Thread: My Chinese CNC Saga (continued)

Originally Posted by SawDustSniffer

put the cable on the spindle end only, to see if any of the wires short against the metal plug .one lead in the end of the cable , the other lead on the out side of the plug / spindle unit , (ohms test)all 4 pins
then go through all of the pins again on the plug ,
pin 1 too 2,3,4, ,
pin 2 , too 1,3,4,
pin 3 , too 1,2,4
they should still be around the 2.2 ohm or zero for the 4th pin

make sure the control box is unplugged for 1/2 hour before testing

then disconnect the spindle unit end and plug in the control box end of the cable and test all 4 pins holding the other test lead to the green wire going to your VFD
your checking for an earth leak
you should have , zero on all of those ,

The spindle pins 1, 2 and 3 test OK. Pin 4 has no connection to anything.

The control box pins on the back of the box, none of them show a connection at all. Could they be isolated somehow when no power is applied?

Similarly when testing against the earth connection on the VFD, no connection to any of the spindle cable wires. I did test the end points of the cable to make sure they were was no break within the wire, and the cable connections seem OK.

Oh, and for the power from the mains, I remembered agin - the circuit was blowing when the only thing powered up was the control box, so it shouldn't be an overload.

well , all that is bad news for your VFD , its toast

if there was a problem with the Spindle motor or wiring it would have been nice , but looks like like your motor and wiring is fine


the best thing is there is a long thread about hooking up VFD's to spindles to Mach3 , still current on the cnc forum , have a good read though that one , and see if you think your capable of connecting it up ,
i would mount it on the out side of the control box , with manual ( face plate ) control of the spindle , should only be 240volt power to the new VFD box , and the 3 wires to the plug on the back of the control box (spindle cable ) , just looked the original wire's will be too short

you need one of these http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/VARIABLE-...ht_8075wt_1396 but dont just bye that one , read the forum on how to hook it up first , then decide what brand

something weird here , not what i would expect ,

after digging around in hot melt glue to see what was written on the boards , i had a moment

the photo below is of the Spindle inputs from the BOB , one of the bob wires ( left in photo) go's straight to common ( negative ) , and the black wire then go's to a connection with Chinese writing on it

, this must be the Direction input , and they have set it up to make it imposable to go in reverse , can never get 5volts on the direction pin

what a stuffed up way of doing that , shouldn't the wire go straight to its connection , and a pull up resister too the common ? , enough to keep the voltage below 2 volts , and not enough to dead short the BOB , or even better , dont run a wire at all

so there is no need for a direction pin setting , even if you did give it a "high" its pulled down to "Low " with no resistance damaging the output pin of the bob

it makes finding the"Pulse " wire easy , "the other one" , will put a multimeter on it , set an output to the 3 pins left over to find the right pin , then configure it to the spindle pulse line , then power up the VFD board , the missing connector to the right is where the 240volt active wire go's

Originally Posted by SawDustSniffer

well , all that is bad news for your VDF , its toast

if there was a problem with the Spindle motor or wiring it would have been nice , but looks like like your motor and wiring is fine

I was afraid you were going to say that. And since I can't even get the steppers running anymore, I guess I can't even just buy a VFD to run the spindle?

So, if you were me, what would you do next?

Originally Posted by BoomerangInfo

I was afraid you were going to say that. And since I can't even get the steppers running anymore, I guess I can't even just buy a VFD to run the spindle?

So, if you were me, what would you do next?

remove the VFD's power cables , and the wire to the bob , ( might as well remove the hole unit )
EDIT , MAKE SURE THE POWER PLUG IS OUT THE WALL
cut the active and neutral terminals off , and get some of those plastic isolation connectors , the ones with a screw in them that sparky's s use to connect up lights , and rap it in insulation tape so there is no way thay can short on any thing , just the Power in cables , brown and blue , you can leave the spindle out 4 wires , with some insulation tape over the ends ( so they dont short out anything rattling around in there )tape up the green one as well


and see if you can get your motors running again , , do all the LED's light up like they did on the BOB , Stepper Boards ?
and i was editing my previous post when you posted again , some info on VFD"S ^^^^ a few messages back

Originally Posted by SawDustSniffer

the best thing is there is a long thread about hooking up VFD's to spindles to Mach3 , still current on the cnc forum , have a good read though that one , and see if you think your capable of connecting it up ,
i would mount it on the out side of the control box , with manual ( face plate ) control of the spindle , should only be 240volt power to the new VFD box , and the 3 wires to the plug on the back of the control box (spindle cable ) , just looked the original wire's will be too short

you need one of these VARIABLE FREQUENCY DRIVE INVERTER VFD NEW 2HP 1.5KW 7A | eBay but dont just bye that one , read the forum on how to hook it up first , then decide what brand

Yeah I started to read that thread last week. Got to about page 7 I believe. A lot of the early stuff is about air cooled spindles. I'll have to go back and start again and see if I can straighten it all out. I've also been checking them out on eBay. Haven't seen much 'brand' difference though, they all seem the same, just the power is different.

I think pulling my current VFD apart will probably sit till mid week now, as I'm behind in other things, and have training all day tomorrow. So I'll peruse the VFD thread and report back when I can

*EDIT*

Why do you think the current spindle cable is not long enough? Mine is fairly long?

was just looking at the fan to tell boomer what to do with it , when i looked between the board and the heat sink , lol , the MOSFIT'S aren't touching the heat sink ( NOW THERE,S A PROBLEM ) the pcb stands are too high ,there are holes in the board so you can screw these to the heat sink , lol , no screws , lol

the angle of the photo dosnt show it too well , but i can see daylight between the MOSFET and the heat sinK ( FAIL)

OUT IT COMES , thanks Boomer , with out your interruptions i would have powered this thing up

ROLLING ON THE FLOOR LAUGHING " at least i can go back to the manufacturer and get a replacement " ROLLING ON THE FLOOR LAUGHING

DECIDED TO BIN IT BEFORE IT BLOWS UP MY PRINTER PORT , IM IN THE SAME BOAT BOOMER

ANY ONE WANT TO BYE A 1.5KW SPINDLE CONTROLLER , NEVER PLUGGED IN , AS GOOD AS NEW ????? GOING REAL CHEEP ??/ boomer i hear you need one ????

just looked at boomers old photos' his screws are in , but it looks like one of the screws is under the transformer , so can not be put in ,during manufacture , with out leaving the transformer off until the board is bolted into place

not even going to attempt to power up that VDF

went on ebay and ordered a VDF from hong kong AU$133, should have paid the 2x cost and got one from Australia and over night bagged here(5 Nights to NT) AU$265 but , looking at this hongkong guys feedback it will take 4 weeks to get here

ordered a Variable Speed Control Board as well to get the spindle rev and direction back onto the mach3 screen , hate it when you think your on an Australian site ,and you get to the cheque out and get "right royally rodgered " by the USpostal service

it should be law to state US$ AU$ POM$ EU$ ect , not just $ , i thought these guys were in Australia all the way until i got to the postage page , an low and behold , the post is 2x the cost of the part ,
is USpostal service putting the cost of a bag of hole filler ,on every package leaving USA , cant they get hole filler cheep from there schools ???

Well, more money down the drain. I just ordered one too.

I finished reading the VFD thread. I think I can handle the setup, but how I go with the wiring will be another question. Are the wires actually soldered in, or are they just screwed in? I guess all that money I payed my BIL to put the connections together has been wasted now, although I did get. Water pump cable for my money.....

I tried again last nit toseeif I could get the steppers working with just the BOB spindle connection unplugged. I went through and checked all the Mach3 settings to be what they were when I first had the steppers working, but I can't seem to get them going again.

At this stage, should I just go for a 540 kit and start fresh? Not sure it can power the pump though, and i'll have to rewire all the spindle plugs as well. Do you think the rewiring to DB9's would be straight forward?

PS - SWMBO isn't happy.

Originally Posted by BoomerangInfo

At this stage, should I just go for a 540 kit and start fresh? Not sure it can power the pump though, and i'll have to rewire all the spindle plugs as well. Do you think the rewiring to DB9's would be straight forward?

Yea DB9's are straight forward, you just need to know the wiring of the motor and do a little soldering, you'll also need to solder in a resistor to set the current for the motors (they are 3A motors I'm guessing if so you'll need a 3K ohm resistor.)

Grab one of those enclosures from jaycar or homann and build a control box with it, they look real good if you take the time to cut everything out.

Originally Posted by Ch4iS

Yea DB9's are straight forward, you just need to know the wiring of the motor and do a little soldering, you'll also need to solder in a resistor to set the current for the motors (they are 3A motors I'm guessing if so you'll need a 3K ohm resistor.)

Grab one of those enclosures from jaycar or homann and build a control box with it, they look real good if you take the time to cut everything out.

Thanks for that. So would you suggest those 4 packs of db9's with the pcb and pot are better for someone less experienced like myself? Big diffence though, roughly $20 vs $5 for plain connectors. Am I missing something extra with the boards?

Standard DB9 connectors come free with the G540, the pcb will be easier to solder the wires but the choice is really yours, im fairly good with a solder iron so it was an easy task to use the standard connectors when I did my electronics, you'll just need to buy some resistors if you use the standard connectors which cost ~50c for 8 pcs at jaycar.

Originally Posted by BoomerangInfo

Well, more money down the drain. I just ordered one too.

I finished reading the VFD thread. I think I can handle the setup, but how I go with the wiring will be another question. Are the wires actually soldered in, or are they just screwed in? I guess all that money I payed my BIL to put the connections together has been wasted now, although I did get. Water pump cable for my money.....

dont cut the cables like i told you too , these VFD's might fit inside the box with just the face plate through the facepannel of the controll box ( stand it up on end ) , the ring connectors might fit ( all the wires )
leaving the plug at the back of the control box and using your existing cable , at worst you might have to extend the internal cables ( new ones )
i bought packs of 500 in 3 sizes of connection loops , so i could knock up 2 sets when i make mine and send them to you ,

Originally Posted by BoomerangInfo

I tried again last nit toseeif I could get the steppers working with just the BOB spindle connection unplugged. I went through and checked all the Mach3 settings to be what they were when I first had the steppers working, but I can't seem to get them going again.

do the LED"S light up on the BOB and Stepper driver board like last time ?

got an old printer to test your port ?

will look to see if i can find a "shield " to fit the transformer , just a round cup made of steel that covers it and shields against magnetic interference , undo the centre nut and screw it down over it , ???

Originally Posted by SawDustSniffer

do the LED"S light up on the BOB and Stepper driver board like last time ?

got an old printer to test your port ?

Unfortunately I don't think I have any parallel peripherals to test if the port is kerput that way. Any other way of testing? My PCI parallel card from China is still on its way.

Regarding the LED's on the stepper, I can;t tell from my blurry previous photo, but I now have 4 sets of LEDs ont eh stepper, and 1 LED on the BOB. BUT, on the stepper, the set of LED's closest to the wire connectors only has 1 LED lit (the left-most lights on my previous image). Should both of those be lit?