Break out board damage! Please Help

[mactec54]

The vfd is connected to the board only via the relay to control the start and stop of the spindle. I control rpm via the vfd itself. Also relay clicks on with the vfd connection to relay disconnected too. I cannot send photos cause I am not at the machine. But it is wired correctly. Indeed I have ordered two boards at the moment so I have a backup too.
What pins should I measure voltage on the board? in mach3 all enable signals are set correctly to output pin 1. I should measure voltage between pin 1 and ground on the board and it should show 5v if it works correctly? else something is wrong with the board as everything is showing?

Yes I just looked up the Board you have it has no PWM 0-10v output very bad designed Board

Correct they are the things to check, it seem that the Relay is controlled by Parallel Port Pin 1 so yes measure to see if it has voltage On /Off at that point, what is feeding the Relay when it is not connected very strange

Although if the Relay is fried it could still be clicking and permanently closed which would turn the VFD Drive on without any power to the Relay, so to check if the Relay is bad with the power off you can check the Rely and see if it is open or permanently closed

[jimskeet]

Yes I just looked up the Board you have it has no PWM 0-10v output very bad designed Board

Correct they are the things to check, it seem that the Relay is controlled by Parallel Port Pin 1 so yes measure to see if it has voltage On /Off at that point, what is feeding the Relay when it is not connected very strange

Although if the Relay is fried it could still be clicking and permanently closed which would turn the VFD Drive on without any power to the Relay, so to check if the Relay is bad with the power off you can check the Rely and see if it is open or permanently closed

Relay is controlled by pin 9. Drive enable is pin 1. And about the relay. It is not stuck closed because if control power is off and vfd on, spindle doesn't run. It runs only if I have vfd on and power on the control and hear the click sound of the relay. Which shows that relay is not stuck but somehow receives a signal when board powers on, even if the board is not connected to the parallel port.

[mactec54]

Relay is controlled by pin 9. Drive enable is pin 1. And about the relay. It is not stuck closed because if control power is off and vfd on, spindle doesn't run. It runs only if I have vfd on and power on the control and hear the click sound of the relay. Which shows that relay is not stuck but somehow receives a signal when board powers on, even if the board is not connected to the parallel port.

Do your Ports and Pins Output look like this

Output #1 Port #1 Pin#9

[mactec54]

Relay is controlled by pin 9. Drive enable is pin 1. And about the relay. It is not stuck closed because if control power is off and vfd on, spindle doesn't run. It runs only if I have vfd on and power on the control and hear the click sound of the relay. Which shows that relay is not stuck but somehow receives a signal when board powers on, even if the board is not connected to the parallel port.

It sounds like something is shorted out in the wiring or the Breakout Board has some bad traces, maybe the Breakout Board is junk, if your configuration is all good then there is not much else you can do but wait for the new Board to arrive

[jimskeet]

Yep. Thanks for all the help!
Can you give me a link of what cable should I get for the parallel connection to replace the ribbon?

[mactec54]

Yep. Thanks for all the help!
Can you give me a link of what cable should I get for the parallel connection to replace the ribbon?

Are they both Male connectors or Male and Female

[jimskeet]

Are they both Male connectors or Male and Female

I don't remember 100%. I think that the cable from the computer goes to female to female adapter on the control box, and from that adapter to the board is the ribbon cable you saw.

[jimskeet]

I am back with some good news. The new board arrived today. After installing the new one everything seemed to work fine but after some testing I found out one input signal was not working as it should. I took it out and installed the 2nd one (since I ordered two so I could have a backup) and it worked fine so the first one is on its way back to be refunded.
This incident got me into thinking of redesigning the control box and building it better. So I will post a new thread so I get some advice about my design when I have my plans ready.

Now I would like some help with this if someone knows.

I found this board. Photos attached below. It gives the option to control spindle speed too and it says that it is optoisolated.

So I am thinking of using this board in the future. A few things confuse me though.

1) I see it has 2 pins labeled as 5v. And in the wiring diagram it doesn't clear out why there wre 2 of them.

2) In.the diagram that shows connection with the stepper drives I notice that board is connected with the - ena,-pul,-dir and the +ena,+pul,+dir are jumpered together. On my control though it is the other way around, the - pins are jumpered and the + pins are connected to the board. I guess if I use this board I have to swap my jumpers from - to + and connect the - pins to the board as shown?

3) Also I am a little confused with the 0-10v and pwm connections. Do they both need to connect to my vfd in order to control spindle speed? Or just one of those two?

[Al_The_Man]

The relay is used for the VFD start, there is a link I can post if needed of a mod to this board using one of the unused stepper outputs to use for VFD REV, if required, it uses a relay, I am just in the process of reverse-engineering this board for someone in order to interface direct without using a transistor and relay.
The two 5v are just for convenience use.
Did you mention what VFD you are using?
Al.

[jimskeet]

The relay is used for the VFD start, there is a link I can post if needed of a mod to this board using one of the unused stepper outputs to use for VFD REV, if required, it uses a relay, I am just in the process of reverse-engineering this board for someone in order to interface direct without using a transistor and relay.
The two 5v are just for convenience use.
Did you mention what VFD you are using?
Al.

Hi Al.
I know about the relay for controlling spindle start and stop. I was talking about the 0-10v output used to control spindle speed. All the wirings I have seen online show just the 0-10v connection to the vfd. I don't understand what the pwm pin does that is showing in the diagrams I attached.

My vfd is a 2.2kw chinese vfd. I don't remember the brand. Will check tomorrow but I think all of the chinese 2.2kw vfds are pretty similar.

[dazp1976]

Now I would like some help with this if someone knows.

I found this board. Photos attached below. It gives the option to control spindle speed too and it says that it is optoisolated.

So I am thinking of using this board in the future. A few things confuse me though.

1) I see it has 2 pins labeled as 5v. And in the wiring diagram it doesn't clear out why there wre 2 of them.

2) In.the diagram that shows connection with the stepper drives I notice that board is connected with the - ena,-pul,-dir and the +ena,+pul,+dir are jumpered together. On my control though it is the other way around, the - pins are jumpered and the + pins are connected to the board. I guess if I use this board I have to swap my jumpers from - to + and connect the - pins to the board as shown?

3) Also I am a little confused with the 0-10v and pwm connections. Do they both need to connect to my vfd in order to control spindle speed? Or just one of those two?

I have this same board on a mill.
1. The 5v pins are for if you don't power it via usb and use a seperate supply.
2. I don't know entirely but I think it's something to do with being wired either positive anode or cathode.
3. PWM is another option for powering the 0-10v if using a seperate controller and not he onboard.

You'll need a 12-24v (24 is better) as well for all the inputs, the 0-10v output & the relay on-off to work.
The 5v only runs the axis (keeps them isolated).

Or something like this.

[jimskeet]

1) So do you know why it has 2 5v pins and a ground? Do you have to connect 5v+ to both 5v pins? This is what confuses me.

3)So pwm pin is not needed? Just 0-10v pins should be connected to the vfd?

[Al_The_Man]

I understood the 5v was a source?
From the USB connector itself?
Haven't had chance to confirm it yet.
Al.

[jimskeet]

I understood the 5v was a source?
From the USB connector itself?
Haven't had chance to confirm it yet.
Al.

Hmm, seems like you might be right. So the only way to power the board seems to be the usb port and the 2 5v are sources to power something else.

[Al_The_Man]

Yes, the poster that used this for a reverse relay for M4 used this source for the transistor/relay circuit.
And the B axis output.
Al.

[jimskeet]

Yes, the poster that used this for a reverse relay for M4 used this source for the transistor/relay circuit.
And the B axis output.
Al.

Got it. So from what I understand the output pins are sinking and that is why the connections on the stepper drives on the diagram are reversed from y current board which has sourcing outputs?

[Al_The_Man]

Yes, when using one as a VFD REV etc, you can set the output accordingly, Active high/low e.g.
Al.

[depronman]

I use this very BOB
You can power it from either the USB cable (I don't) OR us the GRD pin and one of the +5V pins. I use the Gnd & 5v pins and a 5V PSU 1 amp from memory
If you want to use the 0 to 10V outputs to control the spindle speed (I do using a Siemands VFD) then you also need to power the BOB using the 0v and 12 to 24v pins - the reason being the BOB cannot increase the +5v to get to 10v. I would recomend using an 18v to 24v PSU as 12 volts is a little too close to 10v and I found the BOB could not acheive a full 10v and hence the VFD would acheive full speed. When I upped the voltage to 18v then the BOB provided spot on 10v
The way it controls the VFD speed is 0v = stopped, 10v = full speed, 5v = half speed you get the idea In theory the relay is not needed as selecting 0v = spindle off, however I don't trust my fingers to this on the spindle (Lathe in my case) and also use the relay to also control the VFD on/off (as you already have it wired) and the 0 - 10v to control spindle speed

Once calibrated in LinuxCNC the Gcode selected speed is VERY close to the actual spindle speed, 100RPM is my slowest allows speed and 2200 is the max spindle speed, M3 S1000 provides a true spindle speed of 1003rpm, S1500 is a trus spindle speed of 1501rpm, S2000 is a true 2005rpm so for all practical purposes its spot on
I did experiment with encoder feedback to the VFD to correct spindle speed for 'under load conditions' but this caused more problems than it sorted e.g. threading was near impossible as load and therefore spindle power requirements increases as the cut increases and this really messed with spindle sync. The spindle does drop a few revs as the load increases but without the feedback to the VFD to increase speed the threading is spot on

Cheers, Paul

[mactec54]

I am back with some good news. The new board arrived today. After installing the new one everything seemed to work fine but after some testing I found out one input signal was not working as it should. I took it out and installed the 2nd one (since I ordered two so I could have a backup) and it worked fine so the first one is on its way back to be refunded.
This incident got me into thinking of redesigning the control box and building it better. So I will post a new thread so I get some advice about my design when I have my plans ready.

Now I would like some help with this if someone knows.

I found this board. Photos attached below. It gives the option to control spindle speed too and it says that it is optoisolated.

So I am thinking of using this board in the future. A few things confuse me though.

1) I see it has 2 pins labeled as 5v. And in the wiring diagram it doesn't clear out why there wre 2 of them.

2) In.the diagram that shows connection with the stepper drives I notice that board is connected with the - ena,-pul,-dir and the +ena,+pul,+dir are jumpered together. On my control though it is the other way around, the - pins are jumpered and the + pins are connected to the board. I guess if I use this board I have to swap my jumpers from - to + and connect the - pins to the board as shown?

3) Also I am a little confused with the 0-10v and pwm connections. Do they both need to connect to my vfd in order to control spindle speed? Or just one of those two?

Yes you will use the Relay just as before and for the 0-10v output for speed control to the VFD Drive, no the PWM output is not used for your VFD Drive control , although some VFD Drive can use PWM for speed control

[jimskeet]

Great. Thanks for the info guys.
One last question about this board. I read on a couple of auctions this.

"Can be accessed by a common cathode or common anode input level to 5V drive."

Does this refer to the way the driver is connected to the board? As I said on my current board the connection between the drive and the board is like this.


But the diagram on the board auction shows the connection like this



Can I connect my drives to the board the way it already connected to the current board, like the 1st method? Or I have to switch to the 2nd wiring method?