Controlling spindle from Mach 3

[areinike]

I see a few descriptions of controlling spindles from Mach 3, but nothing I found that answers my question.

I have one of these breakout boards:



and this spindle controller (6v - 90v)



My setup is running fine with the pot that comes with the spindle controller and measured it out that it varies the control voltage from 0-5V. The controller pot pinout is GND-VAR-+5V

On the breakout board I have a 0-10V (-) and 0-10V (+) and a PWM output.

I have never attempted to control my spindle from Mach3 so pardon the ignorance.

Would i just run a line from PWM to the VAR input on the controller? or somehow use the 0-10V lines and configure Mach3 to run the spindle at 50%?

Here's some more pinout info for the BOB



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[Mzones]

Your electronics are mismatched!

[areinike]

what about this controller for the spindle, then.



12V 24V 48V 110V DC Motor Speed Driver Controller PWM MACH3 Spindle Governor

[ger21]

I'm not an electronics expert, but I think you can use resistors to covert the 0-10V output from the breakout board into the 0-5V for the spindle controller. You just need to reduce the voltage in half.

Another option is to make you're own PWM to 0-5V circuit, and just use take the PWM signal from Mach3 from one of the output terminals on the breakout board. There's a schematic in the Super Pid thread here, and you can build it for about $5. I built one for my Super Pid.

In the Super Pid manual here. http://www.vhipe.com/product-private...structions.pdf

There's a schematic on page 22 to build a PWM to 0-5V circuit, and on page 21, it shows how to convert 0-10V to 0-5V.

[areinike]

I'm not an electronics expert, but I think you can use resistors to covert the 0-10V output from the breakout board into the 0-5V for the spindle controller. You just need to reduce the voltage in half.

Another option is to make you're own PWM to 0-5V circuit, and just use take the PWM signal from Mach3 from one of the output terminals on the breakout board. There's a schematic in the Super Pid thread here, and you can build it for about $5. I built one for my Super Pid.

In the Super Pid manual here. http://www.vhipe.com/product-private...structions.pdf

There's a schematic on page 22 to build a PWM to 0-5V circuit, and on page 21, it shows how to convert 0-10V to 0-5V.

Thanks, Ger. I was thinking that exact thing with the voltage reducer thing just this morning. The SuperPID seems pretty cool. I'll check it out!

[ger21]

I wasn't saying to use a SuperPID, just that the schematics happen to be in their manual.

[areinike]

I wasn't saying to use a SuperPID, just that the schematics happen to be in their manual.

Managed to figure that out going through the manual as I started to understand that the SuperPID was for AC motor.

Found the schematics and I think they'll work perfect! Especially with the option to use my existing pot for a "manual override" option.

[areinike]

Your electronics are mismatched!

Yeah, the circuit board green shades are a little off, eh?

[Al_The_Man]

what about this controller for the spindle, then.


12V 24V 48V 110V DC Motor Speed Driver Controller PWM MACH3 Spindle Governor

For a DC motor, You may be better off to go with one of the KB/Baldor DC SCR or PWM drives off ebay.
Al.

[Mzones]

Yeah, the circuit board green shades are a little off, eh?

Here's what's happening


Mach creates a TTL level PWM digital signal And sends it to the printer port.
The printer port sends to the BOB.
The BOB takes this signal and creates a 0-10 V PWM digital signal, then through a RC filter
smoothing it out creating a 0-10V analogue signal to output of the BOB.
Now your taking this 10V analogue signal Through a voltage divider, to create a 0-5V analogue signal.
Then you're sending this 5V analogue signal to your driver board, which creates a digital TTL level PWM
signal which triggers the output device, controlling the motor.

And you don't think that your electronics are mismatched?

No problem with the shading , It's pretty much Black and White.
Its some ware between 50 and 200. 50 may be a little high


Mike

[areinike]

Here's what's happening


Mach creates a TTL level PWM digital signal And sends it to the printer port.
The printer port sends to the BOB.
The BOB takes this signal and creates a 0-10 V PWM digital signal, then through a RC filter
smoothing it out creating a 0-10V analogue signal to output of the BOB.
Now your taking this 10V analogue signal Through a voltage divider, to create a 0-5V analogue signal.
Then you're sending this 5V analogue signal to your driver board, which creates a digital TTL level PWM
signal which triggers the output device, controlling the motor.

And you don't think that your electronics are mismatched?

No problem with the shading , It's pretty much Black and White.
Its some ware between 50 and 200. 50 may be a little high


Mike

I know what you're saying. Ultimately I'm looking at a 0-5V input to the motor controller. So having a PWM signal converted to DC then reduced and them converted back to PWM seems to get crazy. So would it make more sense to utilize the PWM line and convert that to a 0-5V signal for the motor controller to avoid few "conversions?"

Ideally I would get a PWM controlled spindle controller - but for now I need to make something work if at all, worst case I'll manually use the pot the controller comes with.

[Al_The_Man]

You may not want to mess with building something, but Op-amps are very good at scaling, if you have a signal, say, 0-10v and you want to scale it 50%, a Op-amp is made for this.
The OP-AMP
http://ruggedcircuits.com/html/circuit_gallery.html#TOC
I am working on a project right now when time permits, that would control a 0-5v/10vdc spindle through the serial or USB port via one of the present Mach plugins, eliminating the BOB's etc, but I cannot give a time line at this point.
Al.

[Mzones]

If you could use a different output pin other than the one designated for the 0-10v analogue log signal.
You should get 5 volt PWM signal out of the BOB
Look at the schematic that ger21 suggested Ignore the 7414 you only interested is to RC filter on right
That's what you need. That will give you the 0-5V analogue signal.

All of the output pins on the BOB should be 5V signals, other than the 0-10V analogue.



Mike

[areinike]

Well, I made some progress on this. I've opted to wire for the PWM control with a 100uF cap and 22K ohm resistor. The ripple is almost non existent and the spindle ramps up. Couple of things. I'm getting about 4.65VDC out to the spindle controller, obviously a little less than the max and I usually route at MAX. Another thing I've noticed is that the ramp up takes about 12 seconds (starts cutting before the spindle completely spins up). So, here's what I've found.

Mach 3 isn't controlling the ramp to that extent. I found this site (Sample)RC Low-pass Filter Design for PWM - Result -. Based on 100Hz PWM frequency, I managed to determine that with a 100uF cap I would need a 2.2K ohm resistor to changle the ramp up to 1.2 seconds - much better. So I think I'm on the right track. I'd like to get to as close to 5V as possible as well so that'll be my next goal.

Thanks for the help all!

[areinike]

Ended up installing an adjustable pot (1K-10K ohm) and when I was comfortable with the ramp up and ramp down speed I measured out 5.7K ohm. With the 100uF cap, it seems to work pretty good.

[areinike]

Did a quick test with a 1" square test I made to ensure calibration. Just push go and it does the rest, spindles up, cuts, spindles down. Ahhh, nice.

[sledhead306]

so I'm still confused... is it possible to just connect that 0-10v output directly to where the POT would go on a dc motor controller.... I am using the same BOB and have a dc tread mill motor and driver running it. I'm just scared to wreck something

[robump]

Did a quick test with a 1" square test I made to ensure calibration. Just push go and it does the rest, spindles up, cuts, spindles down. Ahhh, nice.

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but i have the exact same setup and wondered if you have used the single PWM pin on the bottom of the breakout board or whether you used the 0v-10v output on the right?

I have made the 0v-10v to 0v-5v circuit as suggested in the super PID manual which appears to be working well but i cant get the spindle to move!

Thanks in advance