the default direction, it works ok but if the spindle is in the active direction, there are some problems. I think a hardware delay would work better that the mach software delay but I am just guessing at this point.
3. Another issue is, with item 1 and 2 above, if I get an error while the spindle is running, mach will switch over the dir relay even while there is power to the spindle. You can imagine the load stress caused by switching the leads of a spinning motor immediately.
4. I ended up disconnecting all spindle direction relays to test the rest of the system. Everything else worked well except for random “USS not found” errors coming from mach when I would switch the enable/disable relay. It is unpredictable so I wouldn’t even know where to start. I assume it’s just nose. I have snubber diodes installed on all relays so I’m not sure where to go from there. Maybe I need isolation slots in the board for the high voltage???
Anyway. I would love to get this resolved but I am afraid that I just won’t have the time in the near future. I will gladly offer all the files/schematics/parts list to anyone that is interested in further testing this.
Also, I have 9 more blank PCBs that I can ship to anyone for testing/development.
Re: Custom X2 Mini Mill CNC Spindle Controller
Congratulations.
I am no electrical engineer either. Guess I will have to go to plan B and use the CNC4PC C41 board for speed control. That ties into the motor RPM potentiometer for control of the RPM. I will have to come up with something for reversing the motor though.
Again, congratulations on the birth of your son.
Re: Custom X2 Mini Mill CNC Spindle Controller
Thanks! Yes, the C41 board will be the best bet according to Arturo at CNC4PC. I used the C6 board and it worked well but I could never get the RPM to match my tach readings closely. I had much more accuracy with my PWM speed controller so I assume the C41 will give similar or better results.Originally Posted by New Lathe Man
Re: Custom X2 Mini Mill CNC Spindle Controller
I hope so. I'll find out in a few days. I will have easier access to the mill electronics as I dismounted both the control box and the speed box. So the only electronics I will have on the mill are the motor, RPM pickup, limiting switches, DRO readers, and the stepper motors. I just decided that it was easier to dismount the electronics. I was thinking of using a digital potentiometer instead of the manual one to drive the speed. I should be able to construct a simple reversing board for the motor although it is a lot of effort for just tapping reverse threads. I am trying to come up with more reasons to justify the investment of time and effort to do it. I can see it on a lathe but for a bench-top mill, aside from reverse threading.....
I'm currently building my controller box for 6 axis, 4 on the mill and 2 on the lathe. Two separate power supplies, one for the X, Y, and Z stepper motors and drivers and the second for the A, B, and C stepper motors and drivers using the B and C for the lathe. The A will not be used often so this way, I don't have to run the full electronics package in the controller unit all the time. If I am doing lathe work, just the second PSU is needed. The only time I can see using both at the same time is if I need the A axis on the mill for the rotating table.
Were you able to get the motor to reverse with your board only using that portion of it?
Re: Custom X2 Mini Mill CNC Spindle Controller
Yes, reversing the motor is as simple as reversing the leads which the two power relays took care of. I can't speak for reliability of doing this because I don't know if this motor was designed for the reverse direction and I haven't used it much. In all honesty, I'll probably scrap the reversing option. I really doubt that I'll ever use reverse anyway and it complicates things. The things I make typically don't require much tapping so doing it by hand should be just fine.
Re: Custom X2 Mini Mill CNC Spindle Controller
I see that I made some design errors in this first version. I'll be redesigning it in a smaller package and removing the reversing relays. I may keep the circuitry for the reversing signal and add an output so one day I can add it with a hardware time delay circuit.
Next step, smaller board revision with PWM output, index input, and enable relay only.
Posting Permissions
