Replacing controller with G540, connecting the VFD and figuring out old driver power.

[vosser]

Hi!
I've been working on replacing the stock controller in my chinese 6040 with a G540 (original died while I was test cutting styrofoam). It's been a couple of months of tinkering when I've had the time, today was the first day it moved again, and it was beautiful!

I do have a few questions though that I'm hoping someone can help me out with.

1. I would really like to connect my VFD/Spindle to the G540 so that Mach3 can control it. This worked for the old controller, but I don't know how to wire this up to the G540, or configure it afterwards. In picture (1) you can see the VFD and the G540. In picture (2) you can see the wires that were connected to the old controller. These don't seem to match anything in the manual for the G540.
Any ideas?

2. The second question is if anyone knows how many Amps the old stepper driver put out, I can't find anything anywhere in the manuals that came with the original CNC about how many amps it sending to the steppers. I've limited the G540 to 2.7A as I believe the ad on ebay said it was 3A (and I wanted to be safe). But I don't know.
Is there any way to tell from the old driver in picture 3?

Thank you!

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[ger21]

Pin7 to COM
Pin 8 to AVI
Pin 9 to +10V

Use pin 5 or 6 with a relay to the FWD terminal.

[vosser]

Nice! thank you. Just a follow up question.

Use pin 5 or 6 with a relay to the FWD terminal.

So pin 5 (or 6) drives a relay, what should I connect the other end of the relay to, FWD and 12V on the VFD?

[ger21]

I'm not positive on that. On many VFD's, there's a separate digital ground connection.
I'd trace that Yellow FWD wire and see how it's connected. You may be able to just connect it to the power supply ground for the relay, similar to how the G540 manual shows the relays wired.

[mactec54]

Nice! thank you. Just a follow up question.


So pin 5 (or 6) drives a relay, what should I connect the other end of the relay to, FWD and 12V on the VFD?

Just FWD and COM

FWD and COM turn the VFD On / Off this is just a switch no voltage added, AVI and Com are for speed control the G540 needs a voltage to make this work which can be a power supply or the Voltage supply out from the VFD 10v sometimes is enough but may need 12v to work correctly

[vosser]

First of, thank you for all the tips. I've now done as described above, and i partly works.
In picture (1-overview) you can see what it looks like.Using a relay from port 5 I can now enable FWD, this works great (you can see the blue relay bottom left in the picture).

The problem I have now is that the spindle always goes to max RPM, and I can't seem to control it. It's either max, or off.

I've been fiddling with the settings but nothing seems to change that it just spins up to max and "400" is displayed on the control box (see picture 2-MaximumPower). If I go to manual mode it works just fine and I can set it at different speeds using the dial.

The manual that came with the CNC said that Mach3 should be set to PWMBase Freq (Spindle Setup Tab): 301, and Minimum PWM to 30. The Gecko manual however says 50. Not sure what it's supposed to be.
Are there any other settings I should be changing, or other things I can test to get it to work?

Thanks again for all the help!

[Al_The_Man]

You don't need the relay, the G540 can be connected directly to the G540.
It has an open drain mosfet.
Al.

[KTMKenny]

Hi yosser. I have the same box. I'm also going to be doing the same thing I think. Is the old power supply that is the box already able to be kept without having to buy a new one for the 540?

[vosser]

You don't need the relay

Ah, well now its there and it works great, but thank you for the heads up!

..Is the old power supply that is the box already able to be kept without having to buy a new one for the 540?

Yes and no. You can keep it but as far as I understand it the Gecko likes more power, and also the quality of the components that came in the box have been sub par so I did not want to risk it and have something that breaks shortly after getting it to work. I bought this kit and have not regretted it one second: https://www.ebay.com/itm/131103819804 The seller is also EXTREMELY helpful.

Now If I could just figure out why the VFD is always at max power

[mactec54]

Ah, well now its there and it works great, but thank you for the heads up!


Yes and no. You can keep it but as far as I understand it the Gecko likes more power, and also the quality of the components that came in the box have been sub par so I did not want to risk it and have something that breaks shortly after getting it to work. I bought this kit and have not regretted it one second: https://www.ebay.com/itm/131103819804 The seller is also EXTREMELY helpful.

Now If I could just figure out why the VFD is always at max power

First you have to measure the output from the G-540 to see if you are getting 0-10v and see if it changes when you MDI a different speed, it may not be anything to do with the VFD , did you add the 10v to 12v to the G-540 it needs this for the PWM 0-10v output, what do you have on Pin 9

Make sure the voltage does not go above 12v for this connection to pin 9

Your VFD has a +12v check it before you connect it to the G-540

[john-100]

the original BOB shown in the first post look similar to this TX14175



one of the normally open relay contacts is connected to the analogue ground

john

[vosser]

First you have to measure the output from the G-540 to see if you are getting 0-10v and see if it changes when you MDI a different speed, it may not be anything to do with the VFD , did you add the 10v to 12v to the G-540 it needs this for the PWM 0-10v output, what do you have on Pin 9. Make sure the voltage does not go above 12v for this connection to pin 9

I just measured and checked everything. Com goes to Port 7, AVI to port 8, and 10V to port 9.
Between Port 7 (com) and Port 9 (+10V) I have 9.99Volts.
Between Port 7 (com) and Port 8 (AVI) I have 0.047 Volts.

Whatever I tried I could not make the G540 increase the voltage between 7 and 8, so I'm pretty sure this is my problem.

I used the xml file from Geckos website to configure Mach3 and have not changed much (the VFD has never worked).
See pictures 2+ for current Mach3 settings.

What should I try?

Thank you for the help!

EDIT. I followed the list/guide on this page (https://www.machsupport.com/forum/in...?topic=22474.0). I also tried the suggestion of running the command M3S500 from the MDI which pretty much did exactly what I was doing by point and click.
Still nothing.

[mactec54]

I just measured and checked everything. Com goes to Port 7, AVI to port 8, and 10V to port 9.
Between Port 7 (com) and Port 9 (+10V) I have 9.99Volts.
Between Port 7 (com) and Port 8 (AVI) I have 0.047 Volts.

Whatever I tried I could not make the G540 increase the voltage between 7 and 8, so I'm pretty sure this is my problem.

I used the xml file from Geckos website to configure Mach3 and have not changed much (the VFD has never worked).
See pictures 2+ for current Mach3 settings.

What should I try?

Thank you for the help!

EDIT. I followed the list/guide on this page (https://www.machsupport.com/forum/in...?topic=22474.0). I also tried the suggestion of running the command M3S500 from the MDI which pretty much did exactly what I was doing by point and click.
Still nothing.

So you have the roughly 10v at the G540 so this part of the VFD is working

In motor Tuning you have to have something in the spindle settings at least 1 step and move the slider to the middle and save

Also motor outputs in ports and pins Spindle set Step port to 1 Dir port 1 You may need also Dir LowActive unchecked you have it checked, you may need Step Low Active checked so a few thing for you to set and play with, you have to get the voltage changing coming out of the G-540 before the VFD will do anything

Pulley ratio will need setting also

[ger21]

Yes, the Step Port should be set to 1

[vosser]

Spindle set Step port to 1 Dir port 1

That did it, it now works beautifully. Did a simple test cut yesterday.

Almost hard to believe it's all done now, been working on this for over 6 months as time has permitted.