Hello all,

I am new to the cnc game and thought id try mymhand at it. I have recently converted my harbor frieght 7x12 mini lathe to cnc. I am useing the stock motor and motor controller with a G540. I can controll both axis's no problem i just figure out how to gain control of my spindle via mach and a pulse index card for threading purposes. Problem i am haveing while still in my testing phase is that if i turn on thw spindle then try to jog my x axis thenspindle speed increases and then decreases if i stop jogging. I am not sure where i went wrong im betting its a settings issue any help would be greatly apprecieated.   Thanks for your help in advance.

                                                                                               Shwagiedo

Can you attach your xml and also what exactly does the speed controller consist of? Is it a VFD?
Hood

Hello All,

         My machine is a harbor freight 7 X 12 mini lathe with a Stock FC250J/110V Motor controller, I am using a Gecko G540 to control it. I am under the assumption that the Stock motor controller is a VFD since it has a POT to control it. Here is the xml file I am currently playing with and thank you guys for any help or direction you may be able to push me in.

weird wouldn't let me post xml for a while

Are you controlling the spindle speed via the pot?
Hood

Hood,

       No I have the vfd wires from the G540 in the P1 , P2 , and P3 pot connections on the motor controller board.

Ok do you have any idea what the controller for the spindle is? Can you take a pic of it ?
Hood

yea np here is a pic of the controller I believe it is made by SIEG, also here is a pic of my spindle speed pick up, and how I setup my X axis. Thanks again for your time and help hood

ok so I did some testing on my setup if I unplug the X axis from the G540 and manually Jog the X axis the spindle speed does not increase nor decrease, but if I put in the S200 command I am actually seeing 400 RPM on spindle speed with 2.429 volts out of the G540.

Now if I plug back in the X axis the spindle speed increases if I jog the X axis and decreases when I stop jogging. now just applying the S200 command and turning the spindle on while X axis is plugged in I am seeing a spindle reading of 103 RPM & voltage of 2.317V out of the G540 with out jogging and a RPM of 400 & 2.42V while jogging.

I am sure my speeds are off because I do not yet have the pulleys setup correctly in mach, how ever I was able to determine my maximum low and high gear speeds for the spindle via a Tachometer on spindle. I have not figured out the ratio between my drive motor and the spindle I will need to pick up a hand held Tachometer sometime this weekend. That's all the info I got atm thanks for looking guys any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Sounds like you have some sort of interference with your wiring, ie the spindle controller wire is picking up noise from the motor wires. All wiring in low voltage systems should be shielded and the shield properly grounded.
Hood