Mach2 & Spindle Motor Relay Glitch

[Liv2fish2]

Hi there,

I am currently running Mach2 with Mach 2 breakout board, parallel port relay board, Gecko drives & servo motors, and GE Automation 240v power relays/contactors on a benchtop mill by CNC Tool & Automation. My mill just started having an issue with the spindle motor control relay tripping on & off randomly, while running a program. This causes a pause in my spindle rotation which then causes damage to my work stock & end mills. I have been talking with Jim Cullins of Sound Logic (maker of Mach breakout boards) and he said to change the debounce to 4000. My initial setting was at 500. I tried this with no success. I turn the machine on, let everything warm up for 5 to 10 minutes, start a program, and BAM! the relays/contactors start slamming on & off and the spindle starts & stops. I have tried moving all control wires away from the 240v & 120v wires for possible EMF, at least an inch, but still no change. I just replaced the parallel relay board, so I am confident that is ok (voltage readings indicate that everything is working). The final recommendation by Jim was to switch to Mach 3. I am still wondering if I have a problem with the main breakout board or parallel board, but for $200 a pop, I don't want to swap my current ones for a new boards. Has anyone else ever experienced this?? I bought this mill all setup and ready to run, so I am not familiar with the necessary settings for my motors or anything else. Is there an easy way to make the cross-over to Mach3 and transfer my baseline settings over?? This mill has run good for the past year with very accurate results. Thanks!!

[--colin--]

You can install Mach3 on the same computer and it will co-exist with Mach2. Then you can run either, but not at the same time. Mach3 does not share on import any settings you currently have in Mach2, so you will need to configure Mach3 before using it - ports & pins, etc. Mach3 is more stable than Mach2, but I've never heard of Mach2 doing what you are describing.

You should be able to monitor Mach2 on the diagnostics screen and see if the spindle output is triggering on/off during operation - in you don't see it, then the problem is not with the Mach software.

Are you switching your spindle motor directly with one of the relays on the Sound Logic breakout board? What is the current draw of your spindle motor? Make sure it is not higher that the relay rating - probably 10A. I'm not sure, but perhaps the breakout board has an LED showing status of the relay. Look and see if the relay is pulsing when the problem occurs.

--Colin--

[Liv2fish2]

Thanks for the reply Colin. I re-installed Mach2 last night along with the last Mach2 update patch. I had Mach2 loaded on my operating computer over 2 years ago, so I hadn't updated anything. After that, I increased the debounce to 4000 from 500 as recommended to me. After 2 hours of running programs last night, I did not have one spindle glitch! Now if only I can get my backlash under control.....

P.S. - I also rerouted a couple control wires further away from the spindle 240v wires. It appeared to be excessive electrical noise afterall.

[mxtras]

Upgrade to MACH3. Far better package and it is easy enough to revert back to MACH2 if you don't agree. It also has backlash comp - not an ideal way to deal with backlash but it's better than nothing.

Scott