Spindle speed wierdness

[dwessels]

Hi,

I have had some challenges getting spindle speed control working correctly for my mill.
My mill is an X3 with a CNC4PC C11G break out board and Mach 3.
The speed control is wired as per:
http://cnc4pc.com/Tech_Docs/C11G_&_S...0storybook.pdf

The problem I am having is that the spindle doesn’t start unless I have the speed set to 2000rpm or higher. The range for my spindle is 1000 rpm – 3100 rpm and I have the pulleys set to 1000rpm (low) 3100rpm (high.)

I have tested the voltages coming off of the speed control on the C11G and I see 10.95 volts at the 3100 rpm and about 3.2 volts at 1000 rpm.

What seems to happen is that the relay to turn on the spindle doesn’t switch (you can hear it click) until about 6.5v or about 2000rpm. You have to set tie spindle to higher than 2000rpm to get it to start spinning. Once it is spinning, you can then slow it all the way down to 1000rpm.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Denzil

[bharbour]

Hi Denzil,
It sounds like the speed control voltage (0-10V) is also powering a run relay. I looked at the schematic pointed to in your message and did not see anything obvious. It looked like there is a direction control relay on the BOB and the spindle starts and stops based on the 0-10V control voltage. I would have expected a run/stop circuit as well as the direction and the speed control voltage circuits.

Is the relay that you hear clicking when you up the speed on the speed control board or the BOB?

Are there any schematics available on the spindle speed control board?

BobH

[dwessels]

Hi Denzil,
It sounds like the speed control voltage (0-10V) is also powering a run relay. I looked at the schematic pointed to in your message and did not see anything obvious. It looked like there is a direction control relay on the BOB and the spindle starts and stops based on the 0-10V control voltage. I would have expected a run/stop circuit as well as the direction and the speed control voltage circuits.

Is the relay that you hear clicking when you up the speed on the speed control board or the BOB?

Are there any schematics available on the spindle speed control board?

BobH

Yes, the clicking is the relay on the BOB (pin16). The strange thing is that the relay only clicks at the 6.5v threshold... I have the relay (dir) on the spindle set to pin16 (see http://cnc4pc.com/Tech_Docs/C11G54WG.pdf)
I thought the DIR pin would always be on if the spindle is spinning CW, and doesn't trigger based on speed...?

Step is pin14, which is the speed control on the BOB.
Under motor tuning, I have "Steps per" set to 1000, "Velocity" set to 1900 (i have tried other number, including max) and "Step pulse" and "Dir pulse" set to 0.

The manual has a little information about the speed control as well.
http://cnc4pc.com/Tech_Docs/C11GR7_1_User_Manual.pdf
Section 6.2

Thanks again for your help.

Denzil

[bharbour]

Hi Denzil,
I went to the CNC4PC and the Grizzly web sites (apparently Grizzly sells a re-badged Seig X3 as the G0463) and looked at the docs. From the Grizzly manual, it looks like the spindle will not be reversable under computer control. If that is the case, then the relay is the spindle stop/start control, and you will reverse the spindle by setting the fwd/rev switch manually while the motor is stopped.

The CNC4PC storybook on the X3 mentions using their mill.xml file to pull in the setup. Did you use CNC4PC's file?

Is there any chance that you have the step and direction lines for the spindle swapped in the Mach setup page?

Is there any chance that one of the other outputs in the Mach setup page is also set to pin 14?

Which revision of the C11G do you have? it looks like they vary a good bit depending on the revision.

Do you have anything set to output 8? Some revisions use that output to control the mechanical relay. I think that the relay needs to be closed for the spindle to run.

BobH

[dwessels]

Hi Denzil,
I went to the CNC4PC and the Grizzly web sites (apparently Grizzly sells a re-badged Seig X3 as the G0463) and looked at the docs. From the Grizzly manual, it looks like the spindle will not be reversable under computer control. If that is the case, then the relay is the spindle stop/start control, and you will reverse the spindle by setting the fwd/rev switch manually while the motor is stopped.

The CNC4PC storybook on the X3 mentions using their mill.xml file to pull in the setup. Did you use CNC4PC's file?

Is there any chance that you have the step and direction lines for the spindle swapped in the Mach setup page?

Is there any chance that one of the other outputs in the Mach setup page is also set to pin 14?

Which revision of the C11G do you have? it looks like they vary a good bit depending on the revision.

Do you have anything set to output 8? Some revisions use that output to control the mechanical relay. I think that the relay needs to be closed for the spindle to run.

BobH

Thanks Bob.

I got it working...
I couldn't find anything strange, so I decided to start again with another XML file and configure mach3 from scratch... and this time it was working.

I am going to do a diff on the two xml files to see what I can see different.

Thanks again for your help.

Denzil