Hi

Using a relais I can turn on and off the spindle motor of my Mill using Mach3.
The spindle motor has a safety build in that once power is switched of, you will have to puch a green button after power is switched on to make the motor run again.
So when switching the motor on using Mach3 I also have to push this button. Switching of using Mach3 works fine.

The problem is that some of the Wizards do generate code to switch the motor on at the begin. This is not handy for me, because the motor only starts when I also push this button.
When I switch the motor on before running the Wizard code however, for some reason it switches the motor off at the begin! (and probably on again, but that does not work because of the green button).

Any idea how to solve this?

If I understand you correctly, you have some sort on safety intelock on your spindle controller.

My X2 had something similar. You had to turn the speed dial (rheostat with integral switch) all the way past zero to reset the controller befor it woudl start again, making it basically incompatible with Mach.

Your switch is separate, but the function seems similar.

On the X2, the switch energized a relay on the controller board that activated the controller. Once energized, the relay stayed latched unless a fault kiled the power holding it closed. Then it would stay open until energized again by the switch. Hope that made sense.

What I did was follow the wires from the speed dial and then the traces on the contoller board to find the relay and I simply figured out which pins energized the coil and put a jumper across the pins so that is was always on.

I don't use that controller any more so I can't give you specifics,  fried it . . . twice . . . long story . . .  but not related to the above mentioned modification, which solved the reset issue.  

 

Sounds like you are describing the type of NoVolt release switch that something like a bandsaw or drill press would have, if that is the case then is sounds like your relay is on the wrong side of it. If its on the input side of the switch then every time the relay switches off the NoVolt will release, if however your relay was on the output side then it is likely that it would be fine. It would all depend on how the internals of the switch work but I am thinking the latching would not be reliant on the motor itself getting power.
Hood