HELP!,
I have a CS11G BOB, ESS Smoothstepper, and Emerson VFD running a 1.5 HP motor that turns 3450RPM with a belt drive to bring the RPMS to 5000 and my VFD set at 76hz
The problem is I had everything working as it should with this setup in MACH 3, but now I have switched to MACH 4 and of course they develop great control software but no instructions on how to really use it. When I setup my ESS software I can get the spindle to come on but it is a full RPMs and my RPMS is reading 27-30,000 RPMs on the MACH Screen, but only turning 5000 rpm at the spindle. My spindle setup in MACH 4 Config is MIN: 0.00 Max: 5000 with a motor RPM at 3450. No matter what I do I cannot adjust the RPMs by using either an M3 S#####, or M4 S#### code or with the slider on MACH 4 screen. when I shut the spindle off it turn off but has a little backwards burp at the end. The MACH 4 screen will not let me input the desired RPMs as no matter what I put in there it goes right back to what was there when I hit enter. when the spindle is not running the RPM box show an RPM anywhere form 2000-4000.
I have the following set:
SPINDLE PWM = port 1 pin 14 (also tried it set to pin 16)
SPINDLE FWD =port 1 pin 16 (also tried it set to pin 14)
I have also tried moving pin 14 to SPINDLE ON and at one time I got control of the RPMs (even tho they were wrong) with the % up or down slider but could not get the spindle above 2000rpm (using a meter to check), but when I closed MACH 4 to save I restarted and could not even get the spindle to turn on.

Could someone who is way smarter than me please spell it out step by step how I should have this set up/ I have searched the forum, youtube, warp9 and artsoft and there is no clear direction other than warp9's attempt to describe it, but they fall way short on showing everything else that goes with the setup.

Beginning to think this was the worst upgrade and waste of money I have done yet to this machine, I have been down for almost 2 weeks simply because of this, when I could have just stuck with what I had and dealt with the little bugs in MACH 3 and had a lot less pain while still being able to cut parts. I must say that customer support by means of clear instructions for ESS and MACH 4 are the worst I have ever seen in any product, they label it as a "Hobby" software, but yet it takes a software engineer and rocket scientist to figure it out! I am just a guy in his garage trying to have a functional CNC mill, not a software programmer........
Thanks to all of you out there that provide some guidance for us that don't get it.

Sorry that should be C11GS BOB from cnc4pc.

I feel your pain and you are not alone.
However, the guys at Warp9 are really working hard to get all the tutorial documentation up-to-date with the latest Mach4 releases and all the ESS customer related set-up problems are dealt with very swiftly on their forum. Perhaps you should also post details of this problem on their website. https://www.warp9td.com/index.php/kunena/index


Tweakie.

Something I should perhaps point out at this stage is that the C11GS BoB requires Step/Direction signals to control spindle speed not PWM as you are trying and have mentioned in the post Title.

Tweakie.

I had the PWM setup and working perfectly with MACH 3 and the C11gs BOB, everything worked with MACH 3, it's only when I switched to MACH4 that the problems began.  Thanks for the response I will post on their forum also and see what happens.

My suggestions…

Check that you are using the versions that Warp9 recommend of;

   Mach4.
   ESS firmware.    
   ESS Mach4 plugin.

https://www.warp9td.com/index.php/gettingstarted/setting-up-the-smoothstepper-and-mach4#MachFourInitialESS_NEW_PLUGIN

Work through the ‘Setting up Step Dir Spindle as an OB axis’ tutorial;

https://www.warp9td.com/index.php/faq/faq-mach4#SpindleButtonsInMachFour

(the manufacturers of your C11 BoB recommend Step/Dir spindle speed control as opposed to PWM and I trust they know best).

Tweakie.

I am using Mach4 and a Bob from Cnc4pc and a spindle with great success.  I would be glad to share my setup perpaps on the phone would help.  PM me and we can figure out what is different between mine and yours.