Hey folks, last week, I was going though heck trying to solve an issue where turning on the spindle would crash Mach3.  The solution ended up being to ground the spindle to the VFD itself.  It no longer crashes Mach3 which is cool.

There is a new issue that is more settings related, which I'm sure you Mach3 experts can help me out with.  When I do trigger it on, it starts to spin, but then immediately signals an E-stop.  You can reset, and it'll do the same thing.

I'm using a C23 card, SmoothStepper, Hitachi VFD, and HSD spindle.  The relay is connected to port 1, in a normally closed position on the C23 card.  The settings in Mach are set to that pin, and active low.  Once I tell Mach3 to turn on the spindle, it starts to spin, but immediately signals an estop.

If I set it to active high, the spindle will be on, and telling Mach3 to turn the spindle on, will turn it off.  It won't signal an estop in this position though.  The function though is reverse.  I have tried a normally open position, on the C23 card, but don't see a difference in behavior.

Any suggestions?

Barry

Are you using shielded cable, VFD generate a lot of noise that can be pick up by low voltage wire.

Jeff

Yes, the cable is shielded.

There is nothing in the spindle logic that is capable of causing an E-Stop, which suggests you're still having electrical noise problems.   You should use shielded cable where possible, and make sure you have stiff pullups on any E-Stop or limit switch inputs, to increase noise immunity.

Regards,
Ray L.

.... The relay is connected to port 1, in a normally closed position on the C23 card.  The settings in Mach are set to that pin, and active low.  ...

....If I set it to active high, the spindle will be on, and telling Mach3 to turn the spindle on, will turn it off. ....

- Have you tried to change the wiring to NO position instead of NC? This should reverse the operation, but it  depends on your VFD wiring and operation.
- Did you notice that Mach ver 033 had a bug in the spindle start?
- What do you have there connected as an input to cause a Mach E-stop?

I've tried NO and NC, active low and hi, plus sinking and sourcing inputs.  It's either some kind of major noise issue, or a bug.  I didn't know about that bug.  I'll check to see if I'm using that version...

Barry

I was using version 32.  I've upgraded to 35, and it's got the same issue.  I'm going to try and run this without a smoothstepper and see if that gives me any difference.  That'll be a few days as I have to borrow PC get everything loaded, etc.

If anybody has ideas in the meantime, I'd love to hear them.

Barry

Have you increased the filtering in the SS plugin?
Hood

Hmm, you maybe on to something.  I was trying values like 3 and 4.  After your reply, I put in 100 in all cells, and it works.  Any idea what is 'too' high of a number for safety?

Barry

Afraid not, suppose a test of an e-stop button or a limit to see how long the delay is would be the only way but as low as possible.
Hood