Any repair would likely cost much more than replacing them with new parts from China.
I have and Chinese router 3020t which I have been using for several months now. I had a jam and broke the bit. When I went to restart the job I noticed that the spindle would only spin up for a few seconds I'm currently leaning towards a hardware issue with the spindle controller box. Which leads me to my next question where or how do I get this repaired.
And help would be appreciated.
Thanks
John
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Any repair would likely cost much more than replacing them with new parts from China.
Gerry
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If it spins up at all, the motor is likely ok.
Can you manually start it with an M3 command - and if so, is it switching off? I only ask this to eliminate any potential issues in the g-code you're feeding it. I've also had a grounding issue in the past where the spindle would fire up fine but any attempt to then move the steppers would trip an e-stop somewhere and the whole thing looked like you describe: it'd spin up, start the job and then just shut down the spindle.
If on a manual start with no xyz moves it still does this, and you're sure it isn't tripping a fault which is shutting the spindle down, it's probably time to open the controller box up and have a look at the spindle drive inside.
I been in contact with the manufacturer no luck. They just stop responding. The spindle controller is 110v 3 axis. At this point if I can't get a replacement box I might as well throw the CNC in the trash.
You'll have to be more specific than that. Is your spindle controlled manually through a knob on the control box like this one?
If so, is the spindle control board inside (on the left side of the box) looking like this?
Does the spindle still start up whenever you turn it on? For how long? Does the spindle motor turn freely when not powered or does it stick / grind? Is any of the components getting really hot really fast in there (check only after unplugging from mains, obviously!)...? Those black boxy things in the picture should be fuses - are they ok? You could also try connecting a mains-voltage traditional incandescent light bulb instead of the spindle to decide whether the motor or the control box is faulty - but don't use a modern "economic" bulb of any kind, those don't really like to be "throttled".
There is not much in these simple boxes that can't be fixed by someone who knows which end is which on a soldering iron. However, you might also have one of the bigger spindles, controlled through a dedicated VFD unit - fixing / diagnosing one of those is a whole different thing. At any rate, nobody can fix that thing for you through the internet - you'll need someone local to take a look.
The spindle start up when you turn the spindle switch on It runs for about 3 seconds. The spindle motor turn freely when the powered is not on. None of the components seem to be hot. Fuses seem fine.Tried connecting the spindle switch wires to an incandescent light bulb. Nothing. My controller seems a little different than yours. I only have two circuit boards
Looks like you got the slightly newer version of what I have (mine has 2 boards too). Mine is simpler to fix because everything on the spindle board is basic components, but on yours there seems to be a micro-controller you have basically zero hope to procure a replacement for (you'd need the code running inside it and nobody but the manufacturer has that). It's of course possible that the micro-controller chip is fine and something else (replaceable) is busted (I have a feeling one of the diodes or the power FET might be dodgy), but you really need someone with some electronics knowledge to try debugging that. If that's not an option, you could try buying a complete replacement board eg. from these guys (found them using Google): https://www.omiocnc.com/accessories/...wer-board.html and moving the wires over - that's actually looking like my (older) version of the board, but they do pretty much the exact same thing. Some of the connectors do seem shuffled around a bit though. Of course, it's perfectly possible that the photo on that site is simply old, and what you'll get could be exactly your newer version of the board.
What about the other board. What does that board do?
There are two boards in either of our boxes - one of them is the spindle controller that seems to be malfunctioning, the other one is the board controlling the three motion axes of the machine. The spindle control board is also supplying the other board with power, which is why there's a cable between them. Other than that, they're pretty independent, since the spindle board is manually controlled with the knob. There usually are some provisions in place to make it possible to control the spindle board from software, through the axis control board, but that would be a second cable connecting them that's usually not mounted.
Thank you for your help. I'll order the board and keep my fingers crossed.
Good luck! If wiring up the replacement board raises any further questions when it arrives, feel free to ask...
Looks like one board is the motion control board and the other board is the DC spindle supply board with variable output.
Russ
I ordered the board from https://www.omiocnc.com/accessories/...wer-board.html Unfortunately it looks different. I could use some help moving the wires over. I have attached the original board and the new board that was ordered. The new board has identified a spot for the fan but has no connector. It looks as if it needs to be solder. I also made a drawing of the original board and the new board I'm trying to install.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
John
Yeah, this new board looks very similar to what I have. Compared to your original board the connectors have obviously been moved around a bit, but they are all there fortunately; as you noted, the fan should go to that "missing" connector right next to the four large AC IN transformer terminals - you could de-solder the old connector and move it over to the new board, or you could just cut off the fan connector and solder in the wires directly. At any rate, the fan only matters in the long term, you should be able to test the spindle without connecting the fan at all, to see if it's worth bothering with at all. If soldering anything is completely out of the question you could even get a plain 12V "wall wart" power supply and power the fan from there. Anyway, the rest seems just a matter of plugging things in on the new board - polarity obviously matters, so take care to match + and - wires according to how they were connected on the original board.
The power input wires from the transformer are looking like a direct match, pin to pin. The "drive" connector looks a bit iffy, having been a 3-pin connector where the new board has a 2-pin one; you'll probably need to remove the connector pins themselves from the plastic housing (it's not hard, pressing gently with a needle on the tiny metal tab of each pin while pulling on its wire should release it from the plastic) then you'll have to insulate them with some electric tape and plug them in like that (or you could carefully cut the original housing in two through the empty middle "pin", file it down to fit and plug it in like that). At any rate, that's a straight "Drive + and -" to the new "Drive + and -". The old "on/off" switch looks like it will fit as-is into the new "SP-SW' connector. Same with the spindle, from "DC-SP + and -" to "Spindle + and -". Finally, the speed knob's three wires should go straight over to the three "Rp1" pins - even if the connectors look different, it looks like the pin spacing will fit. Which way should not be critical for a test - make sure the speed knob is set somewhere half-way on its scale and start the spindle, then try changing the speed - if it speeds up when you are turning it down, just plug in the three pin connector the other way around.
The rest of the pins at the back, "SW1", "PWM" and "STOP" should be of no concern to you, you can leave them as they are. The only thing is that if you wire up everything and the spindle still doesn't seem to start at all, you could try moving the little jumper cap connecting two of the pins on "SW1" over onto the other two pins of the same connector (but you shouldn't need to do that).
Let me know if I forgot anything or if you have any further question. Good luck!
Oh, I forgot to mention that you can leave that troublesome "Drive" connector unconnected to just do a test - anything outside the spindle will remain unpowered of course, but it won't harm anything to do a test without plugging that in...
OK, I just want to doublecheck so I don't fry the board.
Drive - On other board gets connected to Drive on new board. Note: they had given me a wire with two connectors at each end so it shouldn't be a problem
On/off Switch - gets connected to SP – SW on new board
Spindle - Cable connection in back of spindle controller box gets connected to DC Out on new board
Speed Knob - gets connected to Spindle on new board. Note: three wire connection
Fan - i'll probably just solder the wires on the new board
I think that's it. I really appreciate all the help.
Thanks
John
Not quite. The cable connection in back of spindle controller box should go to "Spindle", and the speed knob should go to "Rp1" at the back end of the board...