The E-stop button kills the power to my Shapeoko, router, and laser. The green button on the right is used to turn power on/off to the Shapeoko, it glows green when the power is on so I don’t forget that it is powered up. The key switch turns on the router power if turned to the right, or laser power if turned to the left, both are off if the key is in the middle. It’s really nice being able to turn on/off the router/laser from the front of the table. Take the key out and nobody is turning on the router/laser without digging through a scary amount of power cables tucked under the table top. For my J Tech laser I installed the red button on the right, that is wired to the remote reset on the J Tech controller. You press that after turning on the laser power to enable the laser. I split off the 5V for the laser fan to power the light inside the button so it glows red when the laser is ready to fire and I had better have my eye protection on. That lighted button is from here:
Absolutely, it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out that was why Festool and AMB put (expensive & proprietary) connectors at the tool end, so that users might actually bother to unplug to change bits / blades etc.
Well, aside from my views on whether those nasty little “aviation connectors” on the back of the spindles are really suitable for 220V and 10A…
The main problem is that you should not disconnect the motor from the drive when the drive is powered up as that can cause substantial damage, most of the manuals contain some level of warning against this. The better manuals from ABB, Delta etc. are quite explicit about “do not do this”.
I’ve had to settle for the E-Stop button just to the side of the machine adjacent to where I change bits and a relatively slow ramp up time on the VFD giving me time to leave the area and hit STOP on the way.
It would be very much preferable to be able to hit “stop” on the VFD and then re-enable it with “start” once speed control is handed over to the Carbide controller but the HuanYang VFD does not seem to have an easy way back out of the manual “stop” instruction (as per the other thread).
Since you mention it though, it should be quite easy to set up a nice button which switched between the DC 0-10V PWM output of the Carbide Gerbil and a hard 0V on the speed input terminal on the VFD for a bit of extra safety. When I get round to connecting those two parts up I think I’ll do that.
The reason I don’t want to turn the VFD off every time I change bits is not that I expect the power-cycle lifetime to be very short but that the VFDs tend to have a simple “soft start” resistor in line with the input rectifier which has a maximum number of starts in a given period as the resistor has to cool back down.
Here’s the bit of the manual that says we shouldn’t switch the output circuit;
I’m not very educated when it comes to electric circuitry, so forgive me for being a pest here. Right now, my cnc machine and router are both plugged into a surge protector strip with an on/off rocker switch that is very small and flimsy. So why can’t I just open the strip, remove the rocker switch and take the wires that went to the rocker switch and connect them to the big red estop switch? thanks?
The way most of these things work is that they have a relay (contactor) which engages the main power to the device (router etc.) and then some low current, frequently lower voltage, switching circuits to engage that relay.
If you get hold of one of those packaged, combined No Volt Release / E-Stop switches which has a mains input and a mains output set of terminals you could just chop the wire to the surge protector strip and install the E-Stop in that line.
I would not want to put the full current of a big inductive load like a router through the little switch on the back of the E-Stop button though.
That switch is only used to switch the 24V signalling to the main switching cabinet where the contactors supply power to the machines.
The E-Stop switches are generally a normally closed contact so that you can daisy chain them together and any fault anywhere causes the power to be shut off.
In the USA it’s also very strongly advisable to switch both of the power lines if you’re on 220V.
If you’re not comfortable messing with wiring, do you have any electrician friends?
For what it’s worth, I’ve had my SO3 for about 5 years and never felt I was in an emergency stop situation. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve destroyed plenty of stock, broken bits, and had all kinds of interesting things happen that weren’t supposed to. I’ve never had anything like the router mount falling off or the X acids falling on the table.
When do you guys use your e-stop?
I think the feedhold is really valuable though.
For the record, I agree that it should be made easy to cut all power in an emergency… I’ve just never had an emergency.
Steve, first if you don’t feel comfortable, maybe you should refer this to a friend who is Knowledgeable with electricity.
Having said that you could just open up that surge protector strip (make sure it’s unplugged), snip the black wire add a section of wire to it and connect those two wires to the emergency switch. (Leave the rocker switch alone…)
As Liam stated, and forgot to add…small machines, like the Shapeoko + Router only draw about 8 - 9 amps MAX and this small E-Stop (10 amp) switch will work just fine.
I have this very same setup for 4 PLUS years, and have hit that switch many MANY times. Relax Liam…really. Sigh. Let’s not add complications that are truly not necessary.
Yep, there seem to be lots of switches available on Amazon US.
A Powertek which you’d have to wire up, and others which are pre-wired to just plug into.
My caution on just wiring in an E-Stop button is that not all of those are rated to switch 9 Amps inductive load at 220V so it’s worth making sure you’re getting a switch that won’t just fizzle out.
Anything rated for a power tool should be fine, table saws etc. all use more power than a Shapeoko & Router as Rich says.
And again, like Rich says, if you’re not comfortable with doing electrical stuff, get a plug in unit or find somebody who is, don’t want to hurt yourself trying to be safe.
Like you I’ve chewed up a few clamps, set the zero in the wrong place etc. and those all just wasted wood.
The only one which scared me was a 1/2" shank cutter coming loose and wandering down the collet because I hadn’t tightened down hard enough on the 12-13mm collet. I was very keen to hit stop before that made it any further…
I’ve had that big paddle-type kill switch on my table saw, bandsaw and table router for years. I’ve had to hit it a few times during my 40 years of furniture and cabinet making. I even have an emergency call button that I could crawl to to page someone & a voice activated 911 call system when I work alone. Accidents do happen, and this cnc machine (I’m a newbie) is no different. Always better to be prepared for the unexpected. Thank you all for the guidance.
I did something similar in this post. I like it killing router power and using the feedhold so it doesn’t ruin my gcode or project. As long as travel stops and router is not running I can’t see a reason to power off the grbl board.
Unlike 115V power, there’s lots of different types of connectors for 230V, so you probably won’t find anything prewired for them. But, they all should switch both “hot” 115V lines like this one.
You were correct. I gave this a shot…the unit cut off as soon as the router turned on.
I considered getting a DJ switch panel, but decided on the Rube Goldberg approach. I’ve now installed a paddle without a magnetic switch that works perfectly well. The paddle controls / kills the power to a triple gang that holds switched sockets for the Shapeoko, the router, and the laser. A separate triple gang is fed directly (no shut off) and has switched sockets for a light, the computer, and vacuums. It’s working well enough.
I hooked up my router, Shapeoko, and Laser plugs in a gang after the magnetic switch. I turned on the switch, checked all the sockets, and everything was powered and wired correctly. Then I powered up the router and the magnet switch turned off immediately. In fact, a GFCI on that circuit triggered as well. Not believing in coincidence, I did it again with the same results. So, to further debug, I turned the shapeoko on alone then off, turned the laser on alone then off, then turned the router on and it happened again. As my Final test, I unplugged the three gang from the magnetic switch, and powered it directly from the wall (taking the switch out of the equation), then turned on the router…all was fine. SO my conclusion was that the switch could not handle the draw from the router.
Thanks - now I think I understand, but am a bit surprised that the relay contacts in the switch didn’t just weld together. The motors in most routers have huge current draws on startup, which is probably why some are rated for lower power motors than their current ratings would suggest. I’ve started and stopped the “2.25 HP” Bosch router in my router tables for years with one of those simple (non-magnetic) “Router Switches”. The shop does the same with both of their router tables - one of which has a “3 HP” router.
