I successfully set up the VFD spindle and can control it with carbide motion. On the spindle’s electronic box there is a screen and buttons, but the setup guide for the VFD makes no mention of how to use it. When I try to key in the desired range using the buttons, the number returns to dashes if I use either the “enter” or “run” buttons.
I would be useful to be able to manually control the spindle in a variety of cases.
Do we know the model number of the original manufacturer for the VFD drive controller?
C3D locked the VFD with a password. You will not be able to manually control the VFD without changing some settings and said settings are locked behind the password.
Its hard to overstate how disappointing that is to hear. I would have purchased a VDF setup elsewhere if I had realized this was the case. In fact… unlike the earlier days when I purchased the Shapeoko 3, I suppose I will need to more carefully consider all my carbide3d purchases. At least they can’t password lock cutters for now…
You paid 3x more for a well tested, tuned and fully supported VFD vs something $200ish that is a wildcard. I know there is always the ‘possibility’ of doing more with anything but what’s the real probability that you were needing this in your day to day world?
The reason this is done is because people who don’t know what they are doing tinker and end up creating customer service tickets because they are inept at what they did, or at worst, hurt themselves. With the bar always lowering for new people entering fabrication I can generally see what they were thinking. I am also sure the ‘right to repair’ slant will echo around here but I doubt it’s an issue with repair–just control. Really though, worst case the password I believe is 4 numbers. 20% of passwords like that can be cracked in the first 20 tries. This isn’t a hard thing to open up, just warning if you do and things go sideways you paid more to hurt your equipment and it’ll definitely be unsupported at that point.
There’s also some really deep threads on the vfd here for searching the contents of its programming, etc.
