Can you control router power using gcode?

You could use the coolant pin to drive a cheap arduino relay and use this to switch a larger relay for the router.

The pwm output MAY give odd readings on a digital voltmeter as it gives “pulses” and as the dvm presents very little load the reading may not be accurate. Also it may give odd behaviour for controlling a relay ( not what it was designed to do).

I have been playing with the pwm output as a pwm is not always the best choice for controlling spindles/Lasers - and have found for reliable results a little electronics added on helps

What coolant pin?

Sorry, I was basing it off this !

I do most of my own electronics / and mechanical builds … !

A few components connected to the pwm output to provide a definite on/off would be better then.

Surprised there is no coolant option tho

Will find somthing for you if it it will be of use :slight_smile:

I am having a problem where interference is tripping my endstop switches. Not sure why. But I just turn them off after I home and turn them on when I have to home again, and that seems to work.

Homing or Limit switches?

im not sure, it just says it is tripped… I use UGS and it doesnt specify.

I’m kind of thinking that it is the Upper Z Home switch. Because the wire runs by the router… and the Z motor…

That was what concerned me about your setup.

Yesterday, I ran a 10 foot 5V cable from the controller box through all the drag chain, to the outside of my enclosure. I will let the switching (relay) of the 120v occur outside of the enclosure to minimize the EMF related errors. Relay arrives tomorrow…I’ll keep you posted as to it operation and concerns.

Mind didn’t come with drag chain. But I would like to incorporate drag chain eventually.

Mine either, but it was a wise $10 investment to stop the wires from rubbing.

What did you buy? and my post must be 20 characters so I am typing this.

Haha. I won’t tell you why I bought because it’s (a) too small so I had to take my homing switch plug apart pin by pin. So painful, and (b) I see that carbide version is larger and each link opens so you don’t have to painfully snake each cable.

Don’t repeat my mistake.

AIUI, the original SO3 design didn’t have drag chain — I added some spiral wrap to mine to protect the wiring and at the 16" x 16" size, w/ the electronics on the back of the X-axis extrusion, that seemed fine.

Yeah, I want to upgrade the size as well.

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The XL and XXL both merit, and have drag chain standard. It’s a big upgrade, and the kinks are getting worked out of the kits and upgrades — managed to get mine together, but haven’t had occasion yet to put it to work, hopefully tonight or tomorrow.

Yeah, I plan on waiting for a while, I have projects that need to be done now, and would require a lot of time and energy to upgrade, and it is working right now fairly well.

I hooked up my 5V relay box outside of my enclosure and tested it today. Works awesome.

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William,
The Link to the schematic and board in Eagle format, bill of materials, and optimized Gcode, as found in this Spindle Control - WIKI, results in a FILE NOT FOUND.

http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/Spindle_Control

Do you know of where I might find this information? Henry

and that is why I don’t like for folks to share stuff via drop box.

All I can think of to do is see if someone else who downloaded it kept a copy, or look back through the wiki edit history and see if you can contact the person who initially uploaded it.

When I’ve needed to store additional files beyond what the wiki allows I’ve cheated and added them as attachments to a .pdf and then uploaded the pdf.

Using Carbide Create and Carbide Motion, latest versions, the router turns on during the tool change cycle. Looking at the Gcode, the M3 command is on the line after M6, but it doesn’t wait for the ‘continue’ button to be pressed. As such, the router has to be turned off and back on manually, which seems wrong.

I’m sure there is an edit to the Gcode that can be done, but I’d rather avoid the extra step.