Deseperate Help Needed: NM-200 Spindle + Coolant Issue

[webgeek]

---Doh, can't edit the title, sorry for the typo!

Hi all; I LOVE my NM-200 and I finally got it set up to do coolant after milling for a few dozen hours without it. The problem is, as soon as I plugged in the pump (I think) the spindle stopped working in all my gcode programs. I can manually kick the spindle off still but when I run the gcode, it immediately shuts down again. Now the wierd stuff, if I go into Spindle Control in Mach 3 and check "Disable Flood/Mist Coolant" all goes back to normal with my programs but clearly coolant isn't working.

My question is two fold - what the heck is wrong and how do I fix it?

Thanks in advance. I have a huge amount of milling to do this weekend and I'd REALLY like to get the coolant working so I can use my better end mills. Thanks much for help!

-Mike

[JoeBean]

Can you clarify a bit - How's it behaving when everything's "plugged in"? If you turn the spindle on manually or issuing m3 in the mdi what happens? what happens if you issue m7 with (and without) the spindle on? What about m8? And then what happens if you issue m5 and m9 to stop the spindle and coolant?

The setup is pretty simple and straight-forward. Basically in ports and pins you configure an output to control one of the pins of your breakout board (whichever one is controlling your coolant pump). Then under spindle setup (in ports and pins) you put your output number in the box for controlling m7 or m8. When you issue the command mach3 sends a signal to that port, which operates a relay that supplies power to the coolant pump.

It sounds like you have a problem with that setup, specifically it sounds like you have the wrong output operating the coolant, or maybe you have spindle relays enabled on the same page with the same port.

If that's not it then likely there's something wrong with the wiring, specifically I'd look for a shared relay between the coolant and spindle, but if your setup is anything like mine that won't be the case.

[JoeBean]

Here are a couple links to read up on:
Config Mach3 for coolant
Tom Benedict Builds a Relay Box for His Taig CNC Mill

[JoeBean]

Here are a couple pics of my setup:

[M250cnc]

Here are a couple pics of my setup:

Joe how is your spindle working the pic shows it disabled.

Webgeek

I do agree that you need to play around with the M codes using MDI

Make sure what code does what, be 100% sure that it works manually then you can check your PP output G code to get them to match up.

Phil

[webgeek]

Hi Joe - thanks for the hugely useful posts as always! I was able to use your screenshots to get it fixed. The default settings Novakon had loaded onto my machine had the spindle relay enabled and the coolant relay disabled. When I enabled the coolant relay and left the spindle relay enabled, the problems started. As soon as I disabled the spindle relay (which is unneeded at all) everything started working properly. A quick change in my GCode to add M8 everywhere and it was all working. Thanks greatly for the help!

-Mike

[iGAK]

Joe -- Under Config - Ports and Pins - Spindle Setup

My PWMBase Freq show 1400 and yours shows 1000
My Minimum PWM shows 5 and yours shows 10%

Did you change the original values installed by Novakon and if so -- why?

[JoeBean]

Joe how is your spindle working the pic shows it disabled.

Webgeek

I do agree that you need to play around with the M codes using MDI

Make sure what code does what, be 100% sure that it works manually then you can check your PP output G code to get them to match up.

Phil

The relays are disabled, for those who use relays to turn their spindles on, off, reverse. We use PWM output to get speed control. So no relays involved.

[JoeBean]

Hi Joe - thanks for the hugely useful posts as always! I was able to use your screenshots to get it fixed. The default settings Novakon had loaded onto my machine had the spindle relay enabled and the coolant relay disabled. When I enabled the coolant relay and left the spindle relay enabled, the problems started. As soon as I disabled the spindle relay (which is unneeded at all) everything started working properly. A quick change in my GCode to add M8 everywhere and it was all working. Thanks greatly for the help!

-Mike

Glad I could help!

[JoeBean]

Joe -- Under Config - Ports and Pins - Spindle Setup

My PWMBase Freq show 1400 and yours shows 1000
My Minimum PWM shows 5 and yours shows 10%

Did you change the original values installed by Novakon and if so -- why?

do you have the original nm-200, or the new version? If the original you'll have a lot of differences in your spindle related settings.

I had to change a lot of settings after receiving as the stock configuration had incorrect values for the axis motors (resulting in 1mm almost equaling 1"), spindle tuning incorrect, axis motor speeds and accel incorrect, etc. So I may have changed this setting at some point. The settings I have now keep my spindle speeds very close to set speeds (at no load).

Bad day today. I figured out how to stall the spindle and broke an endmill in the process (.100doc in 7075 @ 60ipm - don't ask how... Stupid mistake ).

[JoeBean]

Joe how is your spindle working the pic shows it disabled.

Webgeek

I do agree that you need to play around with the M codes using MDI

Make sure what code does what, be 100% sure that it works manually then you can check your PP output G code to get them to match up.

Phil

I had need of CCW today and found (after damaging some tooling) it wasn't working. I finally traced it to the relay being disabled. So it would run forward fine, but reverse still ran it forward. So evidently these relays are involved with the CW/CCW switch, not sure exactly how yet. But as an FYi I had to enable them. I selected an unused value for CW and 4 for CCW. Works fine now, although I noticed CCW is a bit slower (read with an rpm meter) than CW. i'm guessing it's due to an anomaly with the bearings though I didn't notice it before.

[webgeek]

Ha ha, I blew it Joe. I saw your last message but it didn't sink in. When I copied your settings my spindle started to spin backwards and I never noticed. Several ruined bits and some metal later I posted in the metalworking forum and some people pointed it out to me. I've never even tried to run my machine backwards so to be honest, I didn't even know it could. I should have noticed it - my bad. At least we know, the spindle relay is very important

Sadly, this means I still have an issue with pre-configured spindle/flood coolant relays from Novakon. I'll do more looking in the morning. Thanks!

-Mike